Blog: Film festivals

About the Festival

The Wawas al Cine Children’s and Youth Film Festival is a cultural and educational initiative that promotes inclusive access to cinema as a tool for learning, reflection, and the holistic development of children, adolescents, and young people, particularly those in vulnerable situations. Through cinema, the Festival contributes to strengthening inclusive, equitable, and quality education by creating spaces for meaningful and lifelong learning.

Since its creation in 2015, Wawas al Cine has reached 46,151 people over 11 editions through in-person and virtual activities carried out in different regions of the country. The Festival works through a collaborative network with cultural and educational institutions such as INCINE, the University of the Americas (UDLA), the University of the Arts (UARTES), and the Ecuadorian Network of Film Clubs, enhancing its impact and long-term sustainability.

The project is supported by public institutions and international cooperation entities, including the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Ecuador, embassies, local councils, the Municipal Government of Riobamba, and the Delegation of the European Union in Ecuador. This support has positioned the Festival as a national reference in the development of young audiences for cinema.

In addition, the Festival offers audiovisual production workshops for children and adolescents, who actively participate in collective short film creation processes. These activities encourage self-expression, critical thinking, and the exercise of cultural rights from an early age.

Screenings and activities take place in educational institutions, Indigenous communities, and public spaces, fostering dialogue and reflection on relevant social issues such as environmental care, gender equality, and the appreciation of cultural diversity.

The Twelfth Edition of the Wawas al Cine Festival will take place from May 21 to June 1, 2026, in the provinces of Bolívar, Pastaza, and Chimborazo, reaffirming its commitment to cultural decentralization and equitable access to cinema in historically underserved territories.

The PiFF Pinerolo Film Festival is organized by the cultural association Wel Theater and Movie aps.

Born to enhance independent cinema with an eye on Piedmont (Italy) and to bring to the fore themes of great social and human impact, Themes that enhance the territory and themes dedicated to children, young people and adolescents. Promotes the dissemination of products of high artistic value, capable of contributing to cultural growth.

International and national short films will be selected, with a day dedicated to children/young people, a day dedicated to social themes , a day dedicated to short films made in Piedmont and a day dedicated to the authors FEDIC (Italian Federation Cineclub). The screenings will be held at the headquarters of the cultural association WEL Theater and Movie aps that organizes the festival and in a cinema of the city of Pinerolo. The festival ends with a final day of screenings at the cinema of the short finalists and the awarding of the winners of the four categories, which are precisely: children/ boys, social themes, Piedmont, FEDIC.

All in Pinerolo, a beautiful town at the foot of the Alps, in Piedmont (Italy).

The festival is registered on IMDB

We invite you to participate in the sixth edition of ANIMAL Film Fest, which will take place on October 2, 3, and 4, 2025, with a hybrid format (in-person and online) in the city of Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.

We recommend reading the complete call for submissions before registering your short films.
Registration and participation in the 6th edition of ANIMAL Film Fest imply full acceptance of these regulations.


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

ROT Movie Makers invites general public, as well as independent and professional filmmakers, film students, communication, animation, visual arts, multimedia and careers related, to participate in the sixth edition of ANIMAL Film Fest, to be held on October 2, 3, and 4, 2025, in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.

AFF is a ROT Movie Makers’ production.We invite you to participate in the seventh edition of ANIMAL Film Fest, which will take place in person from October 1 to 4, 2026, in the city of Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.

It is strongly recommended to carefully read the complete call for entries before registering any short film.

Registration and participation in the 7th edition of ANIMAL Film Fest imply full acceptance of these regulations.


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

ROT Movie Makers invites the general public, as well as filmmakers, independent and professional creators, students of film, communication, animation, visual arts, multimedia, and related fields, to participate in the seventh edition of ANIMAL Film Fest, to be held from October 1 to 4, 2026, in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico.

ANIMAL Film Fest is a festival exclusively dedicated to horror cinema and dark genres, including horror, terror, suspense, thriller, and their hybrid forms. Short films from genres outside this curatorial line will not be accepted.

ANIMAL Film Fest is a production of ROT Movie Makers.

Her Moves: Mini Festival (3rd edition) is an open call for skateboarding films created by or focused on women and non-binary skaters.

All submissions must be about skateboarding. We welcome documentary, narrative, and experimental formats.

The festival is committed to inclusion and particularly encourages submissions from emerging filmmakers and skaters, including those from neurodivergent, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ communities (though submissions are open to all creators aligned with the festival’s values).

All festival activities are hosted by women and non-binary people and include screenings and an accompanying art exhibition as well as DJ sets.

