Festival Mission

The Different Faces, Different Voices Film Invitational Screenings invites filmmakers to create and submit cinematic stories that often go untold in mainstream film and television. Our mission is to bring artists from around the world together – to create, to interact and to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

The DFDV Screenings are intended as both story-laboratories and screening venues.  We sponsor films, panels and workshops to encourage innovative storytelling, authentic and original character voices, and the breakdown of stereotyping and prejudice.  We do not seek the most technically sophisticated productions, nor are we in pursuit of the next, most commercial success story.  Rather, we hope to draw attention to outstanding cinema that inspires – that offers messages of hope, compassion, understanding, and courage –  courage to explore themes of hatred, bullying, racism, misogyny, xenophobia and aggression, without ever glorifying it.

In 2016, through our Flicks4Chicks contest, we challenged filmmakers to go beyond the Bechdel test and to create short films that showed females in acts of agency and empowerment, rather than merely as passive bystanders or supporters.  Starting in 2018, we decided to invite filmmakers to submit both Flicks4Chicks and works in both narrative and documentary films that expand social awareness in our additional category, Casting a Light.  With four screening cycles per year, we hope to offer more flexible venue options.

The DFDV Festival is run by the Harvard Square Script Writers of Newton, MA, a non-profit professional organization that has been supporting aspiring scriptwriters of every age and background for over 30 years.  The screenings will be held in various venues in both Cambridge and Boston in July,  October, and December of 2018.