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Interrobang Film Festival

The Interrobang Film Festival, presented by Des Moines Arts Festival, is a three-day IMDb-verified Festival. It is a juried show, including public showings and talkbacks with Directors. Filmmaker submissions are accepted in nine categories and are juried by a panel of peers. In 2024 the Festival screened 50 films from fourteen countries. Interrobang Film Festival is held at the east end of the Des Moines Arts Festival inside the (air-conditioned) Des Moines Central Library (1000 Grand Avenue).
 

Special thanks to the Des Moines Area Community
College Video Production Students.

Interrobang Film Festival 2024 Recap video 
Credit: Hannah Carlton

2025 Festival Information

November 1, 2024: submissions open on Film Freeway

December 31, 2024: early bird submission deadline

February 9, 2025: regular submission deadline

March 9, 2025: late submission deadline

March 30, 2025: extended (and final) deadline

May 16, 2025: selection notification

May 23, 2025: material deadline for selected films

June 27 - 29, 2025: Festival

The Interrobang Film Festival is a three-day IMDb-verified Festival. It is a juried show, including public showings, talk backs, and panel discussions. Filmmaker submissions are accepted in eight categories and is juried by a panel of peers. The Festival screens an average of 40 films per year. The 2024 Interrobang Film Festival will be June 28 - 30 at east end of the Festival inside the (air-conditioned) Des Moines Central Library. Submissions for the 2024 festival open on Film Freeway on September 8, 2023.

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APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED FOR 2024

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2024 Timeline

December 31, 2023: Early Bird Deadline
 
February 11, 2024: Regular Deadline
 
March 10, 2024: Late Deadline
 
April 1, 2024: Extended AND Final Deadline
 
May 13, 2024: Notification Date
 
June 28-30, 2024: Interrobang Film Festival
 
Award Winners Announced at the Festival on Sunday, June 30 at 1 p.m.

Now accepting submissions for the 2025 festival
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November 1, 2024: submissions open on Film Freeway

December 31, 2024: early bird submission deadline

February 9, 2025: regular submission deadline

March 9, 2025: late submission deadline

March 30, 2025: extended (and final) deadline

May 16, 2025: selection notification

May 23, 2025: material deadline for selected films

June 27 - 29, 2025: Festival

Interrobang Film Festival 2024 Award Winners

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It’s For You: Ephemeral Art & The Death of the Public Phone 

Directed by: Ryan Steven Green
Producer: Ryan Steven Green
Run Time: 00:28:50
Category: Documentary Shorts
Country of Origin: United States

Best Short Documentary

Utilizing such varied materials as concrete, papier-mâché, and blown-out tires, disparate Los Angeles street artists give new life to the dwindling remnants of the city’s public payphones by repurposing them as canvases for unique expressions of a moment in time. With the streets as their gallery, our heroes defy vandalism laws, maintenance crews, haters, and history itself to deliver a moment’s levity to the right kind of passerby. By keeping its focus on the artists, the phones, and the ephemeral nature of both art and technology, this short documentary thoughtfully invites its audience to appreciate what’s being lost as the world moves on. 

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Parts & Pieces

Directed by: Bruce James Bales 
Run Time: 00:04:11
Category: Documentary Shorts  
Country of Origin: United States

Best of Iowa

Parts & Pieces is a documentary short about the McGuire family's love for rare British Triumph vehicles and how those vehicles came to be a family tradition. The film centers around the patriarch, Chuck, and the story of how he came to possess so many triumphs over the years. 

Traces of Rocco

Directed by: Marina Resta
Producer: Marina Resta 
Run Time: 00:16:46
Category: Found Footage
Country of Origin: Italy

Best of Show

Traces of Rocco is a journey across the Basilicata of the past and of the present, in search of the iconographical and metaphorical traces of the Southern Italian poet, social researcher and politician Rocco Scotellaro. Developed as part of Zavattini Prize 2018/2019, it's a documentary short-film that juxtaposes heterogeneous audiovisual materials, -archival and shot ad hoc with observational style- generating a short-circuit among the past and the present. 

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Pitage

Directed by: Ali Khaledi 
Run Time: 00:10:00
Category: Narrative Shorts
Country of Origin: Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran

A prison guard who agreed to execute a death sentence because of leave, but...

Best Short Narrative

Best Feature Documentary

Heart Sisters

Directed by: Christopher Phillips
Producer: Christopher Phillips
Run Time: 01:04:00 + Talkback
Category: Feature Length Documentary
Country of Origin: United States

"Heart Sisters" tells the story of two girls, ages 6 and 2, from separate families who formed a close bond while living in a pediatric hospital as they both awaited life-saving heart transplants. Alongside their emotional journeys, this hour-long documentary takes viewers into the operating room and shares insights from medical professionals on all that goes into coordinating a heart transplant. 

The epitome of independent film, “Heart Sisters” was directed, produced, written, recorded and edited entirely by one person and is the debut feature-length film from Christopher Phillips, a self-taught filmmaker and photographer. 

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ORBITAL

Directed by: Maysam Hassanzade
Run Time: 01:12:00
Category: Feature Length Narrative
Country of Origin: Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran

A musician who’s lost his lover, seeks to unravel the story. He’s suspicious of everything, even his greatest dream; to become like Freddie Mercury.

Best Feature Narrative

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ELECTRA WASP

Directed by: Wasan Hayajneh

Producer: Joseph O’Hailey, Tatiana Teixeira, Darayell Wright
Run Time: 00:06:00
Category: Student Shorts 
Country of Origin: United States

Best Student Film

ELECTRA WASP is an experimental animated psychobiography about the death and life of trailblazing pilot Amelia Earhart. It is a retrospective of her emotional world and an exploration of what drove her to pursue her passion for flying.

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Feedback Loop

Directed by: Thomas Nelson

Run Time: 00:04:44
Category: Narrative Shorts     
Country of Origin: United States 

IFF Producers Choice

Feedback Loop explores our relationship to technology, fringe ideas, and commercials. Would conspiracy theories and misinformation spread the same way if we weren’t so significantly lonely? What makes otherwise rational and educated people fall into cesspools of dangerous rhetoric that make them act against their own self-interest - and who reaps the benefits? This short film takes inspiration from science fiction, body horror, and Saturday morning cartoons.

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