Blog: Film festivals

Coachella Valley International Film Festival is preparing for our first fantastic festival of independent filmmaking from April 28, 2017, under the stars.

CVIFF is dedicated to celebrating the works of independent filmmakers from around the world, and we pay special attention to ultra low-budget films by first and second-time directors.

The 11th edition of the One World Romania International Human Rights & Documentary Festival will take place between March 16 and March 25, 2018 in Bucharest. One World Romania is the first documentary film festival established in Bucharest as well as the only Romanian festival dedicated to human rights.

We invite you to submit your latest documentaries on any topic related to human rights. Short, medium, feature length as well as interactive documentaries, with any target audience, including children and adolescents, are accepted.

It is a unique space for the promotion of audiovisual content environment to the sport.

CINÉXICO, the Film Festival of Loreto, celebrates films from Mexico and invites cinema lovers to experience Mexican culture on the screen and in the natural beauty of Baja California Sur. In its second year, surrounded by unspoiled, protected islands and the vibrant ocean life of the Sea of Cortes, Loreto is truly a "Pueblo Magico," giving filmmakers a stunning setting in which to showcase their films that celebrate the environment, whether natural or urban, where human experiences converge.

The 8th edition of the International Independent Film Festival of Ibiza has developed several seus in the 5 municipalities of the Island, for first time with institutional support from the 5 City Councils, and the online version on the Filmin platform. The institutional support in Ibiza is total by adding the Departments of Culture and Tourism of the Consell Insular of Ibiza more various private sponsors in the Island.

Ibizacinefest has renewed its commitment to Ibiza and culture with a program of 132 national and international titles, exclusive premieres in Spain and with 90% of premieres in the Balearic Islands, targeted activities to professionals, shortfilms contests to discover and boost the local and Balearic talent, educational program with special screenings per students and children to create new audiences.
The reflection has also covered his space through 19 conferences after screenings with his creators and creators on his creative process and the relationship between films and problems sociocultural realities. We have arrived at 75 guests, 18 internationals.

Short films are once again the protagonists of IBZCF24 with a qualifier for the Goya Awards 2024 by curtmetratges and colaboration with the European Film Academy with the Short Films on Tour.

Activities like our first golf session or the special one dedicated to Quinqui Cinema with the collaboration of the UNED of the Balearic Islands University.

They have been completely successful.The commitment to the industry is materialized with the Masterclass fees of first national level by Ion de Sosa and Laura Ferrés that even more. We have noticeably increased our in-person audience, by 38 sessions, with online tot l´estat thanks to our 14 program llargmetratges, 3 d'ells of Balearic production, to Filmin, with the presence in communication media, with international articles and a notable increase in impacts respect to the 2023 edition. We will continue to believe in committed author films, bothnecessary views, which is poden moure in fons i form at the margins of the norms of commercial cinema, with total freedom creative.

Xavi Herrero
Director and programmer IBZCF2-European Film Academy Member

Zinegoak is organized by Zinegoak Association and will take place in the city of Bilbao, Spain, June 2025.

All films which have an approach to sexual and gender diversity and LGTBQ+ families, which have been produced after January 1st, 2023 and never had been broadcasted or commercially released in Basque Country.

Within the framework of the multiple activities presented and organized by Andares: Cinematographic Actions, we are pleased to present the second edition of our Contemporary Film Festival. Another short, careful and compact edition to celebrate cinephilia in the peruvian fall.

Rueda Libre (Freewheel) is the official call of shortFilms to Cine Libre FilmFestival, we take for symbol THE WHEEL that evokes the hills of Fredonia where children running down with wheels and tires. Now cinema is taken Fredonia and the concept of roll changes cinematically .

Feel The Reel is a monthly international film festival founded in Glasgow, United Kingdom. FTR is not only an online film festival, but also a festival with live screenings, our friends from Bucharest ShortCut Cinefest making this possible. Therefore, screenings will take place once a month and our winner will have the chance to be screened in the very heart of the dynamic and evergrowing Bucharest, in Romania - at Manasia Hub.

The purpose of the festival refers to awareness of both the external filters on the screen, including censorship (commercial, ideological, aesthetic), and the internal filters of screen perception and projection, including self-censorship. NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is an exploration of aestheticization and commodification in art. The next aim of the festival is to expose the complexity, manysidedness, and variety of filmmaking.

NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is a film festival that is held by the Short Movie Club, the platform for cinematic projects. NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is ADAMI Media Prize qualified festival. The International Film Studies Conference is held at the same time as the film festival. In this way, film theory and practice are integrated together at the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO.

