Submit to the Crush
The Walla Walla Movie Crush showcases America's most intoxicating blend of short cinema, from vintage filmmakers as well as fresh upstarts. We promise a flight for every fancy.
The deadline for 2024 submissions is May 24th.
We will reopen submissions on August 1st for the 2025 Movie Crush.
Top 10 Reasons You Should Submit Your Work to the Walla Walla Movie Crush:
Every submission is personally reviewed by our Artistic Director, Warren Etheredge, who has twenty years of experience on the festival circuit, the founder or co-founder of three, and programmer for many others. Warren watches over 1,500 shorts every year. Your work will be judged by the individual making the final decisions.
Selected shorts represent the very best of current American movie-making. If your work is programmed, you know it is amongst the best of the best.
Your selected short will be thematically programmed, packaged with other fantastic movies exploring similar content/themes. Any hour-tour long grouping will like include short narratives, docs, animation, music videos, etc. In total, these curated collections prove that the whole is greater than the sum of its shorts.
Selected finalists for top prizes — Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Animated Short, and Best Performance — will be determined by all-star juries of Oscar-winners, nominees and revered moviemakers. This year’s jurors are responsible for such movies and television series such as: CAPTAIN MARVEL, WINTER’S BONE, OCEAN’S 11, ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT, BRING IT ON, GLOW, PARKS & RECREATION, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, EDITH+EDDIE, LEAVE NO TRACE and many more.
Selected shorts are screened at the historic, 300-seat Gesa Power House Theatre, a handsomely appointed venue with top-notch projection and sound systems.
Should you attend, the Crush staff will treat you like royalty and family. Our goal is to celebrate every moviemaker’s talents and welcome them into the fold.
Attending moviemakers are treated to daily Happy Hours, nightly parties and an invite-only Sunday brunch. The Electric Lounge (aka The Crush Green Room) is open all day for you to eat, drink and be cozy. These events and this pace also provide ‘round the clock opportunities to network with fellow artists and industry guests.
The Crush audience is committed, passionate and vocal. They will sit rapt with attention and express their affection for your work.
A committed group of attendees whom we call “The Iron Ass Jury” selects an annual Audience Award winner. What separates this audience award from others is that is the only one that is determined by a jury comprised of viewers who have sat through every single screening, thus elevating the prize from popularity contest to true, absolute meritocracy.
Walla Walla is “the Napa Valley of Washington State” and a vibrant cultural destination as well as a lush and lovely wine region, noted for its beauty and bounty of dining and drinking options. Downtown Walla Walla is abuzz with activity and the scenic surroundings provide countless options for exploration and adventure.
For more information, please subscribe to *Crushworthy*, the official, mostly-monthly e-newsletter of the Walla Walla Movie Crush. Just scroll to the bottom of our homepage to sign up.
Walla Walla Movie Crush proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world's #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.