The vision of the Great Lakes International Film Festival Online is to be the single best on-line destination for student and independent filmmakers, providing them with the best opportunities and services to showcase their projects.

The Great Lakes International Film Festival Online is different from its chief competitors because it offers an unique method of viewing films in an online film festival that all of its competitors, even those that provide online fests do not.

The Great Lakes International Film Festival Online is now the world's premier online film festival, presenting independent films from the most innovative filmmakers in the world. Offering viewers the future of independent filmmaking on the web. The Great Lakes International Film Festival Online showcases the latest in animation, documentary, comedy and drama and more featuring award-winning festival shorts and the freshest films from the world's most talented emerging filmmakers.

As one of the top 100 most popular film festivals we reached a global echelon by allowing independent filmmakers and fans to watch and enjoy the films world wide on the go, from work and from the comfort of their own homes. In this technologically advanced world we live in, where communication and convenience MUST be at the tips of our fingers, we knew this was the next evolution in film festivals.

Since launching our fest online we have gained even more popularity among the film viewing public and filmmakers, not to mention production houses and distributors because they no longer have to travel to find the next film that will make Hollywood sit up and take notice. In this day and age, convenience is the name of the game, especially for the independent film industry.

Much like most other festivals, ours was limited by time in how many films we could screen at the fest. Simply put, if a film is good, it will be accepted and screened without time constraints. Films will not be available for download, but shall be presented in a video on demand system that will allow users to watch the films. The V.O.D. system will be secured and can be viewed from any computer.

Unlike other festivals streaming films online, films in this festival cannot be downloaded, the films HAVE NO EMBEDDING CODE and our HTML code if copied and pasted, the films will not play, therefore they CANNOT be placed on other websites.

The only time and place they can be viewed is in our festival. In short, we have gone to great lengths to set this system up to protect the safety and security of each filmmaker's film always keeping the filmmaker in mind. Basically, it is just as secure as a brick and mortar theater screening, only much better.

You hear so much about the environment and global warming it got us thinking. When you realize how much power is used during the film fest – electricity for the building, natural gas for heat and the gasoline the people use to get to the fest it left one hell of a carbon footprint. By doing the whole festival on line it actually helps cut down on greenhouse gases.