Blog: Film festivals

The Plymouth Film Festival is taking place at the Plymouth Arts Centre on the 2nd and 3rd June 2018.

Showcasing a selection of the best short films from local, national, and international filmmaking talent, the Plymouth film festival is a chance to come and watch some amazing short films, and for filmmakers to showcase their work and be rewarded and recognised for it.

Plymouth film festival is open to everyone, regardless of your age, experience or genre of your film. Check out the different categories below to see which you'd like to enter. Please contact us if you are unsure as to your films eligibility.

CONCURSO SUEÑOS EN CORTO

Indy Film Fest was founded in 2004 to celebrate the art of cinema and to create a shared experience around film in Indianapolis. We are a non-profit, international, independent film festival programming both features and shorts. Our all-volunteer staff strives to bring the best films the industry has to offer to our community from home and abroad. Our programmers aim to foster new talent and help filmmakers connect with the global industry. We are also dedicated to educating and developing audiences for international and independent cinema in Indy, screening the kind of innovative, visionary work that may not normally achieve distribution in this area.

Indy Film Fest is looking for the best independent features and shorts no matter the category or genre including: live action, animated, drama, comedy, narrative, documentary, horror, sci-fi, and experimental. Our annual festival spanning over 10+ days typically programs around 25 features and 100 short films, with over 90% from submissions.

Always growing and adapting, the Indy Film Fest began as the three-day Indianapolis International Film Festival in 2004. We quickly expanded to our current 10-day format in 2006, moved our festivities to the summer in 2009, changed our name to the Indy Film Fest in 2014, and since 2018 have been back home in our original spring timeframe. Due to COVID-19 our 2020 and 2021 festivals were primarily virtual and our 2022 - 2024 festivals were hybrid 5-day in-person festivals followed by virtual availability and concluding with award-winner in-person screenings on the final weekend. That format is our goal for the 2025 festival and before selection decisions are made filmmakers will be informed of any changes to dates or format and given the opportunity to request their submission fee be applied to a future festival if those changes are not acceptable.

Alumni of the Indy Film Fest (and Indianapolis International Film Festival) are eligible for a reasonable number of free submissions. Films with significant ties to Indiana are eligible for drastically reduced submission fees. Examples of eligibility include the director or writer being a current Indiana resident or native, or the film being primarily shot within Indiana. Please contact submissions@indyfilmfest.org to see if you are eligible for either of these opportunities.

International Children’s Film Festival Bangladesh is an annual film festival held countrywide, which showcases full-length features, shorts, experimental films made for and by children, including fiction animations and documentaries, from around the world. Founded in 2008, it is the biggest film festival in Bangladesh and also the only international film festival for children and young adults of the country.

Learn more at http://www.cfsbangladesh.org/festival

Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival is the world's premier event series dedicated to the beautiful game.

Founded and organized by passionate soccer fans, we can't get enough of the game, its stories, and its storytellers. We live and breathe the soccer lifestyle, and we are dedicated to sharing it with others. That's why K+S is not only a festival, but also a gathering for the entire soccer culture community of North America -- and beyond.

The flagship festival in New York City is held every summer. It is our centerpiece and is a vital, circle-the-date part of the NYC soccer scene. More than just a showcase of soccer films, each K+S festival is a full cultural event, including film screenings, featured speakers, panel discussions, photography/art exhibitions, literary readings, and more.

Lancaster International Film Festival is held in the historic city of Lancaster, England. The city is famous for its Castle, Cathedral and Priory, and was the location of the infamous Pendle Witch Trial of 1612.

The fourth Film Festival to be held in the city, it is our mission to bring to the people of Lancaster the best in Independent Filmmaking from around the world.

Over 95% of our programming is selected from our open submission process to allow new and emerging talents the opportunity to have their work recognised and brought to an audience.

We aim to have an engrossing selection of feature films, backed with a huge array of arresting short films, and a selection of short and feature-length documentaries. We are looking for narrative films of all genres and budget levels; whether you've made a surreal art-house epic or a low budget camp horror movie, we want to see it!

