Blog: Film festivals

Around International Awards ✈ Barcelona ✈ Paris ✈ Amsterdam ✈ Berlin.

Annual Independent event with 4 major programs for all Features, Shorts, Documentaries, Experimental, Commercial, Music Video, Animations, Student Films, TV, Series, and New Media. The international community evaluates the all-genre creations to serve ARFF Official Laurels and to certify the awarded filmmakers at the end of the annual festival run. Thus, all the ARFF Finalists will be mentioned multiple times to have the best out of the entire year altogether. Submit today to participate in all 4 programs, regarding the unique system of ARFF International.

Submissions made via Festhome are getting evaluated and selected, directly for the yearly festival run and participating in the Official Certificate Program exclusively. Monthly selection is available on other associated platforms. Regarding the Unification Program of ARFF International, all 4 editions will gather at Amsterddam November/December 2024, till then Barcelona, Paris & Berlin editions will take place online.


See you Around & Fest Regards

The festival will take place in Alicante from December 9 to 13, 2025.

Only short films produced exclusively with a smartphone will be accepted.

Both national and international short films are eligible to participate.

The theme is open to all genres and subjects.

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 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

Horror Short Film Contest organized by the Youth Department of the Cartagena City Council and managed by Ana Ballabriga.

The Xypher Film Festival is a global showcase celebrating bold short films and emerging storytellers from around the world. We provide a free, accessible platform for filmmakers to share their work, gain visibility, and connect with an audience that values fresh perspectives.

Selected films are premiered on our official YouTube channel and promoted across social media, with opportunities to win audience-voted and curated awards.

All genres, styles, and languages are welcome.

Primero Plano 2025 – Festival de Cine Juiz de Fora y Mercocidades, una realización de Luzes da Cidade – Grupo de Cinéfilos y Productores Culturales, es un festival de cine sudamericano dirigido exclusivamente para directores que estén presentando su primera obra y un evento regional para filmes producidos en la zona de la Mata Mineira, que tendrá lugar en la ciudad de Juiz de Fora, Brasil, en octubre de 2025. Las inscripciones de cortos terminan en 17 de agosto de 2025.

FRONTERA SUR, International Non-Fiction Film Festival, is a non-competitive event that exhibits a set of cinematographic, Chilean, Latin American and worldwide works related to the concept of non-fiction cinema.

The seventh edition of the FRONTERA SUR Festival will take place from May 26 to 30, 2026, in the Concepción city, Biobío Region, southern Chile.

The "MIRA" LGBT+ Short Film Festival is a cultural and social initiative that seeks to raise visibility and celebrate sexual and gender diversity through the narrative power of cinema. Held annually in Alzira, the festival provides a platform for both emerging and established filmmakers and producers, from Spain and around the world, who explore LGBT+ themes, promoting dialogue, empathy, and understanding in society.

Our goal is to create a safe and enriching space where LGBT+ stories can be told, recognized, and appreciated, contributing to the fight against discrimination and to the building of a more inclusive society.

The BELLAVISTA FILM FESTIVAL (BVFF) 2025 #BVFF25 seeks to inspire, empower, and unify our audience through cinematographic art of social impact.

The festival is a space in which the community and cinema converse through cinematographic works of art selected with great artistic value and a theme of representative and relevant social impact. Thus promoting social impact cinema as a tool to stimulate critical thinking and motivate social action to catalyze agents of change in their communities and beyond.

The BVFF will be held as an itinerant festival, bringing its screenings to the following cities:

- Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia
- Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
- Los Ángeles, California, USA
- Panamá City, Panamá
- México City, México
- Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia
- Bogotá D.C., Colombia

As a development of a social project for cultural growth, the festival seeks to promote exhibition spaces for the curated works, in addition to movie theaters, cinematheques and cultural institutions, also in neighborhood and rural locations and on an itinerant basis in representative cultural spaces in the rest of the country and Latin America.

We trust in the power of cinema as a commitment to social transformation and high-quality cultural reflection.

The International Short Film Festival CORTONAOS FF La Palma will take place from August 18 to 31 in the coastal town of Puerto de Naos.

This initiative aims to revitalize the area through a wide range of cultural activities, encouraging participation in the creation of short films that showcase the scenic beauty of this iconic coastline, while fostering environmental awareness and respect for the seas, oceans, and the species they harbor.

In addition to the CORTONAOS section, the festival will also present awards for:

Best National and International Short Film (including all films submitted from outside the archipelago), and

Best Canary Islands Short Film, for films shot within the Canary Islands.

The Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Festival is an annual outdoor event located in the heart of Lisbon's historic neighborhood, Alfama. For a week, we occupy the street with independent films from around the world.


OPEN CALL

We welcome submissions from independent directors, screenwriters, and composers who want to see their work screened at the white walls of Alfama.

ABOUT CINALFAMA

Cinalfama Lisboa International Film Festival celebrates the rich cultural and historical tapestry of one of the city's most iconic areas, providing a unique platform for independent filmmakers worldwide.