Horrorant Film Festival ‘FRIGHT NIGHTS’ is an international horror film festival organised by a genre film distributor and held annually at the best equipped theatres in the heart of Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece.

FINCA is a competitive, international film festival that has been held in Argentina since 2010. It serves as a meeting space for filmmakers, activists, communities, and specialists, aiming to promote critical cinema that contributes to social transformation and to the creation of new narratives around the environment and human rights.

In 2026, the eighth edition of FINCA will place particular emphasis on the Right to Land as part of global debates on the socio-ecological crisis, environmental justice, and development models, recognizing that territorial conflicts are complex assemblages in which multiple actors—human and non-human—interact to sustain life. In the Global South, these disputes intensify around the defense of commons, ecosystems, and territories in the face of extractivist logics, understanding territory as a dynamic network and a collective bond that articulates memory, identity, and ecological interdependence, from which it is urgent to imagine more just and sustainable futures.

The 19th edition of the Razor Reel Flanders Film Fest, the only Flemish genre film festival, takes place in Fall 2026, in the city center of Bruges. During the Razor Reel Flanders Film Fest, we present a quality selection of the best national and international genre films (fantasy, thrillers, action, fantastic comedies, animated films,...) to our audience, in a unique, intimate and cosy atmosphere! We also welcome many guests and we host lectures and Q&A's that enrich the visitor’s knowledge.

Resistance International Film Festival (RIFF) is a major international cinematic event dedicated to storytelling about human dignity, justice, freedom, and resilience.

With nearly four decades of history, the festival was held biennially for many years and has now become an annual international film festival.

The 19th edition highlights themes such as resilience, courage and dedication, hope, social progress, and collective awareness, while embracing new creative technologies including artificial intelligence and multimedia storytelling. RIFF welcomes feature films, documentaries, short films, animation, screenplays, AI-based works, and research projects, and aims to connect filmmakers worldwide through cinema, dialogue, and cultural exchange.

Festival dedicated to the Short Film Competition, Fiction and Animation.

Possibility of hosting the directors and Actors of the Films.

Mister Vorky is an International Festival of One-Minute and Short films, which promotes the best one-minute and short films from all continents. The organizers of the festival is the Independent Film Center Vorky Team, which in this way pays tribute to the great Serbian-American film artist Slavko Vorkapich-Vorky.

The VAFF Enrique Cerezo 2026 celebrates its second edition on March 20 and 21. The Valdeolmos-Alalpardo Film Festival is organized by the Valdeolmos-Alalpardo Town Council.

Its main objective is to expand its presence within the short film festival circuit of the Community of Madrid and to increase the participation of short filmmakers from across Spain and abroad, supporting cinema in the short film format.

With the patronage of Enrique Cerezo, one of Spain’s most prominent audiovisual producers, and the support of his companies EGEDA, FlixOlé, Platino Next Gen, and Iberseries, VAFF 2026 aims to become one of the must-attend short film festivals in today’s short film competition landscape.

The Rabat-Comedy International Film Festival is one of the world’s leading film festivals exclusively dedicated to comedy.

Celebrating humor as a powerful cinematic language, the festival offers a unique platform for outstanding feature and short comedy films from around the globe to compete, connect, and share their vision with a prestigious international jury and a vibrant audience of comedy lovers.

Beyond film screenings, Rabat-Comedy creates a space for dialogue and exchange, through meetings with filmmakers, actors, producers, and key professionals of the film industry.

The festival also features special out-of-competition screenings, professional training sessions, and masterclasses led by renowned artists and experts, exploring the craft, creativity, and cultural impact of comedy in cinema.

Rabat-Comedy is not only a festival — it is a celebration of laughter, creativity, and cinematic freedom.

(En français)

Le Festival International du Film Rabat-Comedy est parmi les plus importants festivals au monde qui sont exclusivement dédiés à la comédie .

Célébrant l’humour comme un langage cinématographique universel, le festival offre une plateforme unique à des longs et courts métrages de comédie venus du monde entier, leur permettant de concourir et de partager leur vision devant un jury international de renom et un public passionné de cinéma et de comédie.

Au-delà des projections, Rabat-Comedy favorise les rencontres et les échanges professionnels à travers des discussions avec des réalisateurs, acteurs, producteurs et autres acteurs clés de l’industrie cinématographique.

Le festival propose également des projections hors compétition, des sessions de formation professionnelle et des masterclasses, consacrées à l’art de la comédie au cinéma, à ses écritures, ses formes et ses enjeux contemporains.

Rabat-Comedy n’est pas seulement un festival : c’est un espace de création, de réflexion et de partage autour du rire et du cinéma.

