Blog: Film festivals

Madeira Fantastic FilmFest. An international film festival and the first regional event dedicated to showing and promoting high-quality films in the fantastic, horror and thriller genres. It is the festival that gives filmmakers from all over the world the opportunity to present their films to the Madeiran public.

The festival places special emphasis on showing films by Madeiran filmmakers, with the aim of supporting and promoting the production of films made on the island.
It takes place in Funchal, the capital of Madeira Island in Portugal.

MALDITO FESTIVAL is a videopoetic contest held in the city of Albacete (Spain) since 2017.

The festival announces the International Videopoetry Contest and the International Poetic Film Showcase with the purpose of making visible two disciplines that, both together and separately, are much more distant and forgotten than we would like.

We, as lovers of poetry, image and the expressive possibilities of their symbiosis, propose a line of action, encouraging the approach of the general public to videopoetry and poetic films.

MALDITO seeks to vindicate these disciplines as art that connects people, that transmits feelings and promotes original or different ways of seeing the world, to try to be a grain of sand that makes any kind of visual or poetic art stop being marginal and cursed.

Sections:

- International Videopoetry Contest
- International Poetic Film Showcase

Only for Spanish filmmakers.

Festicini will award independent productions of long, medium and short films, as well as documentaries and animations, in several categories including the category for films whith environmental themes.

The International Alternative Media Film Festival (FICMA) promotes and disseminates the creation of films and audiovisual projects with new digital narratives and disruptive technologies, created with a variety of devices such as smartphones, DSLR cameras , GoPro cameras, Blackmagic Pocket cameras, drones, and others. It utilizes technologies such as virtual reality, digital animation, and artificial intelligence, among others, and features exhibition media such as projection, VR headsets , and streaming platforms .

This year, with our tenth edition, we will celebrate the different forms and techniques of cinematic expression we have brought to the public over these past 10 years, as well as incorporating new projects that drive the future of audiovisuals.

FICMA will take place from November 26 to December 5, 2025, in Mexico City.

REGISTRATION AND PARTICIPATION OF A FILM OR PROJECT REQUIRES FULL ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS, CONDITIONS AND RULES OF THE FESTIVAL WITHOUT ANY EXCEPTION.

What is Claqueta Emérita?
Claqueta Emérita is a national short film festival that favors the production and promotion of audiovisual works made by national creators. Without losing the regional essence of its first years, Claqueta Emérita gives great value to the professional work made in Spain and Extremadura, as well as to the work made by young creators who have in the educational centers their most fervent reflection.

Claqueta Emérita is made up of several activities/actions:

● Short Film Contest aimed at individual or collective filmmakers who hold Spanish nationality.
● Workshops, meetings and audiovisual screenings carried out the days prior to the celebration of the Final Gala in Mérida or in towns of Extremadura.
● Final awards ceremony with the collaboration of students and recent graduates of the Audiovisual and Entertainment Production training cycle of the I.E.S. Extremadura.
of the I.E.S. Extremadura.

Organized by the cultural association Esmérarte, Claqueta Emérita has counted with the financing of the Consejería de Cultura, Turismo, Jóvenes y Deporte in its last editions, and with the collaboration of the Consejería de Cultura, Turismo, Jóvenes y Deporte in its last editions.
and with the collaboration of the City Council of Mérida since its beginnings.

Short film contest.
Among the activities to be carried out within Claqueta Emérita VIII, there is a short film contest for Spanish filmmakers and creators.

Espai Montseny, with the support of Viladrau City Council, is convening the 6th edition of the "Environment and Sustainability Short Film Festival. Montseny Natural Park and Biosphere Reserve". The Festival will be held from July 25th to July 27th, 2024.

The event was born in 2020 with the idea of showing audiovisual productions related to the environment and to encourage reporting, debate and awareness about the environmental crisis that affects both globally and in our immediate environment.

Established in 1985, the Warsaw Film Festival joined in 2009 the elite group of events recognized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (www.fiapf.org) as international non-specialised film festivals - next to Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Tokyo, Mar del Plata, Shanghai, Cairo, Fajr, Goa, and Tallinn.

The WFF differs from other festivals in its programme, just as Warsaw differs from other cities. Selecting the films, we always remember about our audience - native Varsovians, those working or studying in Warsaw, and those in town for a short while, for instance only for the Festival.

