The 12th annual East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF) takes place March 19-26, 2009. The ELFF the largest and most diverse film festival in Michigan and screens more than 100 independent and foreign feature, documentary, short and student films from around the world.

Lake Michigan Film Competition

One attraction is the Lake Michigan Film Competition, which offers cash awards to filmmakers whose film was at least 1/4 shot, produced or financed in the states that border Lake Michigan: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The categories for the awards are Feature, Documentary, Short Film and Student Film with a special award given by Message Makers to "The Most Promising Student Filmmaker" that includes a shooting and editing package worth over $10,000!. The Lake Michigan Film Competition (LMFC) was designed to encourage, foster, and help promote filmmaking in the Lake Michigan region. It is part of every East Lansing Film Festival.

Discovering the Short

Discovering the Short shows a selection of short films from the 2006 East Lansing Film Festival appeared on WKAR-TV and was produced by MSU students led by former student Randy Flick and faculty member Robert Albers of the MSU Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media.. The "short film" has long been the point of entry into the art of filmmaking and every year the East Lansing Film Festival offers aficionados a chance to view high quality short films made by professionals from all over the country.

Watch more of Discovering the Short on YouTube.

More Links...

ELFF 48/5 contest entries - filmmakers write, shoot, edit, and premiere an original five-minute production in a mere 48 hours.

For much more on the ELFF, check out the ELFF Facebook page, elff.com, the ELFF MySpace Page, the ELFF on Flickr, the East Lansing Film Festival's B-Side Community. You may also be interested in MichiganFilm.org, a web site that highlights independent films from Michigan filmmakers and seeks to network those filmmakers and actors together.

More Michigan Film Festivals on Absolute Michigan's Michigan Film Festival Page.