Batumi International Art-House Film Festival (BIAFF) was established in 2006. The founder and organizer is “Batumi Art-house ARGANI". BIAFF is an annual event held in second half of September in Batumi (Georgia).

Festival is focusing on art-house cinema. BIAFF festival’s major sections include - International Competition (Feature, Doc and Short sections), Retrospectives, Meet the Jury, Master Collection etc. Beside film screenings, festival program includes various workshops, master classes and industry events.

The Pijao Film Showcase is a space for film exhibition and cinematic exchange held in the municipality of Pijao, in the southern part of the department of Quindío, with the aim of strengthening access to cinema and audiovisual culture in a region that, for more than twenty years, lacked a functioning movie theater and a permanent film program.
With two years of continuous activity, the Showcase has become a point of convergence for Colombian short and feature films, as well as for filmmakers, producers, and professionals from the audiovisual industry, who actively participate through screenings, open discussions, and spaces for the exchange of cinematic experiences and knowledge with the local community.

The event’s main venue is the Teatro Román, currently undergoing a restoration process. This heritage space symbolizes the recovery of the municipality’s cultural and cinematic life. The Showcase is organized by Fundación del Toro, in collaboration with public and private institutions that support the project, as well as with regional audiovisual production companies that act as strategic partners in its development and projection.

For its current edition, the Pijao Film Showcase aims to expand its catalog of Colombian cinema and, for the first time, incorporate international films, enriching the dialogue between local and global perspectives. Additionally, the Showcase adopts an itinerant format, complementing the central event with periodic screenings in different venues, extending its reach beyond the official dates of the festival.
The Showcase is structured around non-competitive sections, prioritizing circulation, encounter, and audience development, with the goal of bringing cinema to southern Quindío and contributing in a sustained manner to the reconstruction of an active cultural ecosystem around audiovisual practices.

Frontera Films Corporation from the city of Cúcuta is organizing the 8th International Film Festival of Norte de Santander.

Welcome to the participants of this edition in 2026. We are seeking enthusiasts and professionals in the audiovisual world who want to take part in the call for entries for the 8th International Film Festival of Norte de Santander.

The 9th International Film Festival of Norte de Santander is organized by Frontera Films Corporation. It emerges from the need to create a film industry in the region, from the Colombian-Venezuelan border and from an educational and training perspective. Our goal is to promote cinema in the department of Norte de Santander and the border region, making it the most important festival in the northeastern part of Colombia.

With the aim of showcasing Norte de Santander as a department that engages in audiovisual dynamics, we will have hybrid and semi-presential events in the cities of Cúcuta, Los Patios, Pamplona, and Villa del Rosario, as well as virtual events. Therefore, similar to last year, the festival will feature in-person screenings of short and feature films.

CONVERSATIONS, WORKSHOPS, AND JURIES:

There will be conversations, workshops, and talks with professionals from the national film industry.

The juries will consist of qualified individuals and professionals in the national film industry, as well as representatives from the festival organization.

More events will be announced soon.

Authorial film festival held by one of the most important distributors of movie Brazil. The awards will result distribution contracts of winning films in Brazil.

The Watoto International Film Festival - Zanzibar is currently accepting applications from filmmakers from around the world according to different categories of competition.

The Watoto International Film Festival - Zanzibar (WIFF Zanzibar) is East Africa’s first and largest Children's film and arts festival, exhibiting the latest and best films and promoting film talents from across the African continent and beyond.

The 1st Edition of WIFF Zanzibar will take place on 11th -14th March 2021 in Zanzibar.

The theme of the festival is 'Chei'Chei - Hello' and will prioritize African cinema and cinema from the African diaspora and the rest of the world.

WIFF Zanzibar also opens the call to films from different regions around the world.

The Territorio Sacromonte International Audiovisual Festival takes place in the city of Granada (Andalusia) in the emblematic Sacromonte neighborhood in front of the Alhambra monument. In the Cuevas del Sacromonte Museum, a protected open-air space of more than 10,000 meters located in the Darro Valley, declared a Site of Cultural Interest, the projections of our Official Audiovisual Section from around the world are held.

At the same time, an extensive program of activities is carried out that includes concerts, exhibitions, artistic actions or shows in unique spaces in the neighborhood.

Zed Fest Film Festival & Screenplay Competition was founded to encourage and support independent low and big budget, filmmakers, who work in the horror, suspense, science fiction, drama, action, adventure, and art house genres.