We do our best to make sure that our audiences get to know the latest and most interesting trends in world cinema as soon as possible. In this way, WFF audiences - usually as the first people in Poland - could discover American independent cinema as well as Asian, Latin American, Iranian, Russian and Romanian cinema. Some of the most amazing directors, like Michael Haneke, Cristian Mungiu, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ari Folman, Ashgar Farhadi, Lenny Abrahamson and hundreds of others, had usually been guests of the WFF before they reached the top.

We have been expanding the professional part of the WFF for over fifteen years. We realize that film festivals are part of the giant mechanism that is the global film industry. We do our best to make sure that the world takes note of Polish films, that they get screened at leading festivals, that they find their way into international distribution.

We started off modestly, in 2000, with screenings of new Polish projects for barely a dozen foreign guests. Five years later, we held the CentEast Market for the first time: a meeting place for professionals interested in films from Eastern Europe, described by The Hollywood Reporter as “the go-to event”. From 2009 till 2016, together with our Russian partner TVINDIE we have been presenting - in Warsaw and Moscow - films that are still works-in-progress but in which we want to interest sales agents and distributors. Similar presentations we organised at the Beijing Film Market from 2013-2016, with our Chinese partner Film Factory, under the name China-Eastern Europe Film Promotion Project.

The One Shot Terrassa City of Film is a film festival that takes back the old Sequence Shot Contest organised in Terrassa between 2004 and 2012. It came last year again, and we're following the success. So this is the 11th Edition of the festival.

The particularity of this festival is that ONLY ACCEPTS ONE SHOT FILMS. What does it mean? As is well known, is about telling a story - at least 3 minutes long - in just a single shot, that is: no cutting or image editing.

In 2017, Terrassa was selected as a "Creative City of UNESCO in Film", a recognition that only 17 cities in the world have. This leads to recover a past that it is what brought us this present.

The festival will take place during the week from November 27th to 29rd 2025.

To have some historical background, it all started in 1967 when Societat Cultural Joventut Terrassenca - known in Terrassa as "Coro vell" - organized the "Rotllo" film competition with this same idea. Now, Societat Coro Vell, with the support of the Terrassa Audio-visual Board and within the activities of the Terrassa City of Film UNESCO, as well as with the participation of those companies and people who collaborate on this event, wants to recover this current year the tenth edition of the "Concurs del Pla Seqüència", from now called "One Shot - Terrassa City of Film".

For any doubt or concern contact us at oneshot@oneshot.cat.

SANFIC, Santiago International Film Festival, represents a film platform with educational, cultural, artistic and industrial purposes, as well as a prime symbol of the Chilean capital city and the whole country.

Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote is a project organized by Asociación Tenique Cultural, a non-profit organization whose main goals are to promote, diffuse and debate independent films, analyze the local context and connect it to global level. The 15th edition of the project is scheduled to be held between November 20 and November 30, 2025.

The call for films will be opened between April 2 and August 31 2025, and films may be submitted to the two competitive sections: the Official Section of Feature-length Films, endowed with a prize of 6.500 euros, and the Cruce de caminos: Filmmakers from the Canaries Section, endowed with a prize of 1.200 euros. The prize will be paid during the first four months of the year.

All details about the call can be found in the rules of participation.

15TH EDITION RULES OF ATLÀNTIDA MALLORCA FILM FEST
DEEJAYSGRUP MEDITERRANEAN CREATIVE HUB, a Temporary Business Union, in collaboration with Comunidad Filmin SL, organizes the fifteenth edition of the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest, an international annual meeting point for creators, professionals, and the audience to whom their works are directed.

The festival aims to promote high-quality cinema with a commitment to contemporary issues to attract new audiences to theaters. The National and International Official Section will feature a selection of fiction feature films that empathize with the dilemmas, conflicts, and situations faced by new generations while also speaking their language.

Additionally, the festival develops three non-fiction categories: arts, politics, and queer, each with its own central theme. Special attention will also be given to Balearic Talent: productions filmed, financed, or featuring talent from the Balearic Islands may also be programmed in the Talent Balear Section, which includes both fiction and non-fiction works.

The 15th edition of Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest will take place from July 27 to August 3, 2025, in Mallorca, and from July 27 to August 27, 2025, on FILMIN.

