Overview
The Rural Route Film Festival is a New York City-based festival dedicated to films about rural people, places, and cultures. Founded in 2002 by Alan Webber and a team of collaborators originally from Iowa, the festival screens work that deals with communities and subjects outside the bustle of the city. The primary setting for submitted work should be rural, or within an agriculture-based city of 200,000 people or less.
The festival is centered in New York City, where both founders met working in the film industry. The annual premiere takes place in NYC, followed by a touring program that brings the curated selection to rural communities, art houses, museums, universities, and community venues across the United States and internationally. Past tour dates have included locations in Iowa, West Virginia, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Alaska, Croatia, Austria, France, and Canada.
The festival defines "rural" broadly and leaves it to filmmakers to interpret. Accepted work has ranged from a documentary about an organic turnip farm in Appalachia to a fictional backpacking drama set in the Peruvian Andes to a personal experimental piece about life in a Kazakh village. The programming philosophy is that rural communities are underrepresented in mainstream cinema, and the festival takes cinema directly to the communities whose lives it represents.
Submission Details
The Rural Route Film Festival accepts open submissions. Key details:
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Submission Platform | FilmFreeway |
| Eligibility | Any film with a rural theme, any country, any year of completion, any length |
| Setting Requirement | Primary setting should be rural or within an ag-based city of 200,000 or less |
| Genres Accepted | Documentary, narrative, experimental, animation, music videos |
| Language | Works in any language accepted |
| Premiere Status | No premiere requirement stated |
| Annual Premiere Location | New York City |
The festival accepts all films and videos that can claim a rural theme. This includes documentaries about farming families, fictional narratives set in small towns, experimental works about rural landscapes, and works that incorporate alternative country, country western, or folk music. There is no restriction on year of completion, country of origin, or length.
Submission fees have historically been low compared to larger festivals. The festival previously used Withoutabox and now uses FilmFreeway. Filmmakers should check the Rural Route Films website or FilmFreeway for current deadline and fee information, as the festival operates on a smaller budget than major festivals and its submission window varies.
Touring Program
The touring program is the most distinctive element of Rural Route. After the NYC premiere, a curated "Best of / Shorts" tour program travels to communities that may have no regular cinema access. Past touring venues have included:
- Community halls and micro-theaters (Lascaux Micro-Theater, Buckhannon, WV)
- Museums and art centers (Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; CSPS, Cedar Rapids)
- Universities (Sul Ross University, Alpine TX; Carleton College, Northfield MN; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
- Independent cinemas (Clinton Street Theater, Portland; Gateway Film Center, Columbus; Indie Memphis)
- Outdoor and unconventional venues (Squeaky Wheel bike-in movie, Buffalo; Smiling Hog's Head Ranch, NYC)
- International venues (Festival Der Neue Heimatfilm, Austria; Festival Int'l du Film Documentaire sur la Ruralite, France; Kinookus Food Film Festival, Croatia; Arica Nativa Festival de Cine Rural, Chile)
The touring model means selected films reach audiences with the deepest personal connections to their subject matter. A documentary about Kansas farming screens for Kansas farmers. A film about Appalachian agriculture screens for Appalachian communities. This creates a feedback loop between filmmaker and audience that standalone urban festivals cannot replicate.
Filmmakers and community organizers can contact the festival to arrange a touring screening in their hometown, school, or community event.
Programming Categories
The festival does not publish rigidly defined competitive sections in the manner of large festivals. Programming is organized thematically around the submitted work each year. Typical programming includes:
- Rural Documentary - films about farming, agriculture, and rural life
- Short Films - short-form work from rural perspectives, including narrative, experimental, and documentary
- Environmental and Agricultural - films about land use, food systems, sustainability, and climate
- International Rural - films from rural communities outside the US, reflecting global rural experiences
- Archival Program - older works that engage with rural themes, screened alongside contemporary submissions
Festival History
The Rural Route Film Festival was founded in 2002 in New York City by Alan Webber (Creative Director), who hails from Elkader, Iowa, and a team of collaborators with rural backgrounds. The festival grew out of a desire to screen work about rare people and cultures normally overlooked by mainstream media.
Between 2008 and 2009, Webber traveled to all seven continents screening the Rural Route program, establishing the festival's international reach. The touring model developed organically from community requests and partnerships with rural arts organizations, universities, and independent cinemas.
The festival has maintained a focus on the slow food movement, environmental issues, and life sustainability throughout its programming. Its agricultural consultant, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, founded the Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology (SAFE) at UC Berkeley and produces the documentary "The Greenhorns" about America's young farming community. This connection to the agricultural world gives the festival a credibility that urban film festivals programming rural content cannot match.
The festival is based at PO Box 3462, Steinway Station, Astoria, NY 11103. Contact is available through filmfest@ruralroutefilms.com.
What Filmmakers Should Know
Rural Route is the most targeted platform available for filmmakers whose work deals with rural life, agriculture, and small-town communities. The submission pool is small relative to major festivals, which means a well-made film with an authentic rural perspective has a realistic chance of selection.
The touring model is the primary value proposition. A film selected for Rural Route does not just screen once in New York. It tours to communities across the US and internationally, reaching audiences who rarely see their own lives reflected on screen. For documentary filmmakers addressing rural subjects, this creates a distribution mechanism that no other festival offers at this scale.
