Submit your film to the 2024 EDU Film Festival
Use the code EDUCIRCLE2024 to waive the submission fee!
Our Mission
The EDU Film Festival serves an important role in the development of young filmmakers in Minnesota. EDU aims to provide youth filmmakers with an authentic film festival experience, a valuable understanding of the film industry, and an opportunity to screen their movies in a theatrical setting.
By putting students together with Minnesota filmmakers, industry professionals, and post high school educational institutions, the EDU Film Festival also introduces the young filmmakers to the variety of film industry options available in Minnesota.
The EDU Film Festival provides a time and place for young filmmakers from all over the state to interact with each other, form friendships and partnerships, and to create a professional network of peers.
Our Story
Founded in 2007 by Trey Wodele and Richard Hansen, the EDU Film Festival has become Minnesota's premier film festival for high school students and an annual event anticipated by youth filmmakers from all over MInnesota.
Each year students from schools across the state attend the festival to view each other's work, take part in panel discussions, network with high school and professional filmmakers, and compete for Best-in-Fest awards.
EDU has grown, from an afternoon of screenings on a single screen at the Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis, to its current home featuring multiple screens at The Main Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.
In 2016, EDU Film Festival joined the Duluth Superior Film Festival and the Minnesota WebFest and created the Northern Film Alliance, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves as a partnership of film festivals, supports the goals of its member festivals, and serves as a conduit for film exhibition, education, and production.
EDU typically hosts multiple simultaneous screenings in an all-day event - along with meet-and-greets, Q&A sessions, and short screenings by professional filmmakers and EDU alums. The festival is entirely free for participants, schools, community programs, and the general public. EDU attracts young people by the hundreds, many participating in planned field trips through their school film departments or after school programs.