Το Διεθνές Κινηματογραφικό Φεστιβάλ της Ελλάδος θα ανοίξει για 5 φορά τις πόρτες του στο κοινό και θα παρουσιάσει ταινίες της εγχώριας και παγκόσμιας παραγωγής. Οι τελευταίες εκδηλώσεις του φεστιβάλ έλαβαν χώρα την 28η και 29η Σεπτεμβρίου στον Κινηματογραφικό Τομέα (Π.Ο.Φ.Π.Α.) στo ιστορικό και νεοκλασικό κινηματοθέατρο "ΙΡΙΔΑ", και φιλοξένησε μικρού, μεσαίου και μεγάλου μήκους ταινίες απ’ όλο τον κόσμο. Στο φεστιβάλ προβλήθηκαν ταινίες μυθοπλασίας, ντοκιμαντέρ και animation Ελλήνων και ξένων σκηνοθετών με δωρεάν είσοδο. Σημαντικός αριθμός των ταινιών έκαναν την παγκόσμια, την ευρωπαϊκή και την ελληνική πρεμιέρα τους στη χώρα μας. Επίσης, στο φεστιβάλ συμμετείχαν Music Video, Dance Video, Κινηματογραφικά Σενάρια και Θεατρικά Κείμενα.

Το Greece International Film Festival φιλοδοξεί να λειτουργήσει ως δίαυλος επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των καλλιτεχνών, των σκηνοθετών, των σεναριογράφων και των παραγωγών της διεθνούς και εγχώριας κινηματογραφικής βιομηχανίας.

Μια ξεχωριστή θέση στις δράσεις του Greece International Film Festival καταλαμβάνει το Διαγωνιστικό Τμήμα Ελληνικών και Διεθνών Ταινιών Μικρού, Μεσαίου και Μεγάλου Μήκους, Κινηματογραφικών Σεναρίων και Θεατρικών Κειμένων, το οποίο υποστηρίζει τα νέα καλλιτεχνήματα ώστε να βρουν τον δρόμο τους και να συναντήσουν το κοινό τους.

The Festival Villa del Cine is a four day experience where the streets and theaters of Villa de Leyva, Colombia become a stage dedicated to celebrate, encourage and reward the seventh art.

Competitive festival of short films with a 2SLGTBIQ+ theme, produced in the 24 months prior to the event, held in the town of Sitges (Barcelona - Spain).

The Xilitla Film Fest aims to promote national and international cinema in its various expressions and genres.

Mexico's most surreal site proudly presents the third edition of its International Film Festival, also known as Xilitla Film Fest.

Located in the magical town of the Sierra Madre Occidental, with its lush tropical forest, this place captivated Edward James, who built his surreal garden here—a monument to an overflowing imagination.

In 2025, this festival will once again take place, celebrating cinematic diversity through a wide range of genres and styles, including documentary, fantasy, horror, magical realism, science fiction, erotic, porn, musical and many other innovative proposals.

The festival is organized by Centro James, Cervecería James, and the Edward James Museum, with the support of the Centro de las Artes S.L.P, the Municipality of Xilitla, and the State Tourism Department of San Luis Potosí, in partnership with the Ibero-American Network of Festivals. During the festival, there will be competitive screenings, showcases, tributes, professional training workshops, and holistic activities.

The call for entries will be open from March 30 to August 1, 2025.

The festival will take place from December 3 to 7, 2025, featuring two sections: showcase and competition, as well as workshops, conferences, and tributes aimed at promoting the film industry.

i-Fest International Film Festival is an international cultural event dedicated to Cinema and New Technologies, to date it is indicated among the most important and representative events of the Italian panorama and an essential innovative creative, educational and experiential appointment for the territories in which it takes place, Calabria and Palermo (Sicily).
i-Fest, a registered brand, is an original innovative cultural project, incredibly rich in artistic proposals and relevant cultural and experiential activities, multidisciplinary and transversal in the involvement of a vast territory and specific target audiences.
The uniqueness of i-Fest was born in the planning phase, it is in fact the Festival of the "5 i":
International/Innovation/Instruction/Information/Inspiration constitute the 5 fundamental principles, they tell the concept of the event and define its objectives: to spread the European and international cinematographic culture in the multiple forms of expression and in the different genres and styles through an analytical path and a experimental; tell the multiplicity of the cinematographic universe with a specific focus on international cinema; present an innovative, dynamic, stimulating and always attentive event of the most modern digital languages; spread the professions of cinema through a rich didactic and educational activity; involve new talents from the national, European and international film scene; transmitting positive values to young people, proposing activities in healthy, stimulating, creative environments and making the new generations aware of important environmental and social issues through specific dedicated activities; propose a literacy path for the younger generations through multiple dedicated activities; ensure cultural pluralism through a differentiated cinematographic and audiovisual offer; support and increase the involvement and development of different target audiences; present the most modern audiovisual technologies through a proposal of innovative experiences (VR, digital exhibitions, multimedia experiences); develop feelings of pride and a sense of belonging through broad and transversal involvement, describing the territory in its positive aspects, enhancing its qualities and transmitting quality, beauty and hospitality to the numerous national and international guests.

