A waiver of the conference registration fee and/or SCMS membership requirement may be granted in exceptional circumstances for contributors such as media practitioners, artists, or renowned scholars from other disciplines whose contributions would illuminate the panel or workshop topic. If requesting a waiver for any panel, workshop, or roundtable participant, a waiver form must be submitted online by the conference submission deadline. Waivers can be requested by the intended recipient or by the session chair on their behalf. For the 2026 Conference, the deadline is Friday, August 29, 2025 at 5:00 pm CT.

If the panel, workshop, or roundtable proposal is accepted and the conference Program Chair approves the waiver, the chair of the panel, workshop, or roundtable along with the waiver recipient will receive an email notification from the SCMS office by early December 2025.

Note: Open call participants and graduate students do not qualify for these waivers. Artists, renowned scholars or filmmakers from other disciplines cannot receive a registration and/or membership waivers in two consecutive years.