Originally the festival was held in Belarus, but because of political repression and publicly stated anti-war stance, screenings and events can be held in different countries. First of all in Lithuania (Vilnius). For example, the 10th Nefiltravanae Kino took place in Berlin, Vilnius and Helsinki last year. There were selected 63 films for 12 film programmes. https://shortmovie.club/programmes/10-2024/

The concept of the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO (Unfiltered Cinema):

ALIENATION PROBLEM

We live in a world of malls and cinema multiplexes. We see that indie cinema and non-commodity art go to the periphery of public attention. Primitive attractions replace the cinematography. The escape audience is alienated behind the big screen. So modern mainstream cinema is part of a manipulating tool that leads to the society of alienation. Thus the tendency is that indie cinema becomes more unreadable for the wide audience. We should understand the context of the filmmaker to understand the independent cinema. That is why the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO concept implies the physical presence of filmmakers.

FILM SELECTION PROBLEM
Filmmakers shoot millions of movies. And thousands of short film festivals organize screenings all over the world every year. On average, several thousand films are submitted to a film festival. So various good films can be neglected for whatever reason. Often selecting probability is like winning a lottery. As a result, filmmakers are left with no feedback. It is a paradox that no one can hear you in the age of the Internet! The mainstream culture prefers attractions and casual viewing.

Also, this idea is based on the film selection problem. Perhaps it’s no surprise one person, i.e. programme director at best, or even students of film schools make a preliminary decision to select a movie. Сoncordance of judges or previewers is more seldom thing than the difference of background, tastes. So selection or judging can be one-sided or perfunctory. It is not bad as the programme director has a good taste and aesthetic sensitivity, of course. But we’ve discovered another conception of “unfiltered cinema”. We matched it against “the best of the best” way. This way aids to perceive cinematic idiom without the dictate of art-curators.

CELEBRATION OF INDIE CINEMA
So the Unfiltered Cinema Film Festival tries to avoid “the best of the best” way but it does not ignore it completely, sure. The festival selects fiction, animation, documentary, experimental and virtual reality sections. A jury awards the best film in every section. The festival holds the screenings at cinema theatres, the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, and art-spaces.

Our aim is to gather people in art, to have a dialogue to be happy with smart communication. Cinema is art but not sport. The key point of our project is to establish communication between the filmmaker and the audience.

Please, read about the festival history through the link to the festival's website. http://shortmovie.club/history/

The Short Movie Club provides constructing of CinemaVan ( see https://www.behance.net/gallery/33392769/Cinema-van-Mobile-library-Amphibia ).

UFO – the short film festival

UFO – the unidentified film object

UFO – that stands for an evening filled with 15 different short movies of various genres, themes, and forms of presentation.

Short, yet elaborately enacted; symbolic and significant; focused and continually surprising.
The short film represents a striking format among film genres, as it is so diversely interpreted, maintained with passion and constantly received.

Makers of short films are challenged technically as well as in their artistry – the size provokes the craftsmanship by its shortness and at the same time serves as a canvas for cinematic experimentation and creative self-realization.

Since its establishment in 2005 the UFO – short film festival serves filmmakers from Germany and Europe – regarding especially the young talents – as a platform, to present their works for the first time in Leipzig.

Being held in january, the festival always commences the Year of Cinematic Art in Leipzig.

The International Film Festival of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (Cinema Movilh) is shown on feature films, shorts and documentaries largest and best known of Chile that takes place every year in Santiago and then travels sexual diversity regions. Local or foreign works can be projected at the Festival after postulating in the form indicated in these rules.

The Mexico City Videodance Festival, in collaboration with Red Nacional de Arte, calls choreographers, filmmakers, companies and visual artists to register their works to the sixth edition of the FIVideodanza, which will take place from September 02 to 05, 2021.

Skepto International Film Festival is a competitive festival dedicated to short films, without restrictions on subject matter, style, or production budget. The main goal of the festival is to give visibility to independent filmmakers from all over the world and to build an open space where they can freely exchange ideas. Video productions of any genre or style are allowed. Audiovisuals created through the use of artificial intelligence in all its forms are also included.

The thirteenth edition of the festival will take place in Cagliari from October 2023 to June 2024: the main competition will be held in October 2023 in Cagliari, and there will also be two side events at locations to be identified in Italy and/or Europe and to be held at later dates, in any case by June 2024. The final date and location of the Festival and the two side events will be announced on the official website of the event www.skepto.net

OMAI Film and Theatre Festival is a branch of OMAI. The festival was born in San Antonio, Texas at the very beginning of 2016 by Actress/Director Andrea Mundaka. Now, in alliance with the Journalist/Director Luis Franceschi, both working together to achieve a successful launch of the festival this year in Mendoza, Argentina. The idea of it is to promote the audiovisual arts around the world and give the opportunity to others to show their work and dedication for this type of art. We believe that by helping each other grow, we can all make it, and what better way to show our work than a festival? The submissions are open to everyone who has anything ready to show in a movie theatre. We want to work together, along with all the members of OMAI to make this festival a complete success, and show the hidden jewels of film around the world.

