LBFF Mission statement

“Big enough to move the world, small enough to feel connected.” 

Long Beach is a city where global commerce meets local creativity, blending the energy of one of the world's busiest ports with the charm of one of California's most eclectic communities. Our festival celebrates Long Beach's unique dual identity and invites filmmakers from across the industry and around the world to become part of this growing creative force. We're here to amplify diverse voices and show that Long Beach is not just a great location to film, but a place to belong and create something truly extraordinary. 

But Long Beach has never existed in isolation. We are part of Los Angeles County, the birthplace of the film industry, the place where the craft was invented and reinvented, generation after generation. At a time when production is leaving Southern California, we believe the answer isn't to follow it out the door. It's to build something worth staying for. The Long Beach Film Festival is a stake in the ground for filmmakers who choose to make their work here, tell their stories here, and build their careers here. 

Our ambition is to be more than a stop on the festival circuit and to become a destination where meaningful cinema finds its audience, where urgent stories are heard, and where emerging voices stand alongside established ones. A place where the act of gathering around film still means something. We are here to amplify stories that matter, to keep the film industry rooted in the city that helped build it, to educate the next generation of filmmakers, and to plant a flag in our community that the world will one day come to find.