Blog: Film festivals

IA en Corto is an International Short Film Festival dedicated to exploring new forms of audiovisual creation emerging from the use of Artificial Intelligence.

The festival seeks works that research, experiment with, or integrate AI tools at any stage of the creative process, including image generation, animation, scriptwriting, editing, sound design, or narrative development.

IA en Corto was created as a space for filmmakers, digital artists, audiovisual creators, and experimental artists from around the world who understand artificial intelligence not only as a technical tool, but as a new creative language.

The festival celebrates innovation, diversity of perspectives, and the dialogue between cinema, technology, and the future.

It is not required for the entire short film to be generated using AI; however, its use must be relevant and creative, not merely technical or incidental.

The Soul Center of Art & History is partnering with AfriSoul Education Center to celebrate BIPOC women in film for International Women’s Day .

the Soul Center Film Fest was created to:

1. Showcase a diverse array of films that expand our understanding of the world, confront critical social justice issues—like racial equity, immigration, public safety, and environmental justice—and delve into the dynamics of human relationships.


2. Amplify the voices and stories of Black and Brown filmmakers, both emerging and established.


3. Encourage dialogue, collaboration, and action by connecting filmmakers, activists, and audiences.


4. Foster a space for critical reflection and empathy through the art of storytelling.

Welcome to the Indie Film Festival Awards (IFFA)!

The Indie Film Festival Awards (IFFA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the creativity and innovation of independent filmmakers from all over the world. Our mission is to foster community engagement through the art of cinema and to provide a platform for talented filmmakers, regardless of borders, languages, or genres.

Based in New York City, the IFFA presents a one-of-a-kind festival that connects independent filmmakers and content creators from all corners of the globe. We offer a unique blend of online award nominations, live screenings, and an in-person Indie Film Festival Awards Show, bringing together artists, industry professionals, and audiences in an unforgettable celebration of independent cinema.

A Global Platform for Independent Film
IFFA stands out as a film festival with no barriers — films of all genres and languages are welcomed. A dedicated committee of industry experts previews submitted films, carefully selecting outstanding works to be featured in our Award Nomination Festival.

Award Nomination Festival

The selected films will participate in the IFFA Award Nomination Festival, which runs from mid-February 2025 to mid-April 2025. During this period, all nominated films will be showcased on the Indie Films World streaming platform for a nominal fee of $1.49. Fifty percent of the revenue generated will be shared with the producers, supporting their continued creative efforts.

After the two-month festival period, these films will be removed from the platform. Films will be screened via a secure server, allowing viewers from around the world to watch and vote. The 25 films receiving the most votes will be nominated for 25 prestigious award categories.

Live Screenings & Awards Show

The nominated films will be screened live in New York City at our premier theater venue located in the heart of Downtown Manhattan. The grand finale of the festival will take place on the last day of screenings during the Indie Film Festival Awards Show, where filmmakers, actors, and technicians will be honored for their outstanding work in independent cinema.

Opportunities for Filmmakers

IFFA offers more than just awards. We bring distributors to the festival, giving producers and content creators the chance to meet, network, and explore distribution opportunities. IFFA also assists in distributing films worldwide, including through platforms like Amazon Prime Video.

Submissions

IFFA accepts submissions for all types of films, including:

Feature narratives
Short films
Television shows and series
Documentaries
Animation
Student films

We invite filmmakers, creators, and artists to submit their work and be part of this exciting celebration of independent cinema. Join us in showcasing new voices and innovative stories that will shape the future of film!

Why Choose IFFA?

Global Exposure: Showcase your film on an international platform.

Revenue Sharing: Receive 50% of streaming revenue from the festival.

Networking: Connect with distributors and industry professionals.

Recognition: Gain recognition and award nominations for your work.

Distribution: Opportunities to distribute films worldwide.

We look forward to celebrating your creative work and welcoming you to the Indie Film Festival Awards!

