DEFF - A crowd standing outside of a small town theater to attend Down East Flick Fest

Down East Flick Fest

Over a Decade of Reels and Heart: Uniting Community and Celebrating All the Arts!

SINCE 2014

Film Categories

  • Man sitting on his porch in a rocking chair. Glass of sweet iced tea on a wooden table.

    Sweet Tea Films: Heritage. Heart. Humanity.

  • Group therapy under warm lights

    Community Impact Films: Where Stories Change Things

  • An elderly man and a young boy looking through a window with a distressed white wooden frame, smiling and posing inside a brick building, with trees visible outside.

    Moments That Matter: The Quiet Ones Stay With You

  • An older woman with gray hair styled in dreadlocks, wearing a colorful, patterned outfit and multiple necklaces, is sitting on the floor and speaking to a group of diverse people. The group, consisting of men, women, and children, is attentively listening and sitting closely around her in a cozy, warmly lit living room.

    Storyteller's Cinema: Every Voice. Every Truth.

  • A woman adjusting a studio light in front of a digital display with a projected image of a person and handwritten text, set against a blue background.

    Poetry Films: When Words Become Vision

  • An old, abandoned two-story house with peeling paint and broken windows, surrounded by leafless trees and overgrown bushes, under a dark, ominous sky.

    Southern Gothic/Southern Surreal: Where the South Gets Strange

  • Vintage film projector emitting light from the lens, with the text 'Your Story. Your Way.' alongside in a dark setting.

    Unapologetic Films: Your Story. Your Way.

  • A young woman with curly hair sleeping at a cluttered desk surrounded by art supplies, cups, and papers, with colorful, fantastical images of galaxies, swirling colors, sea creatures, and birds appearing to emerge from her head.

    Animation: Every World Begins Somewhere

Down East Flick Fest is Moving into Its Boldest Chapter Yet

DEFF 2026–27 reflects a renewed commitment to the filmmakers, communities, and stories that make independent film matter. We are expanding our reach, deepening our partnerships, and creating a festival experience that celebrates both the art and the people behind it.

A Landmark Collaboration in 2026

Down East Flick Fest is proud to partner with the North Carolina Poetry Society for the Society's 2026 Fall Gathering on Saturday, September 19, at the Greenville Museum of Art, 802 Evans Street, Greenville, North Carolina. This marks the first time the Society's annual Fall Gathering has been held in Greenville.

Traditionally hosted at the historic Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, the Fall Gathering features the presentation of the Brockman-Campbell Book Award, the Lena Shull Book Award, and readings by some of North Carolina's most distinguished poets. Together, DEFF and the North Carolina Poetry Society are creating a unique celebration of film, poetry, and storytelling.

This year's collaboration also honors DEFF's Sweet Tea Award and Community Impact Award recipient, Keith Flynn. A poet, essayist, performer, editor, and literary leader, Keith's work reflects the very spirit of this partnership: stories deeply rooted in place that speak to universal human experience. His recognition signals an exciting new chapter for DEFF, one that celebrates creative impact beyond the screen while keeping independent film at the heart of everything we do.

People sitting in an antique movie theater watching a film

DEFF will reopen for submissions September 2026

Down East Flick Fest proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world's #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.

Blue gradient background with white text that says 'Click to Submit on FilmFreeway' and the FilmFreeway logo.

2026 Sweet Tea Award & Community Impact Award Honoree

2026 Sweet Tea Award & Community Impact Award Honoree

Photograph of a man with gray beard and hair, wearing a brown shirt, smiling against a blue background, framed with a black and gold plaque. The plaque reads '2026 Honoree, Community Impact Award, Sweet Tea Award.'

Keith Flynn

Some stories need a page. Some need a stage. Some need a screen. Keith Flynn has always understood that the most powerful stories need all three.

For four decades Keith Flynn has made North Carolina’s artistic voice louder, bolder, and more impossible to ignore. Poet. Essayist. Rock lyricist. Literary journal founder. NC Distinguished Poet. His work has never lived in just one room and neither has his impact.

