Blog: Film festivals

In today’s film climate it is hard to showcase short films. Many festivals focus on features and it seems like this art of shorts is dwindling to silly videos about kittens on the internet. Even though we love kittens (who doesn’t?) here at the Short. Sweet. Film Fest., we love short films more.

With eight festivals under our belt, our goal for our ninth annual film festival is to showcase films under 30 minutes to the growing art scene in the greater Cleveland area and highlight the works of student to veteran filmmakers across the country.

Students should submit to the short student film category to receive a significant discount off of the submission fee.

We are looking for the best short films locally, nationally, and internationally. So send them our way!

Our festival will take place in the Alex Theater at the Metropolitan at the 9 hotel in the heart of downtown Cleveland. Filmmakers and patrons can stay at the hotel at a discounted rate and enjoy food and beverages throughout the festival.

THE NEW RENAISSANCE

The spacious cinema LAB111 will again be the home of the New Renaissance Film Festival (NRFF) for its seventh edition. This friendly art-house festival which is based in London, and was called “One of the UK’s top film festivals” (London METRO, O1.08.16), has premiered and screened films that went on to win an Oscar or received a major distribution deal.

Despite its relatively small size, there are each year many gems to be found among the many short and feature films in the programme. Furthermore, many filmmakers and actors are traditionally present, and a lot of productive networking takes place.

Apart from a high number of international films, NRFF Amsterdam has a strong LGBT presence, and a category for Dutch Films.

ARTISTICALLY-DRIVEN FILMS, INSPIRING STORIES

Film is a unique medium, and NRFF’s mission is to support and champion inspiring, independent artists and storytellers. This includes experimental work, emotional drama, SF films and an exciting variety of LGBT shorts and features.

Our festival is built around ARTISTS and their STORIES. By doing so, we aim to establish an international COMMUNITY of inspiring storytellers. We are not interested in following current fashions or being political. We seek out stories that are genuinely imaginative, emotional and life-affirming. At the heart of what we do is our passion to tell great stories.

To get a feel for the festival, watch the trailer of the previous year: https://vimeo.com/523206192 and visit the 2022 programme website: www.nrff.nl

INCLUSIVE AND UNIQUE

The festival has several categories for International, Dutch and LGBT filmmakers. We especially love quality dramas with strong emotional themes, but we accept ALL genres. We are also proud to attract a high number of female directors.

Follow our NRFF page on Instagram and Facebook for photos and interesting updates.

SUPPORTING THE INDEPENDENT FILM COMMUNITY

It is our passion to not only provide a stage for our filmmakers but also to strengthen the INDEPENDENT film community, By building an engaged audience through social media. We actively encourage directors, screenwriters, producers and actors to network during the festival and after the event. By doing so, new collaborations have occurred.

"A top ten event" - Het Parool
"Culture Calendar" - VOGUE Nederland
"Amsterdam hosts a great cinema event" - iAmsterdam
"One of the UK's top film festivals to know about" - London METRO

LGBT Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.

We are looking for FILMS and SCREENPLAYS with an LGBT theme to be part of the New Renaissance Film Festival, which will take place in Amsterdam, next April 2021.

THE NEW RENAISSANCE

The spacious cinema LAB111 will again be the home of the New Renaissance Film Festival (NRFF) for its fifth edition on 9-11 April 2021.
This friendly arthouse festival which is based in London, and was called “One of the UK’s top film festivals” (London METRO, O1.08.16, has premiered and screened films that went on to win an Oscar (http://newrenaissancefilmfest.com/nrff-interviews-oscar-2018-winners-the-silent-child), or received a major distribution deal.

Despite its small size, there are each year many gems to be found among the many short and feature films, and many filmmakers and actors are traditionally present and a lot of networking takes place.

Film is a unique medium, and NRFF’s mission is to support and champion inspiring, independent artists and storytellers. This includes experimental work, emotional drama, SF films and an exciting variety of LGBT+ shorts and features. The festival is also proud that it seems to attract a high number of female directors.

To get a feel for the festival, watch the festival trailer of the previous year: http://nrff.nl/trailer-for-nrff-amsterdam-2019 or visit the 2020 programme website: www.nrff.nl

Check out NRFF’s page on Instagram and Facebook for interesting news and updates.