The Films Infest festival is Official Event in IMDB. The prizes of the editions of Mallorca and NYC are officially recognized.

https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0005660/2017/1/?ref_=ev_eh

All films submitted are considered equally and carefully, through a multiple-stage prescreening process involving as well as industry professionals.

About Us

The New York City International Films Infest Festival (NYCIFIF) is an extension of the Palma de Mallorca Films Infest.

NYCIFIF’s mission is to showcase the content of emerging and of great artists filmmaking talent de U.S, Spanish, Ibero-American and other countries of the world.

Films of all genres are accepted and those chosen for screening display a high-level of artistic excellence.

Artistic Manifesto

In the first edition of “Palma de Mallorca Films Infest”, which was held on January 28, 2017, the great actress Claudia Cardinale signed our artistic manifesto to stimulate the growth of author`s cinema and support for young filmmakers

Excerpt from the manifesto:

It is undeniable that we must start with a natural talent, the best possible preparation and a great vocation; but the solitary effort becomes as depilating as the exhaustion of the castaway. If no one gives you a hand, a support, an advice or an opportunity … you end up abandoning.

Quite contrary to wanting a” greenhouse of chosen ones”, with docile filmmakers in the service of local corporations, or TV channels, to make “tailor made” products (frozen vegetables, all the same), we invoke the great George Orwell in “Animal Farm” and we want a “Rebellion in the orchard”

We want fresh cultural products, with their own roots, different perfumes, flavors from each shore and each sea. Mountain air and the unmistakable aroma of truth that shines in the sun. Truths written, painted, filmed, recorded, and narrated … without fear: tall as sequoias or delicate as a saffron stamen. An art that has seeds! A seed culture that enlightens minds.

Read the Complete Manifesto in http://filmsinfest.com

In the editions of the NYCIFIF, we will also read the manifesto and take the signature book.

Previous editions;

First Edition 2018 (Cinepolis) and (Producers Club)
Second Edition 2019 (Lincon Center) and (Producers Club)
Third Edition 2022 (La Nacional) and (Producers Club)
Fourth edition 2023 (La Nacional) and (Producers Club)
Fifth edition 2024 (La Nacional)

Fourth edition of Aldea Vella · Folk Horror Festival, which will be linked to folk horror.

The Zentenero Short Film Showcase (MCZ) is an international short film festival celebrating its first edition from July 17 to July 19 in Zentenero, Spain.

MCZ was created with the aim of bringing cinema to rural environments and creating a meeting point between filmmakers and audiences, supporting both emerging and established talent regardless of geographic origin.

Despite being an intimate showcase, its vision is ambitious: to present a carefully curated international official selection and recognize cinematic excellence across multiple artistic and technical disciplines.

Selected films will be screened during the festival dates in front of both the audience and an official jury, which will present several awards as well as the audience award, the "Premio d'o Gurrión".

MCZ aims to become a meeting point for independent cinema and a platform to highlight new cinematic voices in an authentic and culturally committed environmen

Santiago Horror is a festival that promotes and showcases fantastic cinema in Latin America — a space where genre filmmaking finds a place to grow, connect, and transcend borders.

More than a festival, we are an active platform dedicated to creation, promotion, and exhibition, fostering encounters between filmmakers, new creative voices, and audiences from around the world.

Our mission is to strengthen the production and circulation of fantastic cinema in Chile and across the LATAM region, supporting those who create these stories while opening new opportunities for their works to reach broader audiences and new territories.

With each edition, we seek to challenge convention, celebrate imagination, and establish Santiago Horror as a meaningful meeting point for the industry, creators, and genre film lovers worldwide.

Organized by: Fundación Chile Fantástico

Important:
Hybrid festival format:
• In-person
• Online (national competitions only)

Welcome to the ANIMED Mediterranean Animation Film Festival If you are an animation filmmaker, this festival is the perfect opportunity to showcase your work to the world and to connect with other industry professionals.

Our festival is looking for animated films from around the world to include in our programming.

