Blog: Film festivals

This year Montecatini International Short Film Festival doubles ... After several years of intensive work with the kids in the field of cinema literacy with numerous workshops and laboratories comes a special section of the festival dedicated to children and teenagers, MISFF4YOU, to be held in Montecatini Terme (PT) March 16 to 20 in 2016.

In the name of the most supreme artist, the loving God.

TISFF, known as one of the world's most significant, renowned, and prestigious short film events and also an OSCARS® Qualifying short film festival, has been held for 40 consecutive years by IYCS.

IYCS is probably the world’s biggest and most comprehensive center for short film production and filmmaking training, with over 80 branches and a family of 250 thousand filmmakers and film graduates! Many of its graduates, rank among the top celebrated filmmakers in the world.

IYCS supports the production of more than 1,000 short films annually and trains more than 7,000 young filmmakers annually.

It has been winning numerous awards at prestigious international film festivals over the past four decades.

After holding and celebrating 40 glorious years, TISFF is introducing two new categories to the previous categories of Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental for its 41st edition.
With the rise of cutting-edge and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR/ XR/ MR/ AR), we are witnessing fundamental, profound, and significant changes in the creative production process and the presentation of visual and audio works. These advancements are shaping a future where short film production and distribution will evolve rapidly and precisely.

To understand, recognize, utilize, reflect, advance, and enhance these technological transformations and advancements in service of the art and industry of short films, the festival introduces two new categories in its international competition sections to accept, judges and screens creatively produced short films made using these technologies:

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality).

The festival also introduces these two categories to fulfill and advance its global mission of fostering, encouraging, enhancing, and promoting excellence in short filmmaking, inviting up-and-coming talents and emerging filmmakers to delve into the realms of emerging, creativity, immersion, and low-budget production, as well as acknowledging and supporting those who excel in this innovative landscape.


New categories added to the 41st TISFF:
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality) ($500 Cash Prize)
AI (Artificial Intelligence) ($500 Cash Prize)


Additionally, In the upcoming 41st TISFF, like the previous period, two awards will be given based on themes and topics:

1. The Truth-seekers Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
This thematic award honors:
• Spreading hope and promoting peace and reconciliation instead of war and violence.
• Reviving the ideals of fraternity, justice, and fairness among nations.
• Elevating the status of women and the family.

2. The Silk Road Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
The Silk Road has long been a major platform for promoting cultural and human interactions that have manifested into a sort of common heritage among the residents of 300 cities and 73 countries. In consideration of its illustrious historical role of establishing rich and stable connections, be it cultural, political, economic, or religious, among the many civilizations, nations, and governments that have come and gone throughout the region over time, as well as recent considerations for the revival of this road, it is quite evident that the Silk Road is strategically imperative for the success of international cooperation in various areas of activity. Accordingly, the Tehran International Short Film Festival, on the brink of its 41st anniversary and with new courses of action undertaken, has put on its agenda a new outlook on the cultural and economic opportunities of this facilitative road, as a sign of a long-enduring relationship between the two civilizations of the east and the west.

The Silk Road Award honors outstanding merits in the film industry that seek to represent the evident and hidden capacities and heritage of the Silk Road as a prosperous motif of:

Sustainable and comprehensive development, peaceful coexistence, ethnical cohesion, consolidation of civilian relations, national integrity, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, promulgator of peace and fraternity among individuals, ethnicities, and nations, retainer of individual and group rights and properties, compliance with neighborly rights, fair trade, generative economy and collective production of wealth, cultural diplomacy, and mutual respect for other cultures and native or national values.

ONLY FOR SPANISH FILMMAKERS // SOLO PARA CINEASTAS ESPAÑOLES (EXCEPT THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY SECTION, WHICH IS INTERNATIONAL)

This call addresses every person, collective, agencies, exhibitions and producers that have produced and/or own the exhibition rights of audivisual pieces of short length and of documentary, argumentative, experimental and videoart nature; on movie film, video or animation formats.

In 2024, this event will take place from August 13 to 17 in Barranquilla, Colombia. You are all welcome to visit us!

