A celebration of movies is coming to Maricopa next year, and filmmakers of all levels are urged to send in their films starting Friday – as long as they are 20 minutes or less.

The inaugural Copa Shorts Film Fest is slated for Feb. 17-19 at UltraStar Multi-tainment Center.

The festival website launched last week at CopaShortsFilmFest.org. Starting Friday, filmmakers will be able to enter their films for consideration in the festival. The website is using FilmFreeway to handle submissions.

“We want to be sure they are films that people will enjoy,” Executive Director Shelley Gillespie said. “Films that are good caliber, interesting and catch people’s attention. Our intention for the whole event is to nurture new talent.”

She said organizers chose the short format for the festival to give more people a chance to be seen. They will screen three to eight films per hour, depending on length.

“You can do a lot with very little time,” Gillespie said.

The festival is for independent, non-produced films. The films also must be recent. Screenplays must have been completed after May 27, 2015.

Gillespie and her husband Roger have been involved with other film festivals. They are also screenwriters and host a local film critique group. The enthusiasm of that group and feedback from others convinced them a film festival is a good idea.

“When I hold out my card, everybody seems excited about films,” she said. “So many people want to be involved.”

Roger Gillespie, who also has a background behind the camera, has the title of festival director. That means he is doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

“I said, ‘Shelley, you’re the one who goes out there and likes to talk to people and do things. I like to do the back-end work,’” he said.

He likened Shelley’s role to an executive producer on a film, meeting with people face to face to explain the project and drum up money. Directing the film festival, he said, is like directing a movie.

“It’s a completely different animal,” Roger Gillespie said.

He will be coordinating the organization of the blocks of film, the extra activities surrounding the screenings, parties, workshops and entertainment.

“Leading up to it we’re going to be having workshops in the community on film,” Shelley Gillespie said. “We’re going to be working with people as volunteers to judge the films, which is a long process. You judge the films, and then once they get through the first stage you judge some more. Finally we narrow it down to the people who’ll be shown.”

Judges will consider storytelling, screenplay and acting in judging the short films. There will be seven categories: Drama, animation, comedy, sci-fi, horror, documentary and foreign. There will be special categories for student films and Native American films.

Students (middle school, high school and college) can enter for just $10.

The last day of the festival, there will be a table read of the winning screenplay. Then the category winners will be screened.

There are four deadlines for submissions.

The early-bird deadline is June 30. The non-student fee is $20.
The regular deadline is July 15. The non-student fee is $25.
The late deadline is Sept. 30. The non-student fee is $30
The extended deadline is Oct. 28. The non-student fee is $35.