Blog: Film festivals

Sofia MENAR Film Festival is organized by Pozor company.

Sofia MENAR Film Festival makes Bulgarian audience familiar with the culture and traditions of the Islamic world. The programme of Sofia MENAR Film Festival presents the best of Middle East and North Africa cinema productions, including feature films, documentaries and short projects. A lot of accompanying events are organised within the frames of the festival. These events are particularly selected and bound up with the countries of this region, representing traditions and customs of the ethnic groups that inhabit its lands.

The festival is held every year in January and runs at the same time in Sofia and other major Bulgarian cities. MENAR is organised by "Pozor" as one of a kind Balkans` largest cultural event representing Muslim world and its traditions.

Amongst the directors whose films have been presented during the festival are names such as Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Ümit Ünal, Asghar Farhadi, Panahbarkhoda Rezaee, Hany Abu-Assad, Bahman Ghobadi, Reza Mir-Karimi, Eran Riklis, Derviş Zaim, Hüseyin Karabey, Susan Youssef, Nacer Khemir, Nadir Mokneche ...

Sofia MENAR Film Festival continues the tradition of "Flowers of the Qu`ran" Film Festival, organised 4 years on end, from 2009 to 2012 making the Bulgarian audience acquainted with more than 120 film productions that bring the spirit of the East.

The term MENAR, for "Middle East and North Africa Region", is an acronym often used to cover an extensive area, stretching from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries.

Filmmakers, have you already shoot a short film? #48FILM, welcome you to the 48ISFF (48 Independent Short Film Festival)that give equal opportunities to every filmmaker from all over the world. Filmmakers, who have already made any kind of short films will be selected to screen their movies at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood. Submit your short movie now:
https://www.48filmproject.com/48isff

Open call to submit short movies, from 3 and up to 30 minutes in length, of any genre.Submissions may be from any country.

We want to promote talented filmmakers, and we made the process easy, without formal restrictions on submissions. Will consider all genres and types of short films. Find more here: https://www.48filmproject.com/48isff

Cartoon Club – International Festival of Animation Cinema, Comics and Games, now at its 41st edition, is one of the best known festivals on the Italian scene.

It is a remarkable window for animation, short films in particular, including fiction, educational, experimental, and computer graphic works, with a whole section solely dedicated to comics: Riminicomix.

The Festival features SHORT ANIMATED FILMS in various sections:

CARTOON CLUB AWARD, open to short animated films made by professional filmmakers and production companies.

SIGNOR ROSSI AWARD, open to animated films made by secondary school and university students, and by the students of animation film schools.

CARTOON KIDS AWARD, among the titles submitted to either Cartoon Club Award or to Signor Rossi Award, the Festival direction will select, at their own discretion, some short animated films aimed at a children’s audience. An all-children’s jury will select the winner among these films.

INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA, a non-competitive section open to European and non-European animated short films.

CARTOON JUNIOR AWARD, open to short animated films realized within workshops for children, in Italy or abroad.


Furthermore, the festival features:
- exhibitions;
- educational and social projects;
- workshops in local schools;
- one of the most popular and entertaining Cosplay conventions in Italy.
- publication of books and catalogs.
The festival takes place in Rimini in various locations, from downtown to the beach, in the month of July.

Rahway International Film Festival is an international film festival and networking event based in Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.A, only 40 minutes away from New York City. It was first held in June of 2013 in an effort to create a warm and welcoming home for independent filmmakers and fans of film in the Tri-State Area. We annually showcase short films, feature films and music videos while offering networking and workshop opportunities to those interested in the film industry.

This year’s event will take place over the course of a full weekend from Friday, August 28, 2015 - Sunday, August 30, 2015. As we enter our third year, we are expanding to a three-day weekend event. This means more films (including both features & shorts), more workshops, more seminars, more filmmaker Q&As, and much more!

The Marbella International Film Festival brings together artists and their films from all corners of the globe to display their talents to the commercial world.

The Festival is growing in stature and receives continuous worldwide accolade, recognition and support for its contribution to the arts.

We are delighted to now be entering our 17th Marbella International Film Festival, to be held 5th to 9th October 2022.

The Festival has expanded considerably since it’s launch in 2006 and we now have additional collaboration and association with the Marbella Town Hall and Tourist Board, Marbella Film Office and the Andalucia Film Commission.

During the Festival we host five glamorous evening events with many networking opportunities, culminating in the grand Gala Awards Ceremony.

Attendees come from all over the world and include filmmakers, industry professionals, exhibitors, dignitaries, celebrities and VIPs, special invited guests and the rich and famous of course!