We aim to promote cultural and artistic diversity through cinema, highlighting works that address relevant, innovative, and provocative themes. With a carefully curated selection of films, our goal is to offer the audience an engaging and diverse cinematic experience.

To believe in an independent film festival in the streets of one of Lisbon's historic neighborhoods inevitably absorbed by gentrification is to persist and pursue a community utopia where cinema plays a restorative role.

In this context, Cinalfama has been developing a pilot program to collect stories and orality from residents and spaces in the neighborhood, in an attempt to rescue the essence of this population.

Several of the directors who make up the Cinalfama team, such as Pedro Costa, Leonor Teles, and Pedro Cabeleira, are taking part in this pressing project, whose collections are being screened at the Cinalfama Lisboa International Film Festival.

Cinalfama holds a second Open Call for the Film Observatory - regular competitive sessions three times a year (January, April, and October) - with different categories.

DIGO – I International Film Festival on Gender and Sexual Diversity of Goiás, is the first film festival in the heart of Brazil to address issues such as Diversity, Gender and Sexuality, by showcasing contemporary audiovisual work and urging historical reviews. Our main goal is to raise awareness on this topic, in order to promote inclusion, social change and respect for others. As an international event, the DIGO team also believes in the importance of cross cultural communication.

World Smart Shorts Independent Panorama (WSSIPFest) is an international film festival dedicated to presenting ultra-short films created exclusively with smartphones, on any subject matter. The event celebrates formal minimalism and narrative maximalism while supporting independent creators working outside the mainstream film industry. The guiding motto of the Festival is: “One film – one minute – one smartphone.” Filmmakers from all over the world are welcome to participate.

The tenth edition of the International Festival of Socio-Environmental Cinema PLANET.Doc 2025 will take place from September 25 to December 25, 2025, in a hybrid format, with an extensive online program accessible throughout Brazil. The event presents a curated selection of international, Brazilian, and regional (Catarinense) documentaries, animations, and virtual reality films focused on socio-environmental and scientific themes.

In addition, the Festival will host the fifth edition of the PLANET.Doc Conference, which will bring together leading thinkers, scientists, journalists, and cultural agents from around the world in a major global conversation on sustainability. The conference will take place during the opening week of the festival and will be streamed to universities, schools, and the general public.

The event promotes an active dialogue between cinema, science, and society, offering film screenings and thematic discussions aimed at educational institutions, NGOs, and broader audiences across Brazil.

Submissions of documentaries, animations, and virtual reality works will be accepted until July 31, 2025, in the following categories:

SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTARY

NATURE DOCUMENTARY

ANIMATION

SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTARY

As a whole, the festival offers a remarkable showcase of some of the most relevant cinematic works about the Planet today—bringing together science, technology, nature, and society in a free, accessible experience for schools, universities, and cultural centers, primarily through digital platforms.

For more information, please visit the official website: https://www.planetadoc.com

1. ORGANIZATION
The Salerno International Film Festival, with its registered office in Salerno, at Via Portacatena n.° 51 - 84121 Salerno (SA), Tax Code 80046160653, was founded in 1946 by CINECLUB SALERNO. For several years, a non-profit Organizing Committee has been established to manage the annual Editions.

2. OBJECTIVES AND AIMS
Since its inception, the Salerno International Film Festival has been a competitive event for Italian and international productions, offering a continuous forum for discussion on the developments of world cinema.

The Festival assigns cinema an important social function, and its purpose is to constantly adapt its approach to the evolution of technologies and new "audiovisual" media.

The Festival fulfills its original task of film dissemination and literacy, consistent with its tradition, with a particular focus on independent works and technical-artistic innovation.

3. FESTIVAL PROGRAM AND SCHEDULE
The 79th Salerno International Film Festival will take place in the City of Salerno from November 24th to 29th, 2025, at the Cine - Teatro Augusteo.

In addition to the Competitions for the various Film Sections, the Festival also features Reviews, Retrospectives and collateral activities (Exhibitions, Conferences, Round Tables, etc.), as a contribution to the dissemination of the History of Italian and International Cinema.

During the closing night on November 29th, 2025, awards will be presented to the winning films, and recognitions will be given to prominent figures in the artistic, social and cultural fields. The Awards Ceremony may also be divided into two specific evenings: one dedicated to “Specialized Cinematography” (documentaries, cartoons, etc.) and another dedicated to Feature Films and various recognitions.

The screening of the films will take place at the Cine – Teatro Augusteo and will be scheduled at the discretion of the Festival Direction, based on the submission date of the films and their prior selection.
Both the collateral events and the awards ceremony will be streamed live on the Festival’s official social media channels.

The festival's theme will be "Waves from the Future". Every era sends visions, background noises, distant echoes: waves that pass through us and speak to us even before they are understood. Some carry clear messages, others are distorted, ambiguous, elusive. But they all tell something about the world that is and the world that is to come.

What is the future communicating to us today?

