DADDYING FILM FESTIVAL & FORUM (D3F)
Virtual Festival + LIVE Forum in Philadelphia, PA - Coming April 2025
2025 Call for Entries via FilmFreeway NOW OPEN!
2024 Atticus Award Winners
Submit Film/Video via FilmFreeway
FREE
LIVE Forum Passes
Virtual D3F
on Eventive
2025 CALL FOR ENTRIES NOW OPEN!
Available SPRING 2025 on Eventive!
What is The D3F?
“Daddying” is what occurs when fatherhood and nurturing converge in service to a child's well-being. The Daddying Film Festival and Forum (D3F), is not your ordinary film festival. D3F is the world’s first and only film festival focused exclusively on promoting the importance of positive dad/dad figure involvement for kids and families. D3F was created by the DADvocacy Consulting Group and its Daddy Appleseed Fund (DAF) to offer children and youth a stage to express through film/video how they feel about the relationship they have or wish they had with their dads.
The inaugural virtual Daddying Film Festival in 2022 provided students and other non-student, independent filmmakers from 17 countries a worldwide stage to convey the importance of involved dads in their lives. In 2023, D3F expanded its outreach to encourage dads and dad figures to submit their own films for consideration. (Note: when we use the words "father" or "dad," we also refer to all who play fatherly roles.)
D3F 2025 will be Monday, April 7 - Sat. April 12. Since 2022, D3F has received submissions from filmmakers in 26 countries!
Our Mission
D3F’s mission is to provide students, dads, dad figures, and independent filmmakers a creative platform to promote the importance of father involvement – in its presence and absence. It enables filmmakers of all ages and levels of experience to explore their thoughts and feelings about the complex relationships between fathers and their children.
D3F fulfills that mission by offering filmmakers a safe medium and unique opportunity to share stories that encourage reflection and intentionality, and to express feelings about the fundamental and often unexplored father-child relationship, including the daddying qualities that are most important to them, what kind of dad a father wants to be, and what kind of dad a kid wants and needs.
D3F enlists the help of youth and adult judges, filmmakers, educators, and clinicians alike. D3F also utilizes films to prompt post-screening discussions that may lead to desired behaviors/dad-child relationship changes.
D3F continues to evolve as parental and gender roles are reexamined and expanded. D3F is inclusive of all gender identities and family structures, and strives to promote holistic environments in which children, families, and communities may thrive.
D3F Submissions
Students, dads/granddads/dad figures, and other indie filmmakers are encouraged to submit films/videos, including music videos and comedies, that relate to one of D3F's themes:
-
A letter to my father/father figure or A letter to my child(ren)
-
Most joyful/fun thing I ever did with my dad/granddad and/or child(ren)/grandchild(ren)
-
If I could make one wish come true for my dad/grandad and/or child(ren)/grandchild(ren) it would be...
-
My Daddy dream – the most positive relationship I could imagine having with my dad/granddad/child/grandchild
-
Men Caring – celebrating the many other faces of daddying, including men who play nurturing fatherly roles, inspire, and positively impact the lives of children and youth. Examples include foster dads, adoptive dads, granddads, older siblings, coaches, mentors, inspirational philanthropists/celebrities, "big brothers," and other daddying role models.
-
NEW for 2025: Granddads & Grandkids – Lessons learned from each other.
To set itself apart from other film festivals and improve the daddying experience for children and dads alike, D3F includes a stand-alone, “live” Daddying Film Forum that brings children/youth together with their dads/families to examine thoughts, feelings, and insights in response to D3F-screened films and to express them through group discussion and other creative means.
FREE D3F event passes - Available SPRING 2025
2024 Poster Designed by Michael Duggan
D3F theme song (copyright 2023) created by Diana Lawrence:
Dads are important to children and children are important to dads.
Families and communities are better off when fathers and children
are positively involved in each other's lives.
* D3F logo designed by "imagineer" Ana Mei, age 11
D3F 2025 CALENDAR
2025 CALL FOR ENTRIES: Monday, November 18, 2024
Early Bird Deadline: Friday, January 3, 2025
Student/Adult Entries Due: Mon, March 3
Extended Entry Deadline: Mon, March 24
Film Acceptance Notification: Mon, March 31
D3F Festival (virtual): Mon, April 7 – Sat, April 12, 2025
Atticus Awards Ceremony (virtual): Sat, April 12
Daddying Film Forum: Sat, April 26 - Philadelphia
* dates subject to change