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.

GardenCity International Film Festival proudly brings the world of cinema to the IT city of India, Bangalore. We are happy to introduce the local audience to a range of most recent, cinematically daring and powerful filmmaking from around the globe. We want to be a festival that touches and teaches the audience, a festival that will drive creators to produce meaningful films, a festival that drives audiences from all walks of life and makes the week-end a deep experience that becomes a long lasting tradition.

From comedy to horror, drama to sci-fi, animation to docs, and everything in between, GardenCity accepts submissions of all genres, and looks for creative storytelling above anything else.

The NYC Animation/Anime Short Fest (NYCAASF) will be held Marc 25, 2018, in Midtown, New York City, NY, USA.

**** This is a short film festival, only for films 20 minutes or less in length!! We will NOT be screening any films longer then 20 minutes in length!!!!****

Animation is a fantastic, creative medium capable of bringing a storyteller’s inner visual world to life and sharing it with audiences everywhere. As the capabilities of computer-generated imagery continue to increase, there are fewer and fewer limitations as to what can be created on the screen.

Anime means "animation" in Japanese. However, in English the word Anime is often used to describe the very distinct style of Japanese animation. In some ways, Anime can be used to explore the everyday lives and fears of young people more effectively than Western Animation.

Join us for the 3rd Annual Animation/Anime Short Fest and become part of a new tradition!

Please be sure to review ALL submission guidelines before you mail the entry. We have limited time and resources to correct application mistakes. Please try and be as accurate as possible. We will contact you by e-mail if there are any problems, so please be sure to watch for e-mails from NYCAASFF@cierimedia.com.

We vastly prefer online submissions. If you are submitting with DVD it MUST be formatted as NTSC Region 0 or 1. If your film is selected we will provide full technical specifications but an .mov, mp4 or .mpg works great. All films will be played from a hard drive. Please note, if accepted, we MUST receive the exhibition media AT LEAST TWO (2) WEEKS before the festival.

If your submission is selected, you will be notified by e-mail in the end of March. Accepted filmmakers will be given one free admission pass to the festival. (We cannot help with any transportation, food or lodging costs.) If you are coming to the festival and want to be a part of a panel during the festivities we need to know by March 15, 2018 so we can make arrangements regarding the number and size of panels, etc.

Every year, during the month of April, the city of Brussels becomes the capital of all things Fantastic. The BIFFF, one of the biggest International Fantastic Film Festivals of the world (certainly the craziest), screens more than 100 movies during its 13 days marathon, ranging from Fantasy to Thriller, Sci-Fi, Cult, Horror, Anime, Experimental, underground, etc., of which some 90 features and 100 shorts in World, International, European or Belgian premiere.

The Capital City Film Festival (CCFF) is a multimedia showcase of independent films, live touring bands and multimedia experiences that engage audiences in Michigan’s capital city. We celebrate artists from around the world who share their craft while promoting and building on the cultural assets of our diverse locale.

www.capitalcityfilmfest.com

Animotion Film Festival is a competitive Film Festival dedicated to 2D-3D Animation and Stop Motion Films. The fourth Edition will be held in Florence (Italy) at Guelfi Sport Center on July 14th 2021.

Since 2004, Kinoki International Student Film Festival has been run completely by students at the Universidad Iberoamericana in México City. Our purpose is to create a friendly environment where film students from all around the world can share their work and compete as part of our official selection.

The 8th Kinodot Experimental Film Festival
Kinodot Competition
Kinodot competition includes only one category: Experimental films. There is no genre, topic or length restrictions.

Award
Kinodot Jury Prize for the best experimental film.
The winner of Kinodot competition is decided by professional international jury.

Screening Fees
Starting from 2020 we have canceled the cash prize. Instead all films selected for Kinodot competition are now offered the screening fee of $40. For us it's a way to express our support and appreciation to the filmmakers, whose work we admire.