AVANCA Film Festival was awarded first place in 2011 contest of the support film festivals sponsored by ICA / Ministry of Culture.

An additional thematic programming has happened over all these years, giving space to screening of significant works of contemporary cinema appropriately framed in concerns and / or well-defined objectives.

The AVANCA is known as a space for workshops led by personalities of world cinema, and being more than a "master class", has allowed a unique cinema practice. Every year we have workshops, bringing together participants from all over Europe. The media have written that this is the largest European area of professional workshops in the field of cinema.

AVANCA is the only festival that congregates a Cinema International Competition, works from the television area, video and new supports of multimedia, with a special concern of exhibit the best world productions done in each category.

Since the first edition, the festival only accepts unprecedented films in Portugal.

The World Premiere competition is unique in our country and was only possible because Avanca became a passage point of unpublished authors and movies with great quality. Films that have their world premiere in the festival, independently of the submitted category, are also participating in the World Premiere Competition.

AVANCA is the Portuguese festival with the highest percentage of worldwide unpublished movies that find here their first showing.

Since 2010, we have organized the international film conference AVANCA | CINEMA, becoming the most important conference in the field of cinema in the Iberian Peninsula. This conference brings together speakers and participants from around the world.
Thematic exhibitions, editions of books, bibliographic presentations and various projects have marked these last 10 years of AVANCA with the quality that compels the festival and the participants obviously require.

The Discover Film Awards is one of the biggest short film festivals in the world with over 5,000 annual submissions from 100+ countries, global premiers in London's Leicester square with packed cinema audiences, filmmaker parties, red carpet events, script-pitching round tables with funding available for new projects and an annual cash prize fund of over $50,000, including the prestigious Craghoppers Film Prize.

The film festival is consistently voted in the top 50 in the world. Spread over 5 days in October 2019, the festival involves public cinema screenings at the Prince Charles cinema in London's Leicester Square. Quentin Tarantino describes it as his favourite cinema in London saying it is "everything an independent movie theatre should be”.

Discover.film are looking for the best short films: stories that share a glimpse of filmmakers lives; what bothers them or makes them laugh, of injustices, of unsung heroes, of the serious, the bizarre, the funny or just where filmmakers' imaginations take them. All types of short film are welcome to enter with awards for: action, drama, sci-fi, docs, horror, comedy, experimental and everything in between (a full list of award categories is provided, below). All films must be under 45 minutes.

A major supporting partner of the festival is Craghoppers, the global outdoor clothing brand, which awards The Craghoppers Film Prize, one of the largest cash prizes available for short films. The first prize is £20,000 ($26,000) in cash with a second prize of £5,000 ($6,500) and additional awards of £5,000 ($6,500) for the best social impact film and £2,000 ($2,600) for the best student film. In addition, there are various in-kind awards from sponsors.

Selected films get the option of various paid distribution opportunities including international TV, major trains, hotels and airlines. Distribution is optional and entirely up to the filmmaker.

As well as cash prizes, winners can get help with future film projects in the form of discounted rates from partner firms (such as production houses) and mentoring from senior commercial film and business executives. The festival also introduces filmmakers to funding sources for future projects and offers publicity across a wide range of media (print and social) so enter today!

Sicilymovie – Agrigento Film Festival is a festival of feature films, short film, documentaries, videoclip, spot and animation shorts, created and organized by the Southmovie Association, which was created with the aim of bringing outdoor cinema for everyone to the heart of Sicily: the evocative Valley of the Temples of Agrigento, a city named Italian Capital of Culture 2025. The themes addressed in the works of directors from all over the world are multiple and educational.

The ninth edition of Sicilymovie is aimed at the best productions and distributions of short films and documentaries in the world who will compete for the Golden Demetra, the representative statuette of the Festival which recalls ancient Greece, cultural symbol of ancient Akragas, the city of Agrigento.
The project is supported and sponsored by the Valle dei Templi Archaeological and Landscape Park of Agrigento, the Municipality of Agrigento, the Sicily Film Commission and the Tourism Department of the Sicily Region. The Valle dei Templi Archaeological and Landscape Park is about 1300 hectares wide and here belong the remains of the ancient city of Akragas and the surrounding area up to the sea. The Valley of the Temples was declared a "World Heritage Site" by Unesco in 1997. Today the Valley of the Temples has more than one million visitors a year.