Whether you are an emerging artist or an established director, we want to see your work and give it a chance to be seen by an international audience.

As part of our festival, we offer a unique platform for filmmakers to showcase their work and receive valuable feedback and comments from industry experts and other animation filmmakers.

We also offer workshops and talks to help you improve your skills and explore new techniques and technologies.

At ANIMED Mediterranean Animation Film Festival, our mission is to celebrate and promote the art of animation. We are committed to discovering and highlighting innovative and exciting animated films that showcase the creativity and skill of filmmakers from around the world.

So if you are a creator of animated films and are interested in participating in our festival, sign up! We're excited to see your work and hope you'll join us at the ANIMED Mediterranean Animation Film Festival - don't miss out!

The South Atlantic Film Festival was created to celebrate the multiple relationships between the ocean, its territories, and its cultures.

Submitted films are evaluated by the curatorial team based on the following criteria:

- Alignment with the thematic focus on the South Atlantic Ocean

- The film’s relationship with territory, landscape, and coastal ways of life

- Cinematic quality, considering language, narrative, and aesthetic approach

Held in Balneário Piçarras (SC), on the southern coast of Brazil, the Festival aims to bring together films that engage with the sea, coastal ways of life, and the diversity of the peoples who inhabit the South Atlantic.

In its inaugural edition, the event offers free screenings, discussion circles, and initiatives focused on accessibility and audience development.

Cinema as a social phenomenon has become one of the most innovative and enriching cultural consumptions and practices of the XX century. Clearly, cinema changes us but this transformation that film provokes is not just individual. We’re also asking for as a community. Therefore, cinema must be understood as a social phenomenon, as a cultural vehicle, as a complex device which catalyze the yearnings and portraits of a society, as a producer of subjectivities.

For the city of Chivilcoy the launching of an international film festival represents a chimerical cultural proposal. Its background is based on previous experiences that bond these individual and collective practices: shootings, film’s retrospectives, workshops, festivals and other events that take place in our community. This whole set of inputs is a key component, coupled with the suitable reaction of the local public who are eager to rejoice at the "seventh art" and to enjoy a festival as a space for exchange, dialogue and circulation of cultural goods.

“Memory of the Future / La mémoire de l'avenir”

The Center for Common Memory for Democracy and Peace (CMCDP), a national human rights association with international reach, hereby opens the call for film submissions for the 15th edition of the International Festival of Cinema and Common Memory (FICMEC), to be held in the city of Nador from October 30 to November 4, 2026.

The CMCDP operates within the following fields of action:

Issues related to memory and shared memory as knowledge and expertise;

Dissemination of a culture of peace, coexistence, and democracy;

The fight against all forms of extremism;

Defense of human rights and contribution to the dissemination of its culture;

Issues of identity and linguistic and cultural diversity;

Consolidation and development of values of solidarity and constructive dialogue between peoples and nations;

Support for all generations of human rights.

Each year, FICMEC proposes a thematic reflection linked to memory. In this edition, the central theme will be "Memory of the Future," inspired by Victor Hugo’s words: “The future is a door, the past is the key,” and Roman Krznaric’s idea that the future is not a place we are going to, but a place we are creating.

Memory is not an exercise in nostalgia nor a gaze anchored in the past. It is a collective responsibility. Preserving, explaining, and transmitting historical episodes—especially the most painful ones—is the duty of both institutions and society as a whole: families, associations, human rights defenders, artists, and educators. Understanding the past is a conscious act of preparing for the future.

"Memory of the Future" proposes a permanent dialogue between remembrance and projection, between justice and social transformation. The struggles against injustice, the processes of truth and reconciliation, the defense of human dignity, and the consolidation of democratic values constitute the foundations of a fairer tomorrow. Remembering is not about perpetuating resentment, but about generating awareness, preventing the repetition of violations, and strengthening a culture of peace.

New generations hold a central place in this vision. They are not merely repositories of inherited narratives but active agents capable of reinterpreting, questioning, and projecting memory toward the future. Intergenerational transmission, critical thinking against historical manipulation, and commitment to human rights are essential elements of this construction.