NRFF Amsterdam has several categories for International, Benelux and LGBT filmmakers. We especially love quality dramas with strong emotional themes, but we accept ALL genres.

We will screen around 100 films in two cinemas over the course of four days. This event includes a screenwriting competition, professional MASTER CLASSES by industry professionals, Filmmaker Q&A's, Panel Discussions, a fun COCKTAIL HOUR and AWARDS CEREMONY. The festival will be open to the public and ticket sales will be announced on the website in due course.

STRENGTHENING AMSTERDAM'S FILM COMMUNITY

It is our passion to not only provide a stage for our filmmakers but also to strengthen the film community in Amsterdam, by building an engaged audience through social media, our FILM OF THE WEEK initiative, and links with local businesses.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

NRFF is growing from the ground up. Our mission is to enhance the vitality of independent filmmaking. Each city will engage with different themes and communities, giving independents the recognition they deserve.

WAIVER POLICY

We know all too well that most filmmakers have to work with a tight budget. Unfortunately however, WE CANNOT WAIVE THE SUBMISSION FEE as we are a self-funding festival.

Don't forget to join our MAILING LIST for the latest updates and special offers!

Follow NRFF Amsterdam on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for lots of interesting posts.

The FIC AUTOR (Author's International Film Festival) is interested in unique and artistic films that exceed the limits of traditional storytelling. We look for Feature and Short Films that reflect the director's personal creative vision, and a style that is distinct enough to shine through the collective process.

We don't care if your films have recognized stars or unknown names; we are against the politics and bureaucracy that floods the film industry. We want to be recognized as an objective festival. We don't want to build our reputation based on how many superstars are in attendance; what we want is the truly best world cinema in our theaters!

FIC AUTOR will strive to be one of the most important cultural events in the city. We aspire to become an international spotlight for new directors!

-The 13 winning Authors will receive the WINNER LAUREL, plus FIC AUTOR trophy or rings and sponsor's prizes.

-WINNERS will be announced one month before the award ceremony, so all the nominated filmmakers can decide beforehand whether they want to travel to the festival.

-The award ceremony will take place in the CINEFORO, one of the biggest cinema theaters in the city with 440 seats, and is the most prestigious.

We are not like other bulls**t festivals, YOU DONT have to pay for your prize. IT'S A PRIZE, NOT A DEBT! And we don't give metal or glass trophies... Our trophies are 100% made from silver and semi-precious stones! As independent filmmakers we know the things we love and hate about film festivals, so we want to avoid all the negative things we have found the in past years, such as exorbitant, unnecessary fees, teenage judges and of course.. trophies you would rather hide in the closet.

CATEGORIES:

Feature Films Categories:
-Fictional Feature Films.
-Documentary Feature Films.
-Experimental Feature Films.
-First-Time Filmmaker.
-Low Budget Feature Films Under 50K USD.
-Mexican Feature Films.

Medium Length Category:
-Medium Length Films.

Short Films Categories:
-Fictional Short Films.
-Documentary Short Films.
-Experimental Short Films.
-Animated Short Films.
-Mexican Short Films.
-Cineminuto 1 minute Short Films.

Organised by Donostia Kultura, the San Sebastián Horror and Fantasy Film Festival took its first steps in 1990. Ever since its beginnings, the Festival has endeavoured to fashion a programme offering something for every kind of spectator. Horror movies, sci-fi, animation, shorts, classics from all over the world… have alternated the length and breadth of its history with shows, exhibitions, concerts and various other activities in the attempt to create a varied competition in which everyone can find something they like.

With so few spots available at the bigger film festivals, independent filmmakers struggle to get noticed. After all the hard work of making a movie, there's nothing like seeing it on the big screen. Sunset Film Festival seeks hidden gems bigger fests often overlook. Sunset Film Festival programmers are looking for visionary filmmakers with fresh voices to share with an audience hungry for independent film.

Cine Sinú Audiovisual Festival is an event developed to promote and disseminate the National Audiovisual Production and Local . Emerges as a collective concern of search spaces for the dissemination of works and generate the interaction between artists and the community at large , in order to strengthen the audiovisual culture in the Department of Cordoba, Colombia .

