Blog: Film festivals

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 .

FEST - NDNFF #21
21st of June - 29th of 2025 | Espinho, Portugal

FEST – New Directors | New Films Festival is an all-encompassing celebration of the new tendencies of world cinema. The event focuses on a competitive and non-competitive showcase of the most promising new figures and works from around the globe.

The 21st edition of the festival will take place between the 21st of June and the 29 June 2025, in the seaside town of Espinho (Portugal).

The selection is divided into several categories which include Feature Film and Short Film competitions in the Fiction, Documentary, Animation, Experimental Non-Narrative formats, as well as content adequate for children and teenagers. The event also includes non-competitive sections that range from retrospectives to showcases that can be Shorts, Features or Series.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We are accepting films under the following formats:
A) Fiction and Non-Fiction feature films (minimum length is 55 minutes) from directors who are on their first or second feature-length project, regardless of age.
B) Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental Short films (up to 54 minutes of duration) from directors who have completed no more than two feature films, regardless of age.
C) Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental Series (up to 55 minutes of duration) from directors who have completed no more than two feature films, regardless of age.

Candidates must choose one of the available submission categories. Do not worry if your film fits different categories (Ie: Hybrid productions), as all submissions will be considered for the different competitions. If your film is also eligible for the NEXXT competition (focused on academic productions) but you wish the film to be considered for all other competitions please mention in the comment section of the submission the academic institution where the film was produced. If you have any doubts at all please do not hesitate to contact us at films@fest.pt.

Throughout the years' FEST has selected for its feature film competitions films such as Celine Song’s “Past lives”; Ainhoa Rodríguez´s "Mighty Flash"; Teodora Mihai´s “The Civilian”; Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid with "Enforcement"; Julie Lecoustre, Emmanuel Marre´s “Zero Fucks Given”; P.S. Vinothraj “Pebbles”; Eugen Jebeleanu´s “Poppy field”; and Valdimar Jóhannsson´s “Lamb”, all of this on the fiction side, then in the Documentary side, Karima Saidi´s "A way Home", Michał Edelman´s "Last Knights Of The Right Side", Franz Böhm´s "Dear Future Children" among many others.

FEST’s Short Film sections are known for its wide variety of styles and filmic visions, having been throughout the years a platform for the launch of new artists such as Govinda Van Maele (Luxembourg), Christos Massalas (Greece), Mati Diop (France), Adriano Valerio (Italy), Patrick Vollrath (Germany), Ninja Thyberg (Sweden), Manuel Abramovich (Argentina), Daria Belova (Russia), Simon Mésa Soto (Colombia), Aga Woszczynska (Poland), Jela Hasler (Switzerland), as well as hundreds of other up-and-coming filmmakers.

FEST also includes a series of other activities that run parallel to the festival, in particular, FEST – Training Ground (one of Europe’s largest film forums) and FEST – Pitching Forum (film project competition), and others. For more information please visit our website at www.fest.pt

Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious film festivals in Portugal, reaching its 33rd edition in 2025.

Assuming as the main objective the promotion and diffusion of cinematographic and audiovisual works, selected according to quality criteria, Curtas Vila do Conde focuses on the discovery of new films and filmmakers and also on the recognised legacy of Cinema.

Short film competitions with animations, documentaries, fiction films, experimental films, and music videos, produced in 2024 or 2025, no longer than 60 minutes (exception made, under 30 minutes of duration, for Curtinhas – youth and children; My Generation – competitive section aimed for teenagers; Take One! – student films; and Music Videos), preferably with subtitles in Portuguese or English, are admitted to the various competitions.

Side programs, to be progressively announced, will highlight not only a selection of worldwide contemporary short films but also the relations between shorts and features, music and film, or art and cinema.

The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival attracts an international representation of film, filmmakers, advocates and scientists dedicated to the preservation of global biodiversity. Visitors come to New York from across the globe to attend this unique film festival. Opportunity for the filmmaker and visitors exist to interact and engage is discussion.

Representatives from multiple distribution companies are invited to review films in the festival for television listings on their respected networks.

The WCFF takes place in New York the third week in October for ten days of film screenings, receptions, workshops and parties. In addition the WCFF hosts a monthly film screening series to accommodate films that can not fit into the the October schedule.

All films accepted are qualified to participate in the WCFF Channel. An online film festival, reaching a global audience that is a subscription platform that pays the filmmakers.

Mexico City Independent Film Fest seeks to become a place where public, filmmakers, producers, critics and other professionals of the film industry can exchange different views, and activate alternative exhibition venues in the country's capital. Its mission is to disseminate contemporary proposals whose production is not related to major film studios, promote the film culture and program films with a difficult theatrical exhibition.

