Essex DocFest is an ethical and modern festival that works to change the festival industry.​ The festival industry has not changed much in decades, even though the world has. We want to give a platform to important stories in a sustainable way that benefits filmmakers, audiences, and, most importantly, the people whose stories are being told. Essex DocFest is a new type of festival that blends online and offline events and works to support low-budget and indie documentary filmmaking.

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We start to change festivals at the beginning of the submission process. Filmmakers often pay large submission fees to be considered for festivals, but rarely hear anything back about their films. We work to change this, by ensuring that everyone who submits to Essex DocFest will receive feedback on their submission and we will be transparent about the reasons why it was or it was not selected. 

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We also want to give back to the filmmakers, so profits will be reinvested in new films and new voices. We are all about building a supportive community of filmmakers and giving them a platform to make their stories heard. We are not just a festival, we run events throughout the year bringing audiences and filmmakers together, both online and offline.