The City Council of Noia convenes the "24th Short Film Showcase Vila de Noia 2023", to be held in the last quarter of this year.

Only for filmmakers from Argentina.

Welcome to the 2nd Annual Cape Cod International Film Festival, and congratulations to the 2015 Official Selections and Award Winners!:

Best Director: Charlotte Schioler (SLOR, Denmark)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor: Amanda Woodhams (BARROW, Australia)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor: Xander Berkeley (PONY, USA)
Best Live-Action Short: CHAPA [The Grill Man] (Brazil)
Best Short Documentary: THE NIKE CHARIOT EARRING (USA)
Best Feature Documentary: JIAOLIAN [Coach] (China)

***2016 Academy Award Nominee***
Best Animated Film: WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT COSMOS (Russia)
***2016 Academy Award Nominee***

Audience Choice: SCI-TECH BAND: THE PRIDE OF SPRINGFIELD (USA)
Best Picture: EADWEARD (Canada)

The 2015 edition featured two World Premieres, and fourteen Massachusetts Premieres. The vast majority of projects are independent films, including student films, animation and puppetry, documentary, and live-action narrative. Officially selected films in 2015 had directors who were as young as 22, and as old as 68. Selected films represented countries from around the world, including Japan, France, Denmark, Germany, Iran, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Russia, Italy, China, and the USA. We consider all works regardless of genre and country of origin.

We are currently accepting film submissions for the 2016 Festival!

Who we are: The Cape Cod International Film Festival is a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit organization that hosts an annual event showcasing the best local, regional, national (USA) and International films for residents of the "mid-Cape,", as well as traveling tourists, visitors from around the world, and film industry professionals. We strive to strike a balance between the film-making world and a general audience who is in need of an engaging cultural event. Our attendees tend to be well-traveled, educated, influential and supportive.

The objectives of the CCIFF are to:

1. Select and promote the absolute best films in any given year produced by a diverse and global pool of filmmaking teams.

2. Provide educational opportunities and entertainment for audience members who appreciate the effort that goes into making a quality film.

3. Provide networking opportunities for members of the film community.

4. Provide filmmakers an opportunity to interact with their audience via Q&A sessions at screenings (live and online), social events and sponsorship events.

5. Give filmmakers and production teams a chance to travel to a highly-regarded tourist destination known throughout the world for its food, beaches and "New England hospitality."

In the works for 2016 is an opening night gala on Thursday, October 6th, at the best film theater on Cape Cod: The Chatham Orpheum. The Orpheum is an all-digital cinema with a 150-seat main room and 35-seat screening room. Select short films will be showcased again in Orleans, Cape Cod at the Main Street Wine and Gourmet film loft.

We also strive to help filmmakers find a "home" for their work, and have evolving relationships with sales agencies, distributors and broadcasters. Our current slate of contacts includes: PBS, ESPN, TBS, A24, Screen Media Ventures, Shoreline Entertainment, and The Rainbow Group - with new relationships being established all the time...

We consider ourselves a boutique event, with 318 submissions in 2015. Larger festivals with a similar approach include the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF), Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSFilmFest), and Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF). We aim to serve and champion high-quality work that is not industry-centric. We leave that to Cannes, Berlin, Toronto (TIFF), SXSW and Sundance. The CCIFF aspires to be one of the world's best film festivals worth the entry fee!

Thank you to our platform partners: FilmFreeway, and our media partner, the Cape Cod Times. Thank you to the local businesses who have supported us: Chatham Orpheum, Main Street Wine and Gourmet, The Chocolate Sparrow, Sunbird Cafe, Rockland Trust, Tom Bromley of CentreGrafik, Snow Library, Flowers by Mary, and The Little Inn on Pleasant Bay.

And special thanks to all who participated in the 2015 event, especially the talented filmmakers who flew (and drove) from far and wide to attend, talk with audience members and participate in Q&A sessions!

International Green Culture Festival GREEN FEST is an inclusive event, dedicated to ecological and environmental issues, which, with the use of educational and artistic programs, activities and products aims to enhance the culture of living in accordance with “green” values.

Belgrade’s GREEN FEST is a unique event in the region of South East Europe that binds environmental and cultural activities through film screenings, workshops, lectures, debates, exhibitions and innovations which are shaping this festival into the form that connects and brings together people of all professions and ages.

Program of Festival is divided on three parts:
GREEN SCREEN – International environmental film program,
GREEN FIELD – International education program
GREEN SQUARE – International exhibition program

Festival organizer: ENVIRONMENT IMPROVEMENT CENTRE
www.cuzs.org