International Short Film Festival Pune ,India 2021

In Our Festival Competition We Are Done Screening 1111 Short Films And Make world Record in 2018 Also.Each Participants We give A Participation Certificate And Trophy Also.Official Selection And Screening 1111 Short Films Get Certificate and Trophy Also. Festival Screening Function And award function Is 10 Days In December Month.


This Year Festival Is Online festival due to covid .

¡Hola! We are VALÈIFF • València Indie Film Festival, an international film festival with quarterly screening events in València - Spain, and member of the IBERIFF • Iberia Indie Film Festivals, which celebrates and showcases new productions and independent artists from all over the world in Madrid (MADRIFF), Barcelona (BARCIFF), València (VALÈIFF), Seville (SEVIFF), Lisbon (LISBIFF) and Montpellier (MONTIFF), that you can also find them here, in Festhome!

VALÈIFF shares the mission of its associate festivals of supporting emerging talents, encouraging artistic exploration, fostering networking, promoting cultural exchange and engaging the local community by providing a platform to present the work of independent filmmakers.

Fiction films, animation, documentary and experimental works of any genre and subject are welcome!

Petit Plan is a film festival exclusively geared for high school audiences, with free screenings and discussions on the films.

The festival takes place once a year for 5 days and more than 10.000 students have enjoyed the films since the festival's beginning in 2016.
Screenings are usually with a theme, for example: Independent cinema, immigration issues, xenophobia, the Holocaust, etc.

For the next edition of Petit Plan in February 2021 which will be titled Petit Plan: Europa II we will only be accepting short films from Europe.

Entry to the screenings are completely free to students and schools at a venue accessible to people with mobility problems, the Hellenic American Union. (www.hau.gr)

YATAY International Vertical Festival based in Córdoba, Argentina. First exclusive festival of audiovisual content in 9:16 format in Argentina.

We propose ourselves as a space for exploring the vertical format as an expressive medium for audiovisual content. We seek to become a space for dissemination; propose the development of productions in this format and create training spaces.

YATAY is produced and organized in an assembly way by students and workers from the audiovisual field, design, communication and performing arts.

Let's take a shot with shorts!

Brand new festival from Moscow, Russia supported by Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and city authorities.

"Short Shot" - Monthly Awards and Screenings.
Festival is dedicated to filmmakers from all over the World.

Sending us your artwork is not sending it to a Black Hole.
We consider each film, each video!
Each director has a chance to introduce himself and his artwork and greet audience through our social media pages!

We are creators as well and we watch artworks with passion and professional interest.
We believe, that each film, each creator, each director deserve confession!
We are creating community of film lovers and filmmakers.
We communicate a lot, we discuss a lot in our social media!
Join us and be part of Short Shot Fest family!

Our jury selects every month the winning short films for each category:

Best Short Film
Best Short Comedy
Best Short Drama
Best Short Horror
Best Short Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Best Narrative Short
Best Student Short
Best Animation Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Experimental Short
Best Music Video
Best Mini Short
Best Mobile Phone Short (incl vertical)
Best Series (Web/TV)
Best Fashion Short
Best Commercial/Ad/TVC

Also, we provide chance for MOSCOW film creators to take a chance in showing our beautiful city in their movies.

How we do?

Choose one or more categories and submit your short film.

Usually, our submissions start on 1th-4th of the month and end on the same day next month.

EACH submitted film will receive a short review from our judge team (on request)

PLEASE NOTE: We don't screen the films online! The members of the jury watch the films online and they choose the Official Selections.

In 5-7 days after the deadline day for submissions we publish the Official Selections list and we notify the filmmakers via e-mail.

During the next 5 days our members of the jury decide the winners for each category.
After that we publish the Winners list and we notify filmmakers by e-mail. The lists are published on social media and on our dedicated website: shortshotfest.com

In the last week of the month we screen the awarded films in art - center "Efir" in the heart of Moscow.
From August, 2021 we are OPEN for new season 2021/2022.
The Grand Finale 2021/2022 will be held in August, 2022 in Moscow.
International judge team, great networking and friendly atmosphere — that’s Short Shot Fest.

Stay tuned and check our website: shortshotfest.com

This Series Festival, called Queer Season, seeks to become a place where to expose the importance of making the LGTB + collective visible in a natural and real way through the series that are broadcast in our country and its great influence on the millennial generation as well as on the rest of society.

In this edition we want to open the call to new and young creators who have projects of series with an LGTB + theme and can present their works to the contest where a committee will be in charge of evaluating and selecting the best works that will be broadcast during the festival under certain criteria.

