Submissions for Chicago’s beloved Patrick Lives On film festival will run from December 1 to February 15, 2023. Open to anyone from the Chicago film community, entries can represent any genre but should not contain gratuitous gun violence. Select works will screen during the sixth annual Patrick Lives On Showcase & Fundraiser, sponsored by and held at Chicago’s Resolution Digital Studios, at 2226 W. Walnut St., on March 11.

A unique combination of cinematic glamour and down-to-earth community, Patrick Lives On brings up-and-coming filmmakers together with well-known actors, directors and writers for a night of screening and feasting at one of Chicago’s coolest industry locations.

“I’m always hearing things like, ‘I got my composer through somebody I was talking to at the festival,’” founder Patricia Frontain shared with SCREEN. “We’re all here, including me, for the exact same reason: to share our work and our love and our passion for telling stories.”

Other major event sponsors include Cinespace Film Studios.

A filmmaker and Script Supervisor for Chicago PD, Frontain launched the fest after losing her son, Patrick, to an act of senseless violence. Transforming her grief into action, she created a non-profit to help at-risk teens while spreading the film festival’s motto: Be Strong. Use Words. Not Violence.

Besides the films and the fun, Patrick Lives On also features a raffle for various gear and services worth tens of thousands of dollars from shops like Panavision, PRG, Keslow Camera and Camera Ambassador.

“It almost makes me cry when we do the raffle at the end of the night because we might help a young filmmaker whose work is awesome but needs a camera,” said Frontain. “One year, the winner stood up and donated the gear to another filmmaker.”

The submissions will be reviewed by a panel of “seasoned veterans as well as people who just like movies,” she added. For more information about submitting work to Patrick Lives On, click here.