Aware of the importance of audiovisual media in Spanish society today and, trying to make them both a comunication and education media, to promote values of solidarity and tolerance, the International Social Film Festival of Castilla-La Mancha was born and it will be held in Toledo, It will continue in Toledo, Torrijos, Cuenca, Olías del Rey...

In this Festival are invited to take part to public and private entities that share the same concerns.

The Festival consists of several sections, including a contest of short and documentaries, social issues include: xenophobia, generational conflict, child labor, domestic violence, social roles, ecology, children´s rights, coexistence, etc.

MI PRIMER FESTIVAL (MY FIRST FESTIVAL) - International film festival for children, Barcelona & Madrid - 17th edition: from November 9 to 23, 2025.

"Mi Primer Festival" is an International film festival for children from 2 to 12 years. My First Film Festival features over 100 films in a total of 21 screenings. In short, MPF is a film extravaganza that showcases both different techniques and formats and the creativity of artists from all around the world.

The international competition of SHORT FILMS for children will include 4 programmes:

- International Short Competition for children over 2 years old

- International Short Competition for children over 4 years old

- International Short Competition for children over 7 years old

- International Short Competition for children over 10 years old

The international competition of FEATURE FILMS will include one programme of films, with a maximum of 10 titles.

The festival will take place in November simultaneously in Barcelona and Madrid and is a great opportunity for boys and girls from 2 to 12 years old to discover unique and unprecedented cinema.

The festival also programs films that have not been created specifically for children, which is why it encourages film directors as well as distributors to present their works even if they have not been conceived for this audience profile. Younger viewers rise to the challenge, and the introductions and discussions that accompany viewings provide a good context for understanding and enjoying the films.

A broad-spectrum festival, annually since 2010, the CFF welcomes brave and beautiful - and fun - films from around the world to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. We typically program over 100 films for the event. Screenings are located in multiple venues in the region over the 10 day festival event.

Rahway International Film Festival is an international film festival and networking event based in Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.A, only 40 minutes away from New York City. It was first held in June of 2013 in an effort to create a warm and welcoming home for independent filmmakers and fans of film in the Tri-State Area. We annually showcase short films, feature films and music videos while offering networking and workshop opportunities to those interested in the film industry.

This year’s event will take place over the course of a full weekend from Friday, August 28, 2015 - Sunday, August 30, 2015. As we enter our third year, we are expanding to a three-day weekend event. This means more films (including both features & shorts), more workshops, more seminars, more filmmaker Q&As, and much more!

18 CINETORO EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL

CINETORO is projected as a transdisciplinary Festival-School, dedicated to curatorial practice and the training of filmmakers; building bridges between emerging talents and prominent national and international artists, and promoting analysis and criticism related to the production and thinking behind experimental cinema and animation.
We advocate for a cinema where poetry and art dialogue; that draws its limit beyond the perimeter of spectacularity, of technical correctness, of the topics and forms on the agenda. It is an imperfect cinema, which accepts its artisanal condition and is concerned with the recovery of the consciousness of corporeality; reflecting, problematizing and questioning the construction of image and sound.
Cinema with a territorial imprint, which redesigns, mutates and pronounces itself before the world. Resignifying the territory, transforming the perspective on rurality and providing the community with spaces for the appropriation of knowledge.

ABYSSAL CHANTS
Is what we hear alive?
#SeeAndHearDifferently:

18TH CINETORO EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
From October 28th to November 2nd

A distant sound rumbles in the darkness of the room, a call coming from the abyssal depths of the ocean, a penetrating song that attracts and binds. The listener slips through a seam in time and plunges into the void.That leap entails risk, and an encounter with the unknown. Those films that jump, that search in the darkness, in the shadow, in the mystery, in the spectral, in the sound but also in the silence, are the ones that captivate us in this edition.

Sound as movement, can reveal the temporal dimension of an image —whether still or moving. Rather than merely supporting images semantically, sound may serve as their structural axis. We are looking for films that explore diverse relationships between image and sound or treat sound as plastic material. Whether through a conceptual approach where sound structures the film; or where the voice carries weight not just for what is said, but also for its qualities: the voice as a malleable medium, as revelation and reverberation; or where music, instead of simply accompanying the image, becomes a structural part of the film itself . Films that take shape through sound.

We want to dive into the depths of sound, so that with our eyes closed we can see and listen as we swim and immerse ourselves. From a theoretical or curatorial perspective, little exploration has been done in these waters

The abyssal chants act as a call, and this call is what we want to respond to, in this edition. We are looking for animations, documentaries, fictions, hybrid films and experimentations that resonate with these chants, with this call to see and hear differently.

