DADDYING FILM FESTIVAL & FORUM (D3F)

Virtual Festival + Live Daddying Film Forum in Philadelphia - Coming April 2025
2025 Call for Entries NOW OPEN!
 

WHY does the D3F exist?

Our relationship with our father – in its presence or absence – is one of the most important relationships in our lives. Because a father's presence or absence most directly impacts kids, D3F offers them a creative outlet to freely express feelings about their relationships with their dads or dad figures and, likewise, we provide a complementary opportunity for dads. 

 

The D3F is the world’s first and only film festival focused exclusively on promoting the importance of positive dad/dad figure involvement for kids and families. Our mission is to:

 

• Shine a spotlight on the importance of dads in their presence and their absence.

• Provide opportunities for kids and fathers alike to reflect upon and express feelings about what daddying qualities are most important to them; what kind of dad a father wants to be, and what kind of dad a kid wants and needs.

• Provide opportunities for emotional authenticity, creativity, and originality.

• Portray a variety of family dynamics to explore and encourage constructive relationships.

• Demonstrate film- and/or video-making skills and production values.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D3F Founder Allan Shedlin visits Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA)

10th-grade Documentary Film class on 2/14/24 to discuss using film to convey the importance of

Dads/Dad figures, in their presence and their absence.

 

Our D3F 2023 program broadened the spotlight to include dads in its call-for-entries as more men are recognizing the critical role they can play in their kids’ lives and are embracing the opportunity to do so as they move from being perceived as an understudy to being accepted as a parenting co-star. After all, when men are positively involved, all measures of social well-being improve for kids, fathers, families, and communities. And even though the benefits to kids and youth of positive dad involvement are increasingly known and supported by research, including dads in the program will help demonstrate some of the lesser-recognized benefits dads get from being involved in their children’s lives.

 

WHEN/WHERE is the 2025 D3F?

D3F’s 2025 Call for Entries begins Monday, November 18, 2024. Earlybird discount deadline is Friday, January 3, 2025, and the regular submission deadline is Monday, March 3.

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The virtual 2025 Daddying Film Festival will take place on Eventive from Monday, April 7, 2025, through Saturday, April 12. The LIVE Daddying Film Forum will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Philadelphia, PA.

 

Award finalists participate in a moderated discussion before the winners were announced at an online Atticus Awards Ceremony. Atticus Awards ceremony livestream video and discussions are recorded and made available to other groups to encourage greater father involvement. 

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Girls For A Change CEO Angela Patton attended our 2nd annual Daddying Film Forum with her father. Her D3F Finalist and Sundance award-winning film Daughters earned our 2024 Judges' Prize for Best Documentary ahead of its August 2024 Netflix debut!

 

All Daddying Film Festival events (virtual and live) are FREE. D3F 2025 event tickets will be available in spring 2025. The 2nd annual Daddying Film Forum was held May 17, 2024, LIVE at Philadelphia's Parkway Central Free Library, and May 18, at the iconic Mummers Museum. The world premiere of the Forum took place in New Mexico in June 2023 at The Hiland Theater in Albuquerque and at The Dance Barns in Santa Fe.​

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D3F Team launched the inaugural, live Daddying Film Forum in Albuquerque, NM, June 2023

 

D3F selected New Mexico as the Forum’s premiere site for several reasons:

 

• To spotlight the state’s vibrant and growing film industry

• A desire to help bolster New Mexico’s future film workforce through student internships and by recruiting student filmmakers and festival judges

• D3F Director Allan Shedlin’s long history of work with dads and youth in New Mexico, including being the driving force that brought one of the Obama White House’s nine “Fatherhood Forums” to the state in 2010, establishing the New Mexico Alliance for Fathers & Families, and co-founding Santa Fe-based REEL Fathers in 2007, a nonprofit for which he still serves as president emeritus; and

• Shedlin’s oldest daughter and her husband recently retired after 25 years as teachers in the Albuquerque Public Schools.​

 

WHO May Submit a Film?

Students (1st grade through college undergraduates), dads/dad figures, and other independent filmmakers are eligible to submit films/videos that relate in some way to one or more of D3F's themes:

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1. A letter to my father/father figure or A letter to my child(ren)

2. Most joyful/fun thing I ever did with my dad/granddad and/or child(ren)/grandchild(ren)

3. If I could make one wish come true for my dad/grandad and/or child(ren)/grandchild(ren) it would be...

4. My Daddy dream – the most positive relationship I could imagine having with my dad/granddad/child/grandchild

5. Men Caring – celebrating the many other faces of daddying, including men who play nurturing fatherly roles, inspire, and positively impact the lives of children and youth. Examples include foster dads, adoptive dads, granddads, older siblings, coaches, mentors, inspirational philanthropists/celebrities, "big brothers," and other daddying role models.

6. NEW for 2025: Granddads & Grandkids – Lessons learned from each other.

 

Students and dads/granddads may submit short films/videos of 1 to 15 minutes long, including music videos and comedic films. Adult (i.e., graduates and other non-students) independent filmmakers may submit films longer than 15 minutes, including feature-length films (from 40 up to 120 minutes). All submitted films must have been created within three (3) years of D3F's call for entries date.

 

All filmmakers must submit films or videos in MP4 or MOV format by uploading to D3F's FilmFreeway page (beginning November 18, 2024) Students (under 18) must have a parent's permission to register and upload films via FilmFreeway.

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HOW are winners recognized?

D3F presents awards in the following voting categories with up to five finalists selected in each:

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1. 1st through 5th grade (elementary)

2. 6th through 8th (middle school)

3. 9th through 12th (high school)

4. College/university (undergraduate)

5. Best Feature Film (non-student indie filmmakers)

6. Best Short Film (indie filmmakers)

7. NEW for 2025: Best Granddad-created Film

8. Best Animated Film

9. Best Music Video

10. D3F Judges' Prize for Best Documentary (selected by D3F Judges and Staff)

11. Roy R. Neuberger Prize for Best Dad-created Film; and

12. Best Dad-Figure Film, aka The D3F Men Caring Award for best film celebrating the many other faces of daddying, including men who play nurturing, fatherly roles and make a positive impact in the lives of children and youth.

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All D3F student finalists earn a $250 award for use toward an activity or project to enjoy with their dad/dad figure, and student winners earn an additional $250. All D3F winners, including non-student, indie filmmakers, earn an “Atticus,” a statuette symbolizing Atticus Finch from the 1962 film based on Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird. Finch, an iconic single dad, represents several ideal daddying qualities. Student Atticus winners also earn an additional scholarship to advance their studies or create a project encouraging positive dad involvement.

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The Roy R. Neuberger Prize and Men Caring Award winners both earn $500 to use toward an activity or project with their child(ren). The inaugural Roy R. Neuberger Prize in 2023 went to family musician and kids' book author Justin Roberts for "Everybody Get on Board," one of the songs from his 2022 Grammy-nominated album Space Cadet.

 

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Allan presents Justin Roberts with inaugural Roy R. Neuberger Prize at Wolf Trap's Children's Theater in the Woods, 7/26/23

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Public, online votes during the virtual film festival help to select Atticus Award winners (except Judges' Prize). For more information about the D3F and how to get involved as a participating filmmaker, potential juror, sponsor, national or local Advisory Team member, or other collaborator, please CONTACT US!

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Lights! Camera! Daddying!