Submit here

Open Now Call for Films AAG Shorts 2026

Proud to be in our 10th year! Film Geographies AAG Shorts 2026 invites submissions of short films about space and place. This is a call for short films for the AAG 2026. Our themes this year match the conference themes. We accept films that are 20 mins or (much) less. We can review your film if it is longer than this and host it on our website if selected, but we do not have capacity to screen longer films at the conference. We also accept works in progress. Send your film to us at aagshorts@filmgeographies.com At the conference we will screen selected short films with a Q & A with (registered) filmmakers to explore how academic film and filmmaking is evolving. We will ask questions about academic filmmaking as a method, and ask, as we move beyond the idea of film as an essay or documentary, how we can support this active and exciting field of research practice. We will also organise a screening for the public at a later date. You don’t need to register or attend the conference to have your film screened but you will need to be registered to attend any Q&A.  

We will accept film submissions until January 12, 2026

American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting San Francisco AAG Shorts 2026 Organisers: Jessica Jacobs (Queen Mary University of London) Joseph Palis (University of the Philippines-Diliman) Sponsor: Filmmaking Specialty Group Film Geographies started in 2016, as an on and offline space to screen and discuss filmmaking in the academy. Today it has over 1200 subscribers and has collected and curated over 200 films from all over the world. We also organise filmmaking training workshops using smartphones for students staff and community groups.

What makes a film geographical?

For us a geographical film is a film that explores people’s relationship to their environment, a film that is place-based, and where that ‘place’, often dismissed as ‘background’ in other films, is treated like a character in its own right with agency and voice. (Jacobs and Palis, 2020) We always welcome films that explore issues around power, race, gender, housing and migration, indigeneity, precarity in academia, trade unions, social justice, the shift to decolonise our universities, the ongoing climate crisis and responses to conflict. We also especially welcome films that are made collaboratively, and/or reflexively examine how filmmaking can help the discipline adapt to a changing world, including the growing interest in creative research methods and teaching practices more generally.

Terms – Please read carefully Please note we can only accept files we can download, do not send us links to YouTube or Vimeo unless you have adjusted the settings so we can also download the film. Once submitted your film will be sent for review by our review panel. Feedback will be sent to all who request it. More detailed peer review will be available for Works in Progress. Selected films will be screened at AAG 2024 and/or published on www.filmgeographies.com Every year we get someone contacting us with a film they want to submit but they are not the filmmaker. In order to be published on film geographies you must have the right to submit the film. You must also confirm that if relevant, your film has undergone an ethical review before submission.