#AbyssalSongs #DeepListening #Cinetoro2025 #LookAndListenDifferently #LeapIntoTheAbyss #FilmAndSound #ExperimentalFilmFestival #HybridCinema #ExperimentalCinema
#ExperimentalNarrative

The Big Easy International Film Festival, now in our 9th season, has continued to grow and develop into an important screening opportunity for filmmakers. We also have truly the most amazing location in the U.S…. When filmmakers attend the Big Easy, they’re in for the most unique festival experience! We may not be the biggest festival or have the hugest numbers of attendees, but the over-all experience you’ll have coming to New Orleans, screening in the Big Easy, will be one you’ll never forget.

We screen both feature and short films of every genre. From Drama to horror, documentary to music video, the Big Easy has a great love of all film.

Caostica is an International Shortfilm an Videoclip Festival that takes place in Bilbao (Basque Country) with these sections: Videozinema (Fiction Shortfilms), Animation and Videoclip (Music Video).
All prizes are given by a professional jury except of Bizarre Prize. The Caostica Association will award the Bizarre Prize to the participant whom best represents the fresh, innovative, quirky, irreverent, Martian, jokester, weird, risky, brave and daring spirit that characterizes this festival, regardless of the section in which he or she is registered.In addition to this the Festival will award a prize to the best film in basque language, independently of the section in which its signed up.

The Burguillos Short Film Festival's goal is the promotion and exhibition of short films shot in Andalusia or made by Andalusian artists. Also, the support of cinematography and culture in the town of Burguillos (Sevilla).

ONLY FOR ANDALUSIAN FILM-MAKERS // Solo para cineastas andaluces (España).

The Cisterna Film Festival is an international short film festival held in Cisterna di Latina, Italy, in July. It is organized by the Cultural Association MOBilitazioni Artistiche with the artistic direction of Cristian Scardigno.

From 2015 the Cisterna Film Festival screened international and national premieres, from the major festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, Clermont-Ferrand) and winners of the most important national and international awards (Oscar, David, Cesar, Goya).

Since 2017, the festival has hosted a “Focus” section dedicated to specific country. In 2017, Poland inaugurated it, with the support of the Polish Institute in Rome, and in 2018 it was the turn of Ireland, with the collaboration of the Irish Film Festa and the Irish Embassy. In 2019 there was a Focus on Germany, with the support of German Films and German Embassy in Rome and in 2021 the Focus on Greece with the collaboration of Drama International Short Film Festival, an European Film Awards qualifying festival. In 2022, the CFF screened shorts from Croatia with the support of Croatian Audiovisual Centre. Last year, the Festival hosted short-films from Palestinian authors, in collaboration with the Consulat Général de France a Jérusalem and the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.

The festival annually hosts key figures from the show business and organizes collateral events such as book presentations, workshops dedicated to teenagers and photography exhibitions.

www.cisternafilmfestival.com

ONLY FOR BRAZILIAN FILMMAKERS // SOLO PARA CINEASTAS BRASILEÑOS

“Delhi Women's International Film Festival – 2016”

About Festival – The Annual Delhi Women's International Film Festival (DWIFF) is one of the few international film and arts festivals dedicated to women's. This day extravaganza, consisting of indoor and outdoor red carpet film screenings, and Awards Distribution. It's a celebration of women and all who love women. DWIFF films and screenings are selected and hosted by filmmakers, professors, and other notable figures in the world of film. In addition to exhibiting the next new wave of women filmmakers, the DWIFF also makes time to pay tribute to films by women with historical significance.

Mission & Objective - The mission of the Delhi Women's International Film Festival (DWIFF) is to empower women's artistic vision internationally. With women representing only 7% of filmmakers, we would like to increase the number of women in the industry and support those women who are actively involved by assisting filmmakers and artists with the development of their craft.

Daroca&Prisión Film Fest
Festival Internacional Cine de Daroca

This is the only online Film Festival in the world in which the prisoners belonging to the Film Workshop of the Daroca Penitentiary Center (Spain) have an intense and active participation:

Viewing, pre-selecting and deciding the Awards (along with a Jury of professionals of the sector);

Participating in the filming of a comedy sketch alongside an honored star, as well as in all the previous phases – such as the script, planning, acting, lighting, sound and production – and in its post-production;

And in the preparation and conduct of interviews with the aforementioned honored star and other illustrious visitors to the prison.

A job lasting several months that has a very positive impact on their social reintegration.

The Flagler Film Festival was formed to showcase the work of new and emerging filmmakers as well as more experienced filmmakers. We believe there are many creative and innovative artists who deserve recognition for their efforts, especially those constrained by low budgets. We believe that sometimes even more creativity is required when a filmmaker has little or no budget with which to create a film. We believe these films should be seen and be recognized for the efforts of the teams that put them together. The writers, directors, crew, actors and all the talented people involved in the production of a film, whether it is a feature or a short, deserve to have a chance to be seen. We are proud to give filmmakers an opportunity to show their work.