Submission and Other Terms
The festival will take place in St. Petersburg in the second half of May 2020 (the exact dates will be announced in January). Experimental films of any length, finished not earlier than 15.01.2018 can be submitted.

The deadline for applying to Kinodot competition is February 28. The entry fee is $10. Kinodot is an independent festival (so far, knock on wood) and the submission fees are our only source of funding.

By submitting the film to Kinodot Competition the copyright owners agree that, if selected, the film will be screened up to 4 times during the festival and up to 2 more times in the next two years during non-commercial promotional Kinodot screenings.

You can submit your film to Kinodot at Festhome.

The History
Kinodot was launched in 2012 as online minimalist short film festival at kinodot.com. In time the project has developed into independent international experimental film festival with live screenings in movie theaters and unconventional venues in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Originally films submitted to Kinodot had to match at least one of the four selection criteria*:
No Money - films made without a budget; 
No Mumbling - films without dialogue or narration; 
No Music - films without a music score; 
No Montage - films made without editing, i.e. filmed in one shot.
*It’s no longer a requirement, rather a tribute to tradition. Yet in general we still give preference to minimalist films.

Kinodot was created to support and distribute new experimental films, and to inspire filmmakers to experiment in their own way. We promote freedom of ideas, formalism, simplicity and self-restriction as oppose to the secondary film production and self-censorship of high budget festivals. We believe that a great film can be created with very basic means, without special education or expensive equipment. We also believe that creating and following a strict set of formal rules can have a liberating effect on every artist. 

Lucca Film Festival is an annual event that celebrates and promotes cinematographic culture. Through screenings, exhibitions, conferences and performances, the Festival has been able to captivate an ever-increasing audience with a program that ranges from experimental to mainstream films. Through the years, Lucca Film Festival has carved out a niche for itself, standing apart from the many other festivals thanks to its bold yet carefully studied programming. Over the years, great names of international filmmakers and well-known celebrities have attended Lucca Film Festival as invited guests; David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, George Romero, Terry Gilliam, William Friedkin, Alfonso Cuarón, John Boorman, Rutger Hauer, Joe Dante and Peter Greenaway, just to name a few. At the same time, the Festival has offered retrospectives of “old” glories while unearthing new talents. To top it all off, breathtaking Lucca serve as a stunning backdrop to an event that has now firmly established itself, becoming a highly anticipated and not-to-be-missed appointment in Italy and in Europe: the Lucca Film Festival.

Since its creation, the festival has always been committed to promoting contemporary films.
Therefore, directors from all over the world can submit their films to the competitive section of the festival through the dedicated call for entries. The 2022 edition of Lucca Film Festival will be held from 23 Semptember to 1 October, both in cinemas and online.

The 2023 will be the 8th edition of the Lucca Film Festival International Feature Film Competition. In the previous editions important personalities of cinema like Cristi Puiu, Rutger Hauer, Philip Groening and Claudio Giovannesi had been part of the international jury.

The films shown during this competition are Italian premieres and last edition was won by "Yamabuki" di Juichiro Yamasaki.

There are three awards: Best feature film prize (3000€), awarded by a jury of renowned guests from both the cinematographic and academic worlds; and Best feature film – university jury prize (awarded by an university jury), Best feature film - Popular jury and the Marcello Petrozziello Award.

For those who are interested in this competition, the last day for submissions is July 14 2023, until midnight.

There are no limitations to the genre or topic of the films. The only requirements are the following: the films must be at least 60 minutes long and must have been produced in 2022. Moreover, they must be Italian premieres, so they cannot have been presented in any other Italian festival, shown on any online open platform or distributed in any other way in Italy.

For the 18th year in a row, it will take place the historic short films competition, whose winner will receive a 500€ prize. Every year, the selection committee of this competition receives more than 300 films to evaluate. Among the directors who took part in earlier editions, there are celebrities like Adan Jodorowsky, son of the famous Chilean filmmaker.
Even though the “free experimentation” is the fil rouge of this year's edition, the films have no limitations in genre and topic. The only requirement is that they cannot last more than 29 minutes. For the short films competition, the last day for submissions is July 28, 2023, until midnight.

