If I want to submit a documentary film of my own making to a contest, does the music have to be royalty free?

Answer 1

I am not sure what the scale of this film festival is, but if it is a legitimate, large scale film festival then use royalty free music.

Answer 2

Part of a contest is usually public display of the winning entries. This means that the music composer is due a royalty unless public domain. It is the responsibility of the Venue sponsors to pay these, and many are too cheap to pay the ASCAP and BMI charges. More important though is if you take any music recording, including public domain, off of a CD, then RIAA permission is also required. That is hard to get and not cheap. You can substitute public domain music/recording in the audio track and avoid this situation. such music is available at www.Music4TVandFilms.com