What visions, themes, and narratives are already emerging in our present?

What do we perceive in a time marked by crisis, mutations, and hyper-technologies?

We invite authors and directors to capture, translate, and resonate with the waves coming from what is not yet.

Whether it's a near or distant future, collective or intimate; a dystopia, a hope, a question. We want to hear the beat of hidden stories, of faint signals, of innovative visions that will be the light of tomorrow.

The "Waves from the Future" theme will be given preference for selection purposes but is not binding: it represents a field of possibilities, an open wave.

3. BIS. VOD PLATFORM
To broaden the distribution of submitted films, the Salerno International Film Festival provides a dedicated VOD platform, active from October 15th to 31th, 2025.

During this period, both selected and non-selected films will be available for online viewing and voting, offering all participants an opportunity for visibility and the chance to compete for the Audience Award.

Viewing and voting on the platform require prior registration. Uploaded films cannot be downloaded.

Filmmakers who do not wish to make their film available on the VOD platform may still enter the competition: their film will still be reviewed and evaluated by the official jury.

Dieciminuti Film Festival was created in 2005 by IndieGesta. It was able to quickly become one of the events dedicated to short films most important in Italy.

The Festival, whose first 20 editions attended by more than 19,200 short films involving a total of nearly 24,000 spectators, is structured in various competitive sections: Official Selection (for short films up to 10 minutes released after the 1st of January 2025), Extralarge (for shorts between 10 and 15 minutes released after the 1st of January 2025) Animations (animations for up to 10 minutes released after the 1st of January 2025), Doc10 (documentaries for up to 10 minutes released after the 1st of January 2025), Visti da Vicino (for short films up to 10 minutes released by directors coming from the province of Frosinone after the 1st of January 2025).

At the Competitive sections, joins the Dieciminuti Academy, a school of cinema that brings young people of our province to create from scratch a short fiction or animation. The thing that is unique about the festival on the national scene is to be a real school for young people who want to explore the world of cinema. It‘s also very much appreciated the Section Esplorazioni, which allows viewers to get in touch with the short film coming from a different country each year. During last years, the festival has hosted the short unpublished masters of Japanese animation by Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the animated short films of the Tehran Film Festival, the short films of Georges Méliès, the avantguardes, the web-series. During the 13th edition was opened also the Futurama Section, dedicated to masterclasses for students.

Cine Upar is an annual international and Colombian film festival that takes place in Valledupar in Cesar, with the aim of facilitating the circulation and exhibition of national and international film productions, while providing a screening sale for the cinematography made in Valledupar alluding to vallenato music and culture and that made by the ethnic groups located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and in the Serranía de Perijá.

We value the creative freedom of national and international filmmakers, so in our selection there will be a space for films of any format, extension, genre or technique, as long as they are productions of quality, relevance and cinematographic relevance according to the criteria and bases of the festival. The viewing and deliberation of the films will be in charge of the Programming or Curatorship Committee, made up of a group of cinephiles, experts in cinematography and topics related to the theme of the section who share criteria with the artistic direction of Cine Upar.

The Busan International AI Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing films created using artificial intelligence technology, serving as a platform for presenting creative content produced through AI.

We aim to provide opportunities to artistically experience new forms of art and diverse genres of films created by innovative AI technologies. Additionally, we offer a stage for filmmakers who challenge themselves with creative work through AI, thereby uncovering and supporting new talents.


• Dates: December 4-6, 2025

• Venue: Busan Cinema Center, Small Theater, Sky Theater

• Awards:
·Best AI Creative Film Award: 1 film
(USD 10,000)
· AI Art Innovation Award: 1 film
(USD 5,000)
· AI Technology Advancement Award: 1 film
(USD 4,000)
· AI Social Impact Award: 1 film
(USD 3,000)


• Opening Ceremony/Performance
• Closing Ceremony
• Screening of invited films
• Screening of 15 finalists
• Conference
• Content Showcase


• Eligibility: Open to all individuals and teams, domestic and international
(one • entry per person)

• Programs: International Competition
(short films, feature films, documentaries,
animations, etc.)

• Theme: Open theme

• Submission Criteria:
· Films utilizing AI technology (partially or entirely)
· Running time: 3-15 minutes
· Films completed from 2024 onwards

• Submission Method : biaif.dureraum.org

Twelve years of Randfilmfest = Twelve years of wild and radical cinema, visionary film art, provocative themes and concepts, unusual screenings and strange formats.

This year, too, we want to lead our audience astray, plunge them into the abyss, set them on the wrong track, let them discover something new or open up unusual perspectives. Even after twelve years of festival work, we still love cinema, the big screen and unusual ways of seeing and listening.

The Compton Film Festival serves as a platform to discover emerging talent and help filmmakers gain recognition. As a premier film event, the festival provides opportunities for filmmakers to make their mark and share their stories. With dedicated screenings and filmmaker-focused events, the Compton Film Festival is a place to connect, collaborate, and celebrate the art of filmmaking.