If you’re a doc lover, you’re no doubt familiar with the New York Times Op-Docs series. Whether you’ve seen these remarkable short films through the NYT website or on the screen at the IFC Center, you know that the program, curated by the newspaper’s Editorial department, highlights bite-sized documentaries dealing with current affairs, modern life and historical subjects and offers a wide array of artistic styles and unique voices.

Op-Docs and the Camden International Film Festival is now inviting documentary short filmmakers to submit their ideas for the NYT Op-Docs series. Those selected will have the chance to participate in a live pitch event at this year’s CIFF. Six finalists will be chosen to present their pitches in front of an audience and industry peers at the Festival’s Points North Documentary Forum, which runs from September 26-29.

As a quick review of past entries in the Op-Doc series will reveal, Op-Docs should be between 3 and 10 minutes in length (though the average is 5 minutes) and should be able to function as a stand-alone piece with no trailers, clips or selections from other works. To read all the relevant criteria for the live pitch submission, click here.

The filmmaker with the winning pitch will have the chance to produce an Op-Doc for the New York Times with a budget of $2,000. Once it has NYT approval, the documentary will have its world premiere on the NYT website.

Needless to say, the Camden International Film Festival is the perfect place for emerging and established documentarians to show off their work and experiment with new ideas. So start working on those pitches, and submit your idea to CIFF by Friday, August 9th.