Down East Flick Fest is proud to honor Keith Flynn with both the 2026 Sweet Tea Award and the Community Impact Award, recognizing a body of work rooted in the people, places, and landscapes of North Carolina while revealing truths that are both deeply local and profoundly universal.

Read Keith’s full story →

About Down East Flick Fest

Down East Flick Fest (DEFF) is a juried festival celebrating independent short and feature-length films from emerging and established filmmakers. Rather than organizing films primarily by genre, DEFF curates stories around the ideas, perspectives, and conversations they inspire.

Our signature collections include Poetry Films, Storyteller Cinema, Southern Gothic and Southern Surreal, Sweet Tea Films, Moments That Matter, Community Impact Films, Child-friendly Films, and Unapologetic Films. Together, they celebrate authentic storytelling, diverse perspectives, and the many ways film helps us better understand ourselves, our communities, and our world.

Within these collections, our jurors recognize outstanding filmmaking through category honors and signature awards that reflect the highest ideals of Down East Flick Fest.

Our Mission

Down East Flick Fest is dedicated to providing an annual, user-friendly showcase for independent filmmakers, writers, actors, and artists of every kind. We discover, support, and inspire independent filmmakers while introducing our audiences to new works that surprise, challenge, and move them.

We create opportunities that support emerging talent, celebrate experienced voices, and build ongoing connections between artists and the audiences who need their work.

We believe every story deserves a screen. Every filmmaker deserves a room full of people ready to receive what they have made. Every audience deserves to encounter a film that changes something in them, however small, however quietly.

DEFF is that place.

We are growing, evolving, and building something that lasts. We welcome sponsors, partners, and collaborators who share our commitment to independent film and the communities that make it possible.

Contact us at info@downeastflickfest.org

Please review the descriptions of our story collections and submit your film to the one that best reflects its story, perspective, and impact. All filmmakers will be notified of their submission status.

Through screenings, conversations, and creative partnerships, Down East Flick Fest celebrates independent filmmakers and the stories they bring to life. While we offer online programming throughout the year, we believe nothing compares to the energy of experiencing great films together.

Down East Flick Fest:

A Powerful Way to Showcase YOUR Film

DEFF gives you the ability to build an audience for your work. Get exposure to industry professionals and grow your career. Designed as a portal for emerging filmmakers to get feedback on their craft and for experienced filmmakers to grow and share their expertise, it is unique. We understand the value of each individual creative force. Every film selected for the fest is included because it offers a creative vision that will connect with an audience that will love it or appreciate it.

The Sweet Tea Award recognizes stories rooted in place, people, and the enduring spirit of the South. It celebrates work that captures the richness of Southern life with honesty, complexity, and heart.

We created the Sweet Tea Award to honor filmmakers and artists whose work reflects the region's voices, landscapes, traditions, and evolving identities. These are creators who embrace the South in all its beauty and contradiction, revealing stories that are deeply local yet profoundly universal.

The Sweet Tea Award embodies the art of authentic Southern storytelling. It is Down East Flick Fest's signature recognition of cultural excellence, honoring work that preserves heritage, expands understanding, and reminds us that every place holds stories worthy of the screen.

The Sweet Tea Award

The Community Impact Award

The Community Impact Award recognizes work that does more than tell a story. It recognizes work that creates change. In communities. In conversations. In the people who encounter it.

At its heart, this award honors filmmakers and artists whose work refuses to look away from the difficult, the overlooked, and the necessary. These are creators who use story not only to illuminate the world as it is, but to imagine what it might become.

The Community Impact Award embodies the power of literary and artistic leadership. It is Down East Flick Fest's highest recognition of creative courage, honoring work that inspires reflection, invites dialogue, and leaves a lasting impact long after the screen goes dark.

Both awards will be presented to our 2026 Honoree, Keith Flynn at the DEFF 2026-27 awards ceremony.

Details coming soon…