FEMCINE was created to discover and support the work done by female filmmakers and to share films with gender-based subjects with a broader audience. FEMCINE invites female directors from Chile and the rest of the world to participate in one of its three competition categories: International Feature Length Competition, International Short Film Competition, and the Chilean Film School Short Film Competition.

It will be held in person with online activities .

In-person format, it will be held in the cities of Lebu, Capital of the Province of Arauco, and in the city of Concepción in the Biobío Region, Chile, from April 1 to 6, 2025. With national and international virtual sub-venues for the exhibition of competitions. Since 2018, CINELEBU is the only festival in Chile that qualifies short films for the Oscar® Awards in three categories: International Animation, Regional Fiction, and International Fiction. and since 2023, qualifier for the Goya Awards and Marca Chile.

In the heart of Naples Northen Area, NaNo Film Festival wans to give visibility to innovative short movies from all over the world, by rewarding authors' creativity.

Festival of Cinema NYC, New York City's fastest growing film festival enters its fifth year in 2021! Beginning the first Friday of August, this year Festival of Cinema NYC is planned to take place from August 6th - 15th.

Festival of Cinema NYC seeks the best in independent film of all lengths and genres. Whether your film is a drama, comedy, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, documentary, experimental, LGBTQ, animation, etc. - we want to show it! Our Opening Night, Closing Night, Midweek Red Carpet Event, and Midnight Madness Grindhouse Horror films are all selected from the very best submissions we receive. Plus, every filmmaker that submits their film(s) will automatically receive a one-year subscription to Videomaker Digital Magazine, a leading subscription service that focuses on guiding independent filmmakers with online tutorials and publications (a $20 value). Our only criteria is that your film be truly independent and not backed by any of the seven major movie studios. All selected filmmakers get VIP passes that allow entry into our screenings, events and parties.

Because Festival of Cinema NYC was founded by independent filmmakers, we understand the needs and challenges that filmmakers face. Our festival staff is committed to offering filmmakers the opportunities they seek to promote and ultimately have their film seen and sold. Since our inception in 2017, many films have found distribution through our sponsors, with many more being offered distribution deals by visiting distributors. Our festival’s growing reputation of top-notch independent films has consistently attracted more distributors every year, making it a possibility to interact with distributors directly! One of the key components to Festival of Cinema NYC's success, is making sure each filmmaker and their film get the proper attention and publicity that they deserve. Our publicity department works around the clock to ensure that filmmakers get as much coverage in news and local media. Filmmakers at the festival have had their films covered in various news publications around Queens and New York City, including the N.Y. Times, the NY Daily News, The NY Post, The Queens Chronicle, CBSN and NY1 News on Spectrum cable. Attending filmmakers each get a Q&A following their screening, giving them the chance to engage our audience.

Additionally, Festival of Cinema NYC hosts panels and workshops that strongly appeal to filmmakers. Subjects including distribution and production resources, as well as workshops by industry leaders such as Sag-Aftra and Seed & Spark.

Festival of Cinema NYC is a competitive festival that accepts films and media of all lengths, genres and subjects, with awards in 18 categories. Past Jury members have included Anna Garduno, Executive Producer at Netflix; Amy Peters, Emmy award winner; Doug LeClaire, founder of Asbury Shorts USA; and Isil Bagdadi, president of distribution at Cavu Pictures. Winners walk away with an amazing custom statuette as well as prizes being offered from some of our amazing sponsors.

2020 has sure been an unprecedented year unlike any before. Many Arts & Cultural institutions Including movie theaters were impacted by the pandemic caused by Covid-19. As a result, many festivals in 2020 were forced to re-imagine, and restructure their format. Facing new regulations and guidelines set by New York City and the State, Festival of Cinema managed to convert the 2020 festival into a Drive-In Theater, becoming one of only a handful of film festivals around the country to hold a live event. As a film festival created by filmmakers for filmmakers, our goal is to bring your film to the big screen. While 2021 hasn’t guaranteed the opening of theater venues at full capacity, the team at Festival of Cinema NYC promises to continue to work hard in creating an event that filmmakers and the public can attend in person.

Moscow International Children’s Film Festival invites children, teenagers, youth, parents and teachers to get acquainted with the best films for children, teenagers and youth and films made by children and teenagers (under 18) under the guidance of adults.

The film festival presents to the public the best films from all over the world made by adults for a children’s audience, as well as films made by children and teenagers from different cities and countries, trying themselves as producers, screenwriters, actors, directors, animators.

The extensive program of the Moscow International Children’s Film Festival is designed for children (6+), teenagers planning to go to the film and art schools, their parents and teachers.

