Lockdown is better when we get creative. If you’ve ever thought about making a film, challenge yourself—or your family—to creating a short on your smartphone and submit it to the Toronto Smartphone Film Festival, which is now open for submissions!

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Toronto Smartphone Film Festival (TSFF) is recognized as one of the biggest mobile film festivals in the world. How cool would it be to have your film play in a festival? Beyond bragging rights, it’s the type of thing that has the potential to open up other opportunities in the industry. You never know. 

“It’s hard to believe that we are going into our 10th year. It has been fun to watch how smartphone-created cinema has evolved over the course of time. Despite the pandemic, we are glad to provide our submitters with opportunities to showcase their talents,” shares Mingu Kim, a festival director at TSFF.

We think this is an exciting thing for any storyteller to do, but we also thought it would be a wonderful thing to help engage a teenager, who is perhaps feeling down about virtual learning and lockdown life. 

From now until January 16th, there is no submission fee. Your film can be any genre, but must be less than 10 minutes. See full list of rules and submission details on the TSFF website.