Lucca Film Festival launches, for the 2023 edition, a new short film competition, "Lucca Film Festival for Future", which was born thanks to the collaboration with the Sofidel Group, 2nd producer in Europe and 7th in the world for production capacity in the sector of paper for hygienic and domestic use (known in particular for the Regina brand), which has made sustainability a strategic lever of development and responsible growth to reduce its impact on natural capital and favour the transition towards a low carbon impact economy. The prize is 1000€.

List of the selected films will be published on the festival’s website within September 15, 2023. During the festival the movies will be shown in the cinemas taking part in the event and on demand online.

The Lucca Film Festival, coordinated by Nicola Borrelli, is one of the key events organized and sponsored by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca.

The event's main sponsors are Banca Generali and Banca Pictet, whereas the exhibits are produced with the support of Banca Société Générale. The organization of the Lucca Film Festival has also been possible thanks to the funding from Funder35 and the support of Gesam Gas & Luce S.p.A Istituto Luce Cinecittà S.r.l., Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, Baldini Vernici, Lucar S.p.A Lions Club Lucca Le Mura, Alleanza Assicurazioni S.p.A, Luccaorganizza, Il Ciocco S.p.A, MiBACT (the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism), the Region of Tuscany, the City of Lucca, the Province of Lucca with the collaboration and co-production of the Giglio Theatre in Lucca, Consociazione Nazionale donatori di sangue Fratres, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini e Museo Puccini – Casa Natale, Fondazione Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Fondazione Mario Tobino, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Martinelli Luce, CG Entertainment, Fondazione Centro Arti Visive e Fondazione UIBI. Thanks also to Lucca Comics & Games, Trenitalia Regional Management, Unicoop Firenze and to the Degree Course in Performing Arts and Civilization Department of Communication and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa, Photolux Festival and App18 for their collaboration.

Come to the Lucca Film Festival and experience a full 360° immersion in both the cinema and the heart of Tuscany.

Every year the Adventure Movie Awards international film competition selects some of the best adventure short films from around the world.

A showcase of movies about Adventure intended as exploration, personal experiences and challenges as well as freedom and deep conenction with nature. A sort of adventure that fascinates, intrigues and scares as well, testimony of the free spirit that drives man to leave what is certain and go search for the unknown, pushing further and going beyond the limits.

The aim is to reward the short films that are able to convey this meaning of Adventure on the screen and that are able to communicate emotions, passions and dreams through images and dialogues. Not just pure action, but life stories.

The Zanzibar International Film Festival is an esteemed annual event showcasing films from diverse regions, promoting cultural exchange and celebrating the vibrant art of filmmaking. Established in 1997, ZIFF continues to inspire and unite global audiences through the magic of cinema.

The Zanzibar International Film Festival 2024 is set to take place from 01st Aug to 04th Aug, 2024. ZIFF management would like to inform film professionals worldwide that the festival is currently accepting applications for all African films (including African Diaspora) and films from the Dhow Countries’ region- South East Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, The Persian Gulf, Iran, Pakistan, India and the Indian Ocean Islands from 06th April, 2024 till 05th May, 2024. Films must be have been produced after 2022. ZIFF reserves the right to accept any films with a specific interest to the festival.

This year ZIFF management extend special interest to Tv Drama Series from East African Countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia & Republic of the Congo) The Tv Drama series should be between 25 to 60 minutes in length per episode.

Films should preferably depict the Festival theme; Rejuvenation. Films reflecting the theme of global cultural interaction, cultural encounters or sociocultural commentary will be given priority. Films must have been completed no later than May 05th, 2024.

We will accept submissions of works in progress only after agreement with ZIFF management. The Submission Deadline is 05th May 2024. The festival reserves the right to also invite films for screening at ZIFF.

Cryptshow Festival is an initiative that promotes the fantasy genreand terror. Every July fill Badalona de Zombies, aliens, vampires and serial killiers most infamous. And to much horror ... the horror!