The festival's definition of "rural" is deliberately broad. Filmmakers should not self-reject because their film does not fit a narrow definition of agricultural documentary. The festival has programmed everything from camping-trip comedies to Kazakh village portraits to films featuring loud rock music in cornfields. The key criterion is that the primary setting is rural or within a small ag-based community.
There is no stated premiere requirement, which means films that have screened at other festivals remain eligible. This is an advantage for filmmakers whose work has already played regional or niche festivals but has not yet reached the rural communities it depicts.
The festival operates on a small budget with a volunteer-driven team. Filmmakers should not expect large cash prizes or industry market presence. The value is in audience access, community engagement, and the opportunity to screen work for the people whose lives it represents.
Past Winners
The Rural Route Film Festival presents awards in three categories: Narrative, Documentary, and Experimental. Recent winners include:
- 2017 Best Narrative - Covadonga by Sean Hartofilis
- 2017 Best Documentary - The Rabbit Hunt by Patrick Bresnan
- 2017 Best Experimental - HAIRAT by Jessica Beshir
- 2016 Best Narrative - Lamb by Yared Zeleke. First Ethiopian film ever selected for Cannes (Un Certain Regard, 2015). Ethiopia's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film.
- 2016 Best Documentary - ATLAN by Moein Karimoddini. A portrait of horsemen in Iran's Turkmen Sahra region.
- 2016 Best Experimental - Upcycles by Ariana Gerstein
- 2014 Best Narrative - Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari by Alexsei Fedorchenko. A mythological fiction about a unique ethnic group within Russia.
- 2014 Best Documentary - When Elephants Dance, the Grass Gets Beaten by Jan van den Berg. About small Cambodian family farms losing land to foreign companies.
- 2014 Best Experimental - Symphony No. 42 by Reka Bucsi
- 2013 Best Narrative - Tall as the Baobab Tree by Jeremy Teicher. Set in a Senegalese village.
- 2013 Best Documentary - The Mosuo Sisters by Marlo Poras. About two sisters in China's last matriarchal society.
- 2006 Best Documentary - Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary) by Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly
Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up
Rural Route has programmed films that went on to significant recognition and distribution:
- Lamb (2016 winner) - Yared Zeleke's debut feature about a boy and his sheep in rural Ethiopia. First Ethiopian film ever selected for Cannes (Un Certain Regard, 2015). Selected as Ethiopia's entry for the 88th Academy Awards. Now streaming on OVID and Amazon Prime Video.
- White Earth (2014 selection) - J. Christian Jensen's documentary about the North Dakota oil boom, told through the eyes of children. Won a 2014 Student Academy Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
- The Mosuo Sisters (2013 winner) - Marlo Poras's documentary about two young women in China's Mosuo minority, one of the world's last matriarchal societies. Also screened at CAAMFest and other festivals.
- Tall as the Baobab Tree (2013 winner) - Jeremy Teicher's narrative about a girl trying to rescue her sister from arranged marriage in a Senegalese village. The director received an Academy Award nomination for an earlier project in the same region.
- The First Season (2012 selection) - Rudd Simmons's documentary about a family starting a dairy farm in Sharon Springs, NY. Simmons was producer of narrative critical successes before making his directorial debut.
Submission Tips Specific to This Festival
Rural Route has one of the most open submission policies of any festival. Here is how to maximize your chances:
- The festival defines "rural" broadly. Do not self-reject because your film does not fit a narrow definition of agricultural documentary. Past selections include camping-trip comedies, Kazakh village portraits, and films featuring rock music in cornfields.
- The primary setting should be rural or within an agriculture-based city of 200,000 people or less. This is the one hard criterion.
- There is no premiere requirement. Films that have screened at other festivals remain eligible. This is an advantage for work that has already played regional or niche festivals.
- There is no restriction on year of completion, country of origin, or length. Older films and international submissions are welcome.
- Submission fees are low compared to major festivals. Check the Rural Route Films website or FilmFreeway for current deadlines and fees.
- All genres are accepted: documentary, narrative, experimental, animation, and music videos. Works incorporating alternative country, country western, or folk music fit particularly well.
- The touring program is the primary value. If your film is selected, it will screen not only in NYC but also in rural communities across the US and internationally.
Industry Reputation Notes
Rural Route occupies a unique niche in the festival landscape. No other US festival focuses exclusively on rural-themed cinema with a touring distribution model.
Compared to environmental film festivals like the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, Rural Route is more focused on human stories and community experience than policy and advocacy. Its connection to the slow food movement and sustainable agriculture gives it credibility that urban environmental festivals lack.
The festival operates on a small budget with a volunteer-driven team. Filmmakers should not expect large cash prizes, industry market presence, or distribution deals. The value is in audience access and community engagement.
The touring model sets Rural Route apart from every other festival. A film about Kansas farming screens for Kansas farmers. A film about Appalachian agriculture screens for Appalachian communities. This creates a feedback loop between filmmaker and audience that standalone urban festivals cannot replicate.
Watch
See Also
Calculate your total festival submission costs and projected return using the Festival ROI Calculator. For documentary filmmaking approaches, see Documentary Filmmaking Guide. For environmental cinema, see Environmental Film Festival at Yale. For festival strategy guidance, see Film Festival Strategy. Visit the official Rural Route Films website or check FilmFreeway for current submission details.
