2026 FI-LA Official Selection FAQ

Official Selections FAQ

Congratulations — your project is an Official Selection at
Film Invasion Los Angeles 2026! This page answers the questions we get
every year, so you don’t have to dig through old emails. Your weekly update will point
you here and only call out what’s new or due that week. Anything not covered? Just reply
and ask.

The essentials at a glance

  • Festival dates: [FILL: start–end dates]
  • Main venue: [FILL: venue name + address]
  • Your status & deliverables: in your Submitter Portal (link in your weekly update)
  • Tickets: [FILL: ticketing URL]
  • Questions: info@discoverindiefilm.org

Events

Opening Night Gala

  • When/where: [FILL: date, time] at [FILL: gala venue + address].
  • Your Official Selection includes two All-Access Passes — free admission for two to the Gala (and everything else; see Passes).
  • Bringing more people? Guest tickets are [FILL: price] — use your discount code (below) for [FILL: discount].
  • Age policy: the ticketing site lists 21+ because of our sponsors, but this is a private event — filmmakers and guests under 21 are welcome. Our bartenders simply won’t serve alcohol to minors.

Closing Night Mixer

  • When/where: [FILL: date, time] at [FILL: venue], right after the final screenings.
  • Free and open to the public — bring your cast, crew, and friends.

Panels

We program industry panels for our filmmakers each year. This year:

  • [FILL: Panel 1 title] — [FILL: one-line description]
  • [FILL: Panel 2 title] — [FILL: one-line description]

Free to all pass holders.

Screenplay Awards Ceremony (screenplay selections)

  • When/where: [FILL: date, time] at [FILL: venue].
  • Each screenplay Official Selection gets a moment in the spotlight: writers briefly pitch their script to the room of fellow nominees.
  • A heads-up so expectations are right: this is a celebration among filmmakers — please don’t expect agents or literary managers in the audience.
  • Three Grand Jury Awards (one per screenplay category).

Awards & “The Poppy” (film selections)

  • Films are honored with a theatrical screening rather than a separate filmmaker awards ceremony. Here’s why: with multiple categories and runtime classes, reading a long awards list would eat into screening time — and more screen time for your film is the better trade.
  • How awards are announced: Q&A moderators announce select awards on the spot at screenings. All [FILL: N] Best in Fest winners are announced at their screenings and handed our trophy, The Poppy, in person.
  • The full awards list is published shortly after the festival (see “After the Festival”).

Passes & Tickets

Your All-Access Passes

  • Every Official Selection receives two All-Access Passes — free entry to every festival event (Gala, screenings, panels, mixer).
  • Passes show the project title, not names, so you can share/rotate them day to day among your team.
  • Pick up at the Gala or at festival HQ in the [FILL: venue] lobby.

Guest tickets & your discount code

  • Public tickets are [FILL: price].
  • Your project has a unique discount code that gives [FILL: discount] off, unlimited guests — find it in your weekly update / portal and share it with your people.
  • Codes are case-sensitive, and the discounted price shows after you click Checkout on the next page (a quirk of the ticketing platform).
  • Buy at [FILL: ticketing URL].

Logistics

Venue & Parking

  • [FILL: main venue], [FILL: address] — all screenings, panels, and the Closing Mixer. Parking: [FILL: garage/lot details, validation, rates].
  • [FILL: gala venue], [FILL: address] — Opening Night Gala only. Parking: [FILL: details].

When to arrive / red carpet

  • Festival HQ is in the [FILL: venue + area]. Check in there to collect your passes.
  • We’ll invite you for red-carpet photos and a brief interview — budget about 10–15 minutes for parking, walking over, check-in, and photos, so arrive a little early and enjoy it rather than rushing.

Hotel

  • Discounted rooms at [FILL: hotel name] ([FILL: distance] from the venue): [FILL: rate]/night (about [FILL: savings] off). Rooms are limited.
  • Book by [FILL: deadline]. Reserve here: [FILL: hotel link].
  • No festival events at the hotel — it’s lodging only.

Airfare

We don’t have an airline sponsor yet — our budget goes straight into the theater and crew. We’d love an airline partner down the road; for now, no travel discount, sorry!

Your Deliverables

Everything below is tracked in your Submitter Portal (link in your weekly update). The weekly update shows your live checklist; here’s what each item means.

  • Pics & Info form — your synopsis, logline, premiere status, credits, social handles, and screening preferences. The fastest way to make sure we represent your film correctly.
  • Poster & Still — [FILL: specs, e.g. poster 2×3 portrait; still 16×9 landscape; 5 MB each]. Upload only artwork you have the rights to use. (Screenplay selections: a poster is optional — we can create a placeholder.)
  • Trailer — paste your URL in the portal. If your thumbnail shows a black box, your video’s privacy is too restrictive: set Vimeo to Public (or “Hide from Vimeo” but embeddable) / YouTube to Public or Unlisted, not Private.
  • DCP delivery — [FILL: how to deliver — AutoDCP / Dropbox File Request / cloud share].
  • DCP quality check — we confirm your DCP plays and is the right length, but please spot-check your own master: open the .mxf in VLC or DCP-O-Matic and watch for audio glitches or stray watermarks before the festival. A clean screening is on all of us.
  • Premiere status — tell us if your screening is a World/US/LA/etc. premiere so we can announce it correctly.

Promotion

Laurels

Announce your selection proudly! Grab your Official Selection laurels here:
[FILL: laurels link]. Tag us so we can amplify.

Social media

Follow and tag @filminvasionla on
Instagram,
Facebook, and
BlueSky,
and visit filminvasionla.com. We promote every
film and screening — tagging us helps us boost you back.

Merch

Festival merch (tees, beanies, mugs — motto and all) is at the merch table and online:
discover-indie-film.printify.me.

Policies

Online / virtual screenings

FI-LA is a theatrical festival — screenings happen in the room, with an
audience. If that ever changes (we occasionally explore an optional, paywalled virtual
option with a sponsor), we’ll tell you here first.

After the Festival

  • Awards results — the complete winners list is posted shortly after we close (alongside the in-person announcements). Awards laurels and trophy ordering: [FILL: link].
  • Photos & video — our photographer/videographer content takes a little while to process; we’ll share it [FILL: timeframe, e.g. within a week or two].
  • Leave us a review — if you had a good time, a 5-star FilmFreeway review genuinely helps us grow (and grow what we can offer you next time): go to your FilmFreeway page → Reviews → Review Festival. If anything fell short of 5 stars, please tell us first so we can fix it.
  • Stay in the family (alumni):
    • Mixers — periodic get-togethers for networking and collaboration.
    • Podcast — longer-form interviews on the Discover Indie Film podcast (those 15-minute theater Q&As are never enough). Book a slot: calendly.com/difwins/podcast.
    • Filmmakers Board — alumni are invited to help judge next cycle’s Filmmaker Awards.

Still have a question? Reply to your weekly update or email
info@discoverindiefilm.org — a real human
(hi 👋) reads every one.