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We're excited to announce the first-ever Cinemaclique Film Festival: Shot on Smartphone Edition! We’ll be screening the best short films shot exclusively on smartphone cameras from creators around the world at the Historic Liberty Theater in Murphysboro, Illinois. Our two-day event will feature screenings, guest judges, filmmaking panels, networking opportunities, and an awards show to top it all off.

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We decided to start our own film festival after the success of our 48-hour film race, Summer 48, in 2023. We’re all filmmakers ourselves and have attended many film festivals throughout our careers. We know firsthand that film fests can be fun, rewarding, and even career-changing for indie filmmakers—but we also know they can sometimes be scammy, gatekeepy, and disappointing.

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We wanted to create a festival that we’d love to attend as filmmakers: something affordable, accessible, and genuinely fun, with great screenings and valuable networking opportunities. After partnering with the Historic Liberty Theater in Murphysboro, Illinois, we knew we could finally host the festival of our dreams.

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All entries must be submitted via our Filmfreeway.com page (link coming soon).

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Find more information about the schedule and the program on our event page.

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We want this first Cinemaclique Fest to focus heavily on storytelling. Limitations breed creativity, and we want to celebrate filmmakers who can do a lot with a little. We’re not interested in simply rewarding those with the biggest budgets or the best gear. Smartphones today have incredibly capable cameras—and almost everyone has one. While future festivals may focus more on cinematography or higher-budget productions, this one is for everyone.

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There is no specific content, genre, or theme that we're looking for when programming the festival. What we want is great stories! We love heightened reality, fantasy, horror, drama, comedy, and more. We want to see interesting characters in fascinating situations. We want creative production design. We want movies the do the most with the least. Wow us with your storytelling and you're sure to find a place in our program!

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The Historic Liberty Theater in downtown Murphysboro, Illinois is our partner, host, and base of operations. This 112-year-old venue is a national historic site, an active arthouse theater, and a home for filmmakers in Southern Illinois. The theater boasts a 38' projection screen, state of the art sound system, and a 280 seat capacity.  The Liberty is a perfect venue for the Cinemaclique Film Festival and is centrally located between the other venues that will house our networking events in Murphysboro and Carbondale, Illinois.

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