In the artistic and cultural sphere, cinema—whether documentary or fiction—becomes a privileged vehicle for making silenced memories visible, denouncing injustices, opening spaces for dialogue, and contributing to social transformation.

Thematic Conditions for Participation:

Feature films and short films (fiction, animation): open theme.

Documentaries: must specifically align with the theme of the "Memory of the Future" concept note, addressing issues related to memory, human rights, justice, intergenerational transmission, reconciliation, identity, or democratic construction from a reflective and proactive perspective.

Filmmakers of all nationalities are invited to submit works that contribute to thinking about the future through historical awareness, promoting values of justice, peace, equality, coexistence, and the role of youth in this process.

Film submissions are accepted exclusively through official festival registration platforms.

Through this call, the CMCDP and FICMEC reaffirm their commitment to an active, ethical, and transformative memory, convinced that only those who assume responsibility for the past can contribute to building a more humane and democratic future.

The Ourense Film Festival (OUFF) presents annually a selection of the most innovative and outstanding films and audiovisual productions in Galicia, Europe, Latin America and the rest of the world. The OUFF receives each year works from a hundred of countries, whose common denominator are their socially aware subjects and their innovative forms.

The Luxe Indie Short Circuit is a global digital showcase and competitive tournament created by Cinematic Luxe to celebrate short films that often fall outside the traditional theatrical spotlight.

While feature films dominate most festivals and industry attention, short films represent some of the most daring, experimental, and emotionally powerful storytelling in independent cinema. The Luxe Indie Short Circuit exists to recognize those voices and reward the filmmakers behind them.

This event is designed specifically for films between 2 and 30 minutes in length and runs entirely online through a secure screening platform. During the opening round, every selected film is guaranteed screening and the opportunity to compete for advancement through a combination of audience engagement and viewer voting.

Unlike traditional festivals, advancement in the tournament depends not only on votes but also on how audiences interact with the films.

Advancement is determined by a weighted combination of:

• Completion rate
• Total watch time
• Unique viewers
• Overall views
• Global reach
• Audience voting

The event runs for 9 days, with multiple rounds of competition leading to the final winners.

Festival Dates: April 13th – April 22nd

Festival Structure:

Days 1–3
All selected films are screened publicly during the opening round.

Day 4-6
Advancement Round
The Top 20 films advance based on a combined score of audience engagement and voting.

Luxe Faves Wildcards
An additional 5 films are selected by the Team Luxe judges as wildcard selections known as The Luxe Faves.

Day 7-8
Final Round
The Top 10 films advance to the final round.

Day 9
Final Day
Winners are announced and celebrated.

This format encourages filmmakers to actively share their work, engage their audiences, and celebrate the collaborative energy of the short film community.
(official website opens March 30th!)

to view terms and conditions or sign up for newsletter to receive updates please visit:
cinematicluxefestival.info

The Guadalajara Social Commitment Film Festival (FESCIGU) is celebrating its 24th edition this year, at its venue in Azuqueca de Henares, where it is currently based in exile. Over the years, we have sought to bring our audience the very best of the short film world, with social, thought-provoking, or simply humanistic content. All genres are welcome, provided they do not promote violence. FESCIGU is a qualifying festival for the Goya Awards. This year, in addition, the central theme is ADDICTIONS, so short films dealing with this subject will be especially welcome.

Directed by Women Spain is a film viewing celebration of films directed by women in Spain.

Our celebration is part of the International movement Directed by Women, that for the past 9 years has been dedicated to promote and give visibility to films directed by Women.

Cineteca of Madrid and the CICUS of Seville are hosting the tenth edition with a complete program of short film sessions, feature films, unseen documentaries, sessions for young audiences and children. Filmmakers will be invited to present their pieces to the public and to participate in a Q&A.

There will also be debates, professional gatherings, workshops and a lot of celebration!