The film festival brings together filmmakers making films for children with young filmmakers who make their first steps at film and video creation. Our goal is to inspire and support young filmmakers, and give wide audiences the opportunity to get acquainted with modern films for children and teenagers.

The Moscow International Children’s Film Festival is a large-scale festive event with an extensive and vibrant program of films on the big screan for children and teenagers, as well as parents, a series of meetings with directors and master classes from leading film experts representing various film schools.

All best films that were selected for the screening, will be shown on the big screen during the solemn final ceremony on April 15 – 19, 2025 in Moscow, Russia and will be able to struggle for the main prize and the title of the “Best film”. As well as for the prizes in the standalone nominations.

Short film contest that reflects any reality of any social minority.

The submitted works can belong to any cinematographic genre whenever it shows situations that make visible groups considered minority.

Azkuna Zentroa - Alhondiga Bilbao launches the Call for Entries to participate in its programme entitled BIdeOtik. Focussing on other audiovisual narratives, which forms part of their film and audiovisual season to be held in February and March 2021.

The Call for Entries is aimed at artists and video-creators whose artistic output in terms of video expression is channelled through the audiovisual medium.

Azkuna Zentroa is a Contemporary Societal and Cultural Centre in Bilbao, the Basque Country, that connects society and contemporary culture through six lines of programming: Contemporary Art, Live Arts, Cinema and Audiovisual, Society, Digital Culture, and Literature. Through constant dialogue with each other these different lines have generated a hybrid, multi-faceted, and expanded programme of events that favours the regular day-to-day presence of the contemporary, using mediation and education as a means to generate critical knowledge and transform society through art and artists.

As part of its programme of events, Azkuna Zentroa carries out various initiatives to support creation in contemporary cinema and audiovisual media, reaching out to different audience sectors through either completed works or the creative processes.

BIdeOtik. Focussing on other audiovisual narratives is conceived as a bridge where audiovisual creation and the audience can meet with the following purposes:

- Provide visibility for artistic, cultural, and creative audiovisual creation, as a tool for creation, reflection, and cultural and social transformation.

- To encourage the development of the audiovisual sector by creating a space to showcase local and international audiovisual works.

- To incentivise the dissemination and exhibition of contemporary audiovisual creation.

- To promote the use of new linguistic forms of expression through moving images.

- To consolidate Azkuna Zentroa as the place in Bilbao where the various agents participating in the audiovisual chain of creation can interact.

- There is no element of competition between the selected works, but rather the intention is to promote and disseminate different artistic and experimental practices within the video sector.

The artworks selected will be screened during the course of the BIdeOtik. Focussing on other audiovisual narratives programme of events at Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao, in accordance with the schedule to be compiled once the Appraisal Committee has given its verdict.

The works will be screened within the context of sessions designed to encourage interaction with audiences that are interested in exchange and dialogue regarding the process of audiovisual creation. As such, those authors whose works are selected will be required to attend in person on the date set for the screening of their work. These sessions will include a colloquium with the live audience, and will be held at the Golem Alhóndiga cinema at Azkuna Zentroa (Annex I. Technical specifications).

NIFF is a space for criticism, denunciation, impact and social growth through the dissemination and promotion of cinema.

NIFF aims to be a statement against non-involvement, disregard and lack of commitment, which is the real disease of this century, where we produce more than we can consume, and happiness is subject to the law of supply and demand.

NIFF was born with the intention of triggering, debating the issues that are hidden under appearances and confronting the public with the social realities that show each individual as a part of those that make us complex, unique and human.

El Festival "Be Free" es un proyecto educativo y participativo para concienciar a niños, jóvenes y adultos sobre la violencia, considerada como la coacción física o psíquica ejercida hacia una persona para conseguir objetivos en contra de su voluntad, conocer los tipos de la misma: violencia de género (sobre la mujer), violencia doméstica o intrafamiliar (la vulneración se produce con cualquier miembro de la unidad familiar) y violencia de pareja (entendido como cualquier acto dañino producido en la intimidad de la pareja indistintamente de que la victima sea hombre o mujer, e incluyendo en esta tipología también a las parejas homosexuales), los diferentes tipos de maltrato (físico, psicológico, sexual, económico, social, ambiental y patrimonial) y sus repercusiones en la época actual (la influencia de los medios de comunicación y publicitarios, el poder de las redes sociales como medida de control, la evolución del machismo en los adolescentes y el aumento del individualismo, aplicando una falsa "normalidad" y "aceptación social" ante actos violentos desde la perspectiva del espectador, es decir, mirar hacia otro lado ante la visión de una situación de maltrato) cuyo objetivo es la lucha contra esta violencia, aprender a reconocer el maltrato y potenciar la igualdad de sexos.