i-Fest is a constantly evolving and growing hub which, with a great sense of responsibility towards its audience, great love for its territory and constant and passionate work, offers from 2020 an event which, also in relation to the reference territory and thanks to its rapid growth, it has reached truly important dimensions. The 2024 edition presented 6 international competitions, 6 out-of-competition reviews (over 160 screenings), 20 national and international guests and a rich educational activity (15 masterclasses/educational meetings/workshops).

In recent editions the guests who took part in i-Fest: the Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr., the double Oscar winner Paul Haggis, the great Polish director Lech Majewski, the Spanish director Inés Paris (winner of several Goya awards), the American Heather Parisi (Italian exclusive), Ezio Greggio, the great Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (Italian exclusive) who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the French director Éric Gravel Golden Lion at Venice and Cesar Award, the Romanian actress Madalina Ghenea, the myth of Italian cinema Sandra Milo, the directors Enrico Vanzina, Giorgio Verdelli, Alessandro Rossellini, the extraordinary Milena Vukotic, the oriental artists Tsai Ming liang, Kiki Sugino, Momi Yamashita, Franco Nero, Lino Banfi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Milcho Manchevski, Albert Serra, Matteo Garrone, Michele Placido, Nino Frassica, Cristian Mungiu, Raoul Bova and many others.

The International Community Film Festival Historias en Kilómetros (FICC HEK) - SOUTH TO SOUTH, celebrates its second edition in 2025 claiming community cinema as a space for meeting, creation and audiovisual resistance. Under the slogan “A Party to Believe Again” this festival seeks to amplify the voices of communities in the Global South, making visible stories of struggle, resilience and peace building. In this edition, we focus on art and culture as drivers of change, social leadership in the defense of the territory, the peasantry as a political subject and promoter of peace, and education as a pillar for social, environmental and gender justice.

In 2025, FICC HEK - SOUTH TO SOUTH will tour different territories, taking its programming to communities on three continents. In Colombia, each screening and activity will have a host collective: LA ROTATIVA in Tierra Grata, Cesar (September 3 and 4); COCOSUR in Ibagué, Tolima (September 10 and 11); VISIÓN JÓVEN in Cereté, Córdoba (September 17 and 18); MAREA PRODUCCIONES in Tumaco, Nariño (September 23 and 24); and CISCA PRODUCCIONES in Norte de Santander (October 4 and 5). Internationally, the festival will reach the refugee camp of Kakuma, Kenya (September 6) with THE KAMP and Dhaka, Bangladesh (September 27) with AÁRAR PRODUCTIONS, strengthening the dialogue and connection between diverse realities of the global south.

We conceive IBZCF as a window into contemporary cinema, its new trends and creators who contribute new narrative paths to create vibrant, necessary, and modern films.
The 10th edition of IBZCF will take place in 10 venues across the island's five municipalities and online on the Filmin platform. Ibizacinefest renews its commitment to Ibiza and its culture through a program of national and international titles never before seen on the island, exclusive premieres in the Balearic Islands and Spain, activities aimed at professionals, short film sections to discover and promote local and Balearic talent, and our educational program with special screenings to create new audiences.

Reflection will also be given space through open discussions on the relationship between cinema and various current sociocultural issues.

Short films are once again the focus of IBZCF, once again as a qualifier for the 2026 Goya Awards, the Forqué Awards, and the Fugaz Awards, collaborating once again with the European Film Academy on the Shortfilms on Tour program.

We are holding our Slow-Cinema Workshop-Residency with simultaneous filming of 15 short films alongside the in-person Festival, with which we will flood our Island with more than 120 contemporary cinema titles.

Xavi Herrero
Director and programmer IBZCF2-European Film Academy Member

Polifest is a festival of short films created by students. This festival serves as a collaborative tool and a platform for showcasing the work of young individuals who are developing projects and short films.