#DirectedbyWomenSpain

The Ponferrada International Film Festival is an event specialized in the dissemination and promotion of short films from all over the world, regardless of their production format, distribution, exhibition, category, genre, or theme.

Short films, in addition to being a learning resource for new professionals in the film industry and a promotional tool for making the leap to feature films, can also be a highly creative and free form of expression, storytelling, and experimentation, independent of the market.

We are also committed to highlighting films that, regardless of their length, reflect the cultural, social, and linguistic diversity of any region of the world as part of the memory of peoples and the most unknown universal audiovisual heritag

The festival seeks to create a space for dissemination, meeting, and creative dialogue, where filmmakers, artists, and audiovisual professionals can share their works, exchange experiences, and open new opportunities for collaboration and project development.

All selected films will be presented to the public through the screening of an official trailer of up to 30 seconds during the festival’s online program, allowing each work to gain international visibility.

The RENUAC Festival, produced by Podcultura Producciones and Macumba Films, is part of a network of cultural events dedicated to independent cinema.

As part of its annual program, the festival includes a special awards section for international actors, Chilean actors, and emerging talents in film and television.

The festival does not require premiere status, therefore short films that have already been screened or are available online are eligible for submission.

Each submitted film will be fully viewed by members of the festival’s selection team, ensuring a serious and respectful curatorial process for every filmmaker’s work.

The RENUAC Festival is open to both the general public and industry professionals, including distributors, programmers, and agents from the audiovisual sector.

Organizations, production companies, and independent filmmakers, both national and international, are welcome to submit their short films to the festival.

By submitting a film, participants authorize the RENUAC Festival to screen the material during the official festival program and to use excerpts or images from the work for promotional purposes related to the event.

The BioBioCine International Festival is an intercultural gathering of knowledge and wisdom expressed through cinema. Its goal is to become a space for dialogue and reflection while promoting, supporting, and valuing national and international cinematography from a territorial and identity perspective, within the framework of its annual meeting.

The BioBioCine International Festival invites submissions from all countries and cultures for its eleventh edition. The festival's program includes competitive and non-competitive categories for feature films and short films, both fiction and non-fiction, with an emphasis on auteur cinema, emerging filmmakers, experimentation, intercultural dialogue, and first nations.

CINE NO VISTO

International low-budget independent film festival

PRESENTATION

Festival de Cine no Visto has the main objective of giving visibility to those independent and low or no budget productions which, for different reasons, don’t reach the major public and whose only option for a greater recognition is found in festivals.

The organization of the Festival de Cine no Visto is aware of the great effort that producers have to endure in order to carry out a project with very limited means. Technical aspects are for us just another element in the process, so the main reasons to be selected will not depend on the means used. We are much more interested in what is told and the symbolism in each shot.
We are undoubtedly going to consider all and each of the aspects: performance, editing, cinematography, music, screenplay, to sum up, everything necessary in the production of an audiovisual project.

CATEGORIES

⦁ Best feature film
⦁ Best Foreign short film
⦁ Best Andalusian short film
⦁ Best Spanish short film

*AWARDS

⦁ Best feature film (International and Andalusian)
⦁ Best short film (within each category)
⦁ Best actor (feature film)
⦁ Best director (feature film)
⦁ Best cinematographer (feature film)
⦁ Best film editing (feature film)
⦁ Best screenplay (feature film)
• Best sound
• Best music
⦁ Best film from Jaén (feature or short)

* If your film has been awarded but nobody from your team can attend to the awards ceremony, you won´t receive a physical prize.

** Some categories can be declared void if the jury considers that appropriate.

Artificial intelligence is changing how films are made. BAIFF (Bucharest AI Film Festival) is Romania's first festival dedicated to this shift. We bring together AI filmmakers and professionals from the film and advertising industries to screen international work, exchange perspectives, and take stock of where the craft is heading. Beyond the competition, BAIFF is a conversation between two worlds. If you're making films with AI, this is where your work belongs.