PLACE, DATE AND DEADLINE

Sicilymovie - Agrigento Film Festival will take place from 18 to 21 July 2024 at the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento

The deadline for the call will be 2024, May 31 at 23:59

The Fabriano Film Fest returns also in this 2022, now in its tenth edition.

The festival will be held from 20 to 24 October in the beautiful city of Fabriano.

There are always many activities that go hand in hand with the screenings of short films, so also for this edition we promise you
"Big emotions, in small doses" ...

Short feature international film festival

We are an international short film festival, for express the spiritual cinema with a universal language, dealing with internal affairs of the human being, a cinema of the invisible that captures the essence of the deep and transcendent, in introspective and reflective stories; with questions and answers about life. Each story is fruit harvested from the inside out and symbolize 9 spiritual values that are fundamental for us: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Kindness, Fidelity, Humility and Self Control.

The 14th FICCI-ON - Ciudad Rodrigo International Film Festival aims to promote educational, social and spiritual films made around the world.

The theme of the festival will therefore be educational, social and values-based; including all those films that promote child development in all its aspects.

Values-based films that deal with the subject of human rights, as well as intercultural dialogue. There will also be room for films with ethnographic themes, social denunciation or commitment to the development of the culture of Peace. Regarding spiritual themes, this is a very broad section where religious and/or spiritual films will be included, regardless of the confession and creed of the film and its authors.

Silent Movie World Festival is the young but very important independent silent movie film festival in the world. We accept movies of any genres & duration.

The festival has stimulated and assisted the process of recovering and restoring the silent film heritage, which is the vital role of the world’s film archives. Lost films have been rediscovered, orphan reels have been identified, and chance personal encounters have led to restoration projects.

Silent Movie World Festival showcases features, shorts and music videos by filmmakers from all over the world to an audience of film executives and buyers, journalists, film fans and filmmakers. Along with screenings, there are seminars, workshops and parties to allow everyone the chance to share our passion for silent film.

Silent Movie World Festival satisfies the public's thirst for original filmmaking through its diverse international programming.

Submissions for the Silent Movie World Festival should go through Festhome or email promos.vincent.inc@gmail.com or via facebook page
www.facebook.com/Silent-Movie-World-Festival-158448961195544

CONSTRUIR CINE: INTERNATIONAL LABOR FILM FESTIVAL 2024 EDITION - OFFICIAL COMPETITIONS TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Construir Cine is the only International Labor Film Festival in Argentina. Its next edition will take place in Buenos Aires in May 2024, in a hybrid mode (face-to-face and online).

Construir Cine celebrates national and international cinema aiming to recognize and support filmmakers and to improve knowledge, accessibility, and understanding of socio-labor issues among a wide and diverse public.

Construir Cine is an event organized by UOCRA Foundation for the Education of Construction Workers’ TV channel, —hereinafter, the Organizer, with support from the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) and its on-demand platform CINE.AR, and sponsored by UOCRA CULTURA and Construyendo Arte. This festival is part of the Global Labor Film Festival, an organization that brings together labor film festivals from around the world, and belongs to “RAFMA”: Argentine Network of Audiovisual Festivals and Exhibitions.

“CONSTRUIR CINE” is a groundbreaking proposal aimed at offering quality entertainment with social consciousness. A sensitive and insightful view of the world of work and labor.

The International Gay, Lesbian Trans Film Festival of Lima - the OutfestPerú - opens its call for the XXI edition and films of all nationalities whose theme is LGBTIQ, and which are eligible for the various sections of the festival can participate in it: Feature films ( Official Section and International Panorama), Short Films Section either Documentary or Fiction and Video Art (Official and Panorama). The works must not have been exhibited in commercial theaters, broadcast on TV or be available to the public on the Internet or other windows in Peruvian territory prior to the celebration of the festival and must have copyright after 2023. Feature films and short films must preferably be unpublished in Peru, although this is not exclusive but will be valued very positively. OutfestPerú reserves the right to include films that do not meet these conditions in the programming, but out of competition.