Since 2003 the international Festival SIGNES DE NUIT is active in Paris, Berlin, Saarbrücken and with special screenings world wide. The festival in Paris actually presents around 300 films coming from around 50 countries at different places in Paris. In Berlin the festival will be performed in the legendary cinema Babylon.

The International Festival SIGNES DE NUIT based in Paris is made up of films, which reflects new views, original imagery and critical approach to the crucial points of the modern human existence. It is a place for cinema that expands its own boundaries, that is astonishing, different, potentially free from the pressure of tradition, ready to give itself to the unpredictable experimentation.

The minor costs of digital production makes an independant- from comercial influences and any kind of censorship- production possible. These independant productions create an alternative, an artistic space very subtle and accessible to all, in contrast to what mass media offer.

This opposition and the preservation of the free cultural space is the goal of the International Festival Signes de Nuit, which has realized screenings and interventions in 29 different countries including Algeria, Australia, Chile, Cuba, Lebanon, Lithuania, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Peru, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States beside the screenings in main festival in Paris.

Embracing the medium of short film, Tally Shorts Film Festival is excited to bring a truly unique and independent cinema experience to North Florida with the goal of increasing community awareness and support for film as a cultural and economic asset. In addition to showcasing cinema from around the world, Tally Shorts is dedicated to preserving, nurturing and cultivating local filmmakers by providing an avenue to network, showcase and discuss all aspects of film.

THE NEXT EDITION OF THE MADEIRA FILM FESTIVAL WILL BE MARCH 27 - APRIL 1 2020.

We continue to accept submissions but please not your film will be submitted to the 2020 edition NOT 2019. This is due to Government elections on Madeira.

Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

The entry fee is 30 / 40 / 50 Euros depending upon submissions date and irrespective of genre and running time. Exhibiting filmmakers will be offered 3 nights accommodation including breakfast on Madeira during the festival.

Call for entries
The call for entries starts on August 16th 2018 and will remain open until April 2nd 2019.

The Madeira Film Festival is non – competitive. Rather than present awards MFF offers delegates the status of ‘AMBASSADOR OF THE LAURISSILVA’ thus helping to preserve and create awareness of Madeira’s endemic Laurissilva forest.


The Madeira Film Festival organisation fervently believes there is no better place in the world to stage a film festival than on the piquant Island of Madeira and there is no better place on Madeira to stage a film festival than in glorious Reid’s Palace Hotel and the Municipal Theatre in Funchal.

The crux of the Madeira Film Festival is to pay homage to the resilience of Madeira’s endemic Laurissilva Forest by screening a slate of films which are expansive, unsettling and profound,films which will hopefully impinge upon the viewers imagination.

One of the most effective measures that can be implemented in order to raise awareness of the Laurissilva forest and subsequently it’s preservation is through the undisputed persuasive strength of audio- visual communication. The aspiration of the Madeira Film Festival is to become one of Europe’s foremost film festivals, by sheer virtue of location there exists an inherent capacity to attain this.

Located in the heart of the NoHo Arts District in Los Angeles, the North Hollywood CineFest has established itself as a premiere event for independent cinema from all over the world.

By combining a vibrant local social scene with a state-of-the-art cinema, every filmmaker and film lover is sure to be impressed and delighted with the theater and surrounding location. The combination of great film screenings, press and red carpet events, parties, seminars, all offered in this seven-day event, is what makes this a dynamic and must-go film festival.

Look out for genres and themes. But, ultimately, we're looking for great films. We want to support the courageous, the creative, the new and promising... join us in 2018 for what is certain to be an enormously enjoyable and memorable event.

Festival Cinema Invisible LLC, is an independent, not-for-profit venue dedicated to celebration of the Middle Eastern films that international audience may not otherwise see. FCI is committed to nurturing purposeful communication and meaningful cultural exchange. By introducing filmmakers who may not have access to other mediums, the Festival provides a forum for dialogue and exchange of ideas.

We are looking for feature films, documentaries, shorts and animated films coming from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE and Yemen. Film makers of Middle Eastern / North African descent living in other countries are encouraged to submit their works as well.