After participating in Zed Fest Film Festival, many of our filmmakers have been able to advance their careers develop their next projects. We take pride in the fact that we are able to maintain relationships with participants, encourage and help them develop and promote their future endeavors.

" WE HOPE TO DISCOVER THE CULT MOVIES OF THE FUTURE."

****ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL is an IMDB award Listing Qualifier****

Please visit our website for more information
www.zedfest.org/faq.html
www.zedfest.org


For News & Updates please follow us on Social Media:
www.facebook.com/zedfestfilmfestival
twitter.com/Zedfestfilmfest
www.instagram.com/zedfestfilmfestival

FYI:
WE CONSIDER YOUR PAYMENT DATE AS YOUR ENTRY DATE

For information about us please visit us
www.zedfest.org or our new FAQ Submissions Info page http://www.zedfest.org/faq.html
to learn more about our special Awards:
http://www.zedfest.org/zedfestspecialawards.html

The Top Zed Fest Film Festival 2026
Prizes: Over $5000 in Cash & Prizes will be Divided among winners

-ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL CERTIFICATE
-Bonus Top Prize winners Movie Magic Screenwriter software
-Inktip Listing
Get your scripts in front of producers, agents, and managers today.
Writers use InkTip every day to connect with industry professionals looking for writers to hire, scripts to produce and writers to represent. Whether you're breaking into the industry or are an established writer, InkTip can help you further your career.

InkTip Script Listing: A listing of your script on InkTip so that producers and reps can find you. 
InkTip Magazine: Publication of your logline in InkTip's magazine sent
to nearly 15000 producers and reps.

$500 1st Place Screenplay
$300 2nd Place Screenplay


Top Zed Fest Film Festival Filmmaker and Screenplay Awards:

Zed Fest Film Festival Independent Spirit Award is bestowed each year to a filmmaker that Pursues their filmmaking vision from concept to film.


This award has been inspired by Independent Filmmaking Pioneers Robot Monster (1953) Director Phil Tucker, Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, Elaine May, John Cassavetes, and Penelope Spheeris,Wes Anderson.



These filmmakers followed their passion for filmmaking. They embraced the love of filmmaking as an art form. They used their creativity and ingenuity in their filmmaking and did not let their budget stand in the way of their film projects. That is very inspirational to us and we hope to today's emerging filmmakers.



Feature Film Golden Marquee Award -
The Feature Film Golden Marquee is for the highest achievement award in recognition of the Feature Film that displays exemplary technical proficiencies in filmmaking and storytelling.

Short Film Golden Marquee Award -
The Short Film Golden Marquee is for the highest achievement award in recognition to the Short Film that displays exemplary technical proficiencies in filmmaking and storytelling.

The Pickford Award -
THE PICKFORD AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE FILM ARTS
This Award is to Highlight Women in The Film Arts. We call it the "The Pickford Award" In honor of the Great Mary Pickford Silent Film Pioneer.



ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL 2026ENTRY DEADLINES
Early Bird Deadline Feb 28, 2026
Spring Deadline April 28, 2026
Regular Deadline July 30, 2026
Deadline July 30, 2026
Final Film Deadline September 30, 2026
Notification Date NOV 05, 2026

ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL GENRES:
Horror
Suspense
Supernatural
Arthouse
Action/Adventure
Science Fiction
Fantasy
Documentary
Music Videos
Super 8


Enter your music Video any music genre, we play top winners at the Zed Fest Film Festival 2026 Event in November to be held in Regal Noho West, North Hollywood, California on Nov 10-15,2026

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO BE PLAYED AT THE ZED FEST FILM FESTIVAL EVENT 2026!!!

Promoting short films and documentaries culture in a country where commercial cinema has always ruled the roost is not an easy task. Delhi Shorts International Film Festival is one such successful effort started in year 2012 by Miniboxoffice with successful 2012 to 2025 editions. The festival brings thoughtful, highly creative & engaging short films from around the world to fulfill the cinegoers' appetite of the capital city of India. The festival aim is to establish a short film industry which runs parallel to commercial cinema.

15th Delhi Shorts International Film Festival-2026 is meant to grow many folds. The inaugural year 2012 was a big success followed by super successful previous editions & enjoys the credibility of one of the most trusted short film festival of India. The festival was not only embraced by the short filmmaker’s but regarded by the media & industry members also.

The festival objective is to boost-up the short film market & providing exhibition platform to short filmmakers. The festival gives the professional networking opportunities & at the same time introduces the latest trends in cinema to the filmmakers. 15th DSIFF-26 is a unique platform here you can share, learn, showcase, observe & do many more thing to polish your creative & technical skills. We hope that this festival will turn a milestone in your filmmaking career.