ONLY FOR SPANISH FILMMAKERS // SOLO PARA CINEASTAS ESPAÑOLES.

Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is an award winning organization with its mission being to foster appreciation for different cultures by exploring the lives of people around the globe through independent film. In 2014 AIFF was awarded the Community Recognition Award by the Arlington Martin Luther King Committee, in 2013 the Alan McClennen Community Arts Award by the Arlington Center for the Arts and the Gold Star Award by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Through the founding of AIFF, the mission has also focused on enriching the community and broadening the view of our world and ourselves. AIFF believes that the arts are here to connect us, to communicate across boundaries, and touch our common humanity.

AIFF is open to national and international filmmakers. Whether professional or a first time filmmaker, we welcome innovative, original films with unique perspectives. Many of our selected films have been nominated for Academy Awards; i.e. BOTSO: The Teacher from Tbillisi directed by Tom Walters, Elena directed by Petra Costa, and Documented directed by Jose Antonio Vargas. We Still Live Here directed by Anne Makepeace was chosen by the U.S. State Department to screen around the world.

International Shorts is a year round film festival which screens selected movies at the end of each season (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter). Best of the Festival films will be screened at Business Factory in Castelldefels, Catalonia, Spain

SEMBRANDO CINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
XII EDITION: Recognizing our shadow

Our shade can be a real problem.

It is that side of our humanity, which we prefer to keep hidden, and which makes us act questionably.

This shadow, is in part, what has led us to cause a terrible impact on the environment.

Deforestation, oil spills, pollution of soils and seas, annihilation of species, violation of indigenous rights and assassinations of environmental defenders.

This shadow, individual and collective, is projected from the big cities over our ecosystems and under the protection of state legality and private investments in favor of “progress and industrialization”.

In times where the imbalance we have caused in the environment, comes back at us like climate disasters and nature embezzles, it behooves us to dare to look back at this shadow.

We have a responsibility to understand its impact, point out those projecting it and demand regulations to defend those it affects.

They say that the first step to solving a problem is to identify it and today, through cinema, we seek to acknowledge our actions, to stop the advance of their consequences on our unique natural environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL SEMBRANDO CINE – XII EDITION
RECOGNIZING OUR SHADOW

CineEco - International Environmental Film Festival of Serra da Estrela, organised by the Municipality of Seia, is the only festival in Portugal dedicated to the environment, which has been held uninterruptedly since 1995.

CineEco offers the public quality cinema and little-known, alternative cinematographies in relation to the traditional market. It is a festival that seeks to raise public awareness of cinema, its history and aesthetics, as well as environmental issues.

"Corto Sordi", ovvero un premio dedicato al grande attore romano. Il concorso avrà il suo epilogo a luglio, ma già adesso la macchina organizzativa è partita.
Nato nel 2013, in occasione del 10° anniversario dalla morte del grande Albertone, il premio è promosso e coordinato dall'associazione Utopià di Grottaglie con l'intento di sostenere e incentivare quanti credono e vivono nel mondo della recitazione e dello spettacolo con capacità, talento e impegno professionale. Quest'anno, l'iniziativa vanta l'egida della Fondazione Alberto Sordi, ente morale nato nel 1992 proprio per volontà dell'attore romano, al fine di promuovere la ricerca scientifica sulle patologie dell'età avanzata e l'assistenza qualificata alle persone anziane, nel rispetto prima e nella valorizzazione poi della dignità della persona umana e del suo diritto alla vita e alla salute. L'evento ha inoltre ricevuto il patrocinio del Comune di Grottaglie e della Regione Puglia.
L'appuntamento per il premio “CortoSordi” è per il 19 luglio prossimo nell'atrio del primo circolo didattico “Edmondo De Amicis” di Grottaglie e sarà presentato dalla conduttrice di Telenorba, Daniela Mazzacane. Molte le novità in programma che saranno illustrate per tappe nella sezione "Comunicati Stampa" man mano che ci si avvicina all'apertura del bando.