Our fourth annual Flagler Film Festival showcased many fantastic films from around the world, including a short animation which was nominated this year for an Academy Award! Films produced by students from Florida State University, NYU, University of Virginia, Savannah College of Art & Design, Full Sail University, and the American Film Institute were screened as well as films from graduates of many other fine colleges and universities. We were proud to showcase local filmmakers as well as filmmakers from such diverse locations as Luxembourg, Spain, France, Rwanda, Australia, Nepal, Canada, Serbia, Iran, and Peru. As an artistic community, we enjoy including musicians, writers and artists at our festival as well as filmmakers. This year our special guest was Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Steve Boone, of the '60's band The Lovin' Spoonful. Steve met many of our audience and signed CDs, albums and his new book, "Hotter than a Match Head: On the Run with the Lovin' Spoonful." We showcased a short comedy from actor Chris Roach who currently stars on CBS in "Kevin Can Wait" with Kevin James. One of our documentaries, "Daddy Don't Go" was recently picked up by Starz and will be available to the public!

The third annual Flagler Film Festival was proud to showcase amazing films from around the world. We had a film about a Grammy-nominated children's choir from Uganda called "Imba Means Sing" (now in national distribution), a documentary film by an Emmy Award winning filmmaker, a film narrated by the Academy Award winning, legendary actress Olivia De Havilland, two films which won student Emmy Awards and two films which were screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner. We were very proud to be the only festival in Florida to screen "Animals" an independent feature film written by and starring David Dastmalchian (Ant Man, The Dark Knight) now in national distribution. In addition, we had a terrific assortment of low budget, independent and student films which amazed our audience. Over 20 films had representation at the festival with lively, emotional and intelligent Q&As after the screenings. See our website for videos of the Q&As in addition to the list of films, extensive press and awards.

So far, two of our Best Documentary Feature Nominees from our 3rd Annual Festival have announced national distribution deals. Both "My Father's Vietnam" (winner) and nominee "Mount Lawrence" will be seen this spring on VOD platforms as well as other formats, including theatrical. Please see their websites or IMDb for more info and congratulations to them from the festival!

Our second annual festival showcased excellent student and small budget films as well as films with extraordinary credentials, including a film written by two-time Academy Award winning screenwriter, Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird). We were proud to have as our special guest, Laura Tyler, make up artist known for her work on "Face Off" and "Hunger Games." She did a special live demonstration for our audience by turning an actor into a zombie! Also in attendance was actress Evalena Marie (Serena and the RATTS, Dark Haul, Remains) representing the indie feature "Visionary." Our festivities concluded with a champagne awards celebration on our last evening.

We are very proud that several of our official selections from our first two years have received distribution and can be seen on Blu-Ray, DVD and streaming sites. Many of our selected films have gone on to win many awards at festivals around the world. We wish much success to all the filmmakers out there!

Flagler Film Festival announced our new association with Renny Roker, film and television actor, writer and producer. Renny has appeared in or starred in 47 films and over 400 television episodes in his career. He is currently producing new projects in the Flagler County area. He also mentors college students and does charity work. We are thrilled to have his support and through his worldwide contacts in the film industry, we will be expanding our presence in the festival world.

Flagler Film Festival was inspired by the amazingly talented people we have met who perform all the hard work that is required to make a film. We recognize that there are many creative filmmakers who are looking for a place to showcase their work. We are located in a relaxed, pristine beach area with community members who support the arts. Galleries, live theater and now a film festival are part of our small city located in beautiful Flagler County, Florida. Our coastal location is within a short distance to many Florida attractions. If you are a filmmaker who has drive and talent, who is looking for a place to show your work, and is interested in Florida sunshine in January, we hope that you will submit your film for consideration in our festival.

The Flagler Film Festival was created by independent filmmakers for independent filmmakers. Wolfe Productions, LLC and Cashback International, Inc. are the co-founders of the Flagler Film Festival.

We will be showcasing feature films and shorts of all genres. If you believe in your film, we will do our very best to recognize your talent and efforts and include your work in our festival. Special consideration will be given to student films.

The Flagler Film Festival is pleased to announce our affiliation with 10th Voyage Studios of Palm Coast, Florida, a full service motion picture production company. Plan to visit a movie studio during your visit to the festival.

Many exciting new events to be announced in the near future, along with prizes for filmmakers.

DEA OPEN AIR International Film Festival is a product of MultiMedia Studio "Nositi".

The Festival will take place in the Capital city of Tirana.