It's a festival dedicated to showcase new Jazzfilm's from this century as well as known and unknown classics. The films will be screened in Cinemas and at chosen Livejazz-stages.

The Main event is taking place in February during the annual Winter Jazz Festival in Denmark and is followed by touring screens at specific chosen cinematic or musical stages in Denmark in collaboration with local partners during local Jazz Festivals.

Puerto Madero IFF is an online annual competition based of the technical execution of films.

All submission are evaluated on each technical category: Script, Cinematography, Sound, Acting and Direction.

At the end of each year we announced the official selection films based on their creativity and technical execution.

Our festival is ONLINE only at the moment, we are working hard to make an annual event with public screening.

All the Official Selections and Winner are posted in our Social Network with a growing audience of more than 4600 followers and also on our web site.

All Official Selection will receive laurels.

The winner film will receive a technical reviews and laurels.

Jiffy Louvre II: Leave Worry Behind (Again)

After a two-year hiatus, the Short Shorts Festival at Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta GA returns for its seventh iteration and the second juried by Atlanta artist and Welch School of Art & Design director Joe Peragine. The title, originally used in Short Shorts 2019, is a mash-up of high (the Louvre, the museum of museums) and low (Jiffy Lube, purveyors of the drive- through lube job whose slogan is “leave worry behind”). The title encapsulates the wide-ranging aesthetic goal of this festival. Any budget, any genre, any story is welcome, provided it gives us a brief respite from these screwed up times we live in. We are open to off-beat, non-narrative, and experimental work.

Short Shorts film festival will have an outdoor live screening at Whitespace Gallery in Atlanta on Saturday, September 17, 2022. Whitespace is one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Atlanta and across the southeast, fostering an immersive environment of free-expression, intimacy, and dialogue. There will also be a second outdoor live screening on the campus of Georgia State University on Thursday, September 22nd, 2022.

Joe Peragines’s paintings, sculpture and animation have been presented in galleries, contemporary art spaces and museums throughout the USA and internationally. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Peragine lives with his family in Atlanta and is currently the Director of the Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design at Georgia State University.

ONLY FOR SPANISH FILMMAKERS // SOLO PARA CINEASTAS ESPAÑOLES

El Festival PSICURT está organizado por el Colegio Oficial de Psicología de Cataluña, el Ayuntamiento de Reus y el Ayuntamiento de Tarragona.

El objetivo es dar a conocer los diferentes ámbitos de la salud mental (prevención, promoción e intervención) a través del cine. Un proyecto cultural, social y de salud que permita promover la creación artística y la sensibilidad del público con la salud mental.

Humor en Corto - Humor in Short

The XXIII edition of Arrigorriaga's humor short film festival, the oldest in Spain.

From November the 18th to the 23rd, 2024, in Lonbo Aretoa, Arrigorriaga, Spain.

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

The Beeston Film Festival attracts the latest global short films to the East Midlands AND NOW to filmmakers too! In a unique offering your Beeston Film Festival entry fee is your admission to watch the whole On-line Festival! You will be able to watch the competition in your category and enjoy the talent in all the others.

The On-Line Festival presents films accepted into ALL categories – Drama, Comedy, Horror, Documentary, Animation and the local Three Counties competition. The On-Line Festival will be available for 3 weeks after the festival in Beeston.

The Beeston Oscar, or B’Oscar, is awarded to the best film in the following categories - Drama, Horror, Comedy, Documentary and Animation.

This year a new local competition has been created called Three Counties category, that is split into two sections: Long (up to 15 minutes); and Short (up to 5 minutes). Filmmakers from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire ONLY with films in any genre can submit. The prize pool is amazing because we have teamed up with Matthew Martino Benevolent Fund (MMBF), a UK based international charity that supports filmmakers and actors, so as well as a B’Oscar there is
Three Counties Long - a MMBF Rising Star Award (£150 prize, mentoring plus physical award and other perks)
Three Counties Short - a MMBF Best Short Award (£50 prize and physical award).

Further prizes will be awarded for Best Director, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Best Acting Performance, Best Soundtrack & Sound Design and an Audience award, too. And, of course, there is a wonderful Best in Festival B’Oscar, too, designed by the renowned ceramic artist, Anna Collette Hunt.