How to get your film into the 2027 Langley City Film Festival
Entries close January 15, 2027. Kids and teens enter free, adults pay $25, the prize pool is $3,400 and the rules fit on one page. Here they are, step by step, with the six things the jury scores.
A 30-second film shot on a phone in Brookswood is eligible. So is a 30-minute documentary that already played Vancouver. Both pay the same to enter, which is nothing if the filmmaker is 18 or under and $25 otherwise, and both are judged against the same six criteria for a share of $3,400 in prize money. The Langley City Film Festival is small, biennial and run by the City with the Langley Arts Council, and its rules are short enough to actually read. We read them. Here is how to enter, in order.
1. Check the three hard rules
You have to live in British Columbia. Your film has to have been made in BC, some time between January 1, 2022 and January 14, 2027, so a film from your 2022 school project counts, and so does one you finish the night before the deadline. And it has to run between 30 seconds and 30 minutes. Any genre: the festival lists narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, student films and “hybrid and emerging formats,” which is festival-speak for “surprise us.”
It does not have to be a premiere. A film that has screened elsewhere, or is sitting on YouTube already, is fine.
2. Make sure it fits the theme
Every edition has a theme and the 2027 one is “Storytelling in Modern Filmmaking.” The rules say your submission must reflect it. That is a wide net, since almost any film is telling a story with modern tools, but if yours is a pure visual experiment with no story in it, think about how you would argue the case in your application.
3. Put it on YouTube or Vimeo
Entries go in as a link, not an upload. The rules name those two platforms and nothing else, and say nothing about whether the video can be unlisted, so if you don’t want it public yet, ask before you submit. If any dialogue is in a language other than English, the film needs hard-coded English subtitles, meaning burned into the picture, not a separate caption track the viewer can switch on.
4. Fill in the form and pay
The application lives on the Langley Arts Council’s submission page, which also hosts the payment button. The Council warns the form takes a few minutes to load, so don’t refresh in a panic. The fee is $25 per film for anyone 19 or over, free for 18 and under, and it is not refundable. Entering more than one film is allowed; each one needs its own application and its own fee. The page mentions discounted rates for filmmakers who meet certain requirements, one discounted entry per person, but doesn’t spell out who qualifies, so ask the Council ([email protected]) before you pay full price if money is tight.
The person submitting has to be a key creative on the film, a director, producer, writer or the like, and has to live in BC. Submissions opened September 15, 2026 and close January 15, 2027.
5. Know what the jury is scoring
This is the useful part the poster never tells you. The committee first checks every entry against the rules, then passes the eligible ones to the jurors, who score on six things:
- Storytelling and originality: the idea, the structure, the pacing, whether it holds an audience start to finish.
- Characters and dialogue: do the people feel real, and does the talking reveal character rather than explain plot.
- Creative vision and direction: whether the choices add up to one coherent tone.
- Visual and technical excellence: camera, lighting, composition, editing, production design.
- Sound and music: sound design, music, how cleanly the dialogue was recorded and mixed.
- Overall impact: the lasting impression when it all comes together.
Three of the four prizes map straight onto that list: $800 each for Best Visual Storytelling, Best Storytelling Through Sound and Best Storytelling Through Character, and $1,000 for Best Overall. If your film’s strength is its sound, it is competing for a specific cheque, not just the big one.
6. Be ready to make a DCP
If your film is selected, the festival asks for it in DCP format for the screening. A Digital Cinema Package is the set of files a cinema projector plays, not a plain video file, and making one is a job in itself. Post-production houses do it for a fee and free tools exist, but budget the time now rather than the week before April 3. You will also sign a participation agreement, and by entering you are promising you hold the rights to everything in the film, including the music.
7. Wait for the email
Every applicant hears back in writing from [email protected], selected or not. Then the festival itself: Saturday, April 3, 2027, in the auditorium at Langley Community Music School, 4899 207 Street. The organisers say this edition will add workshops, industry events and networking around the screenings, with details to come. For a sense of the day, the 2025 edition ran one Saturday from late morning to mid-afternoon with an intermission, a panel and the awards, and tickets were $15 for adults and $5 for anyone 18 and under.
Questions
The City’s events office is at 604-514-2902 or [email protected], and the Arts Council runs the submissions side. Our page on Langley City’s arts programs has the festival’s history, the venue map and the two other City culture programs worth knowing about.