Blog: Film festivals

The short films taking part in the competition must necessarily tackle a social topic, since the Festival aims at raising awareness on contemporary issues such as social exclusion, migration, gender violence, unemployment, fundamental rights, etc. Any short film which shows these or other social issues will be accepted in the Festival, notwithstanding the main topic of the short films may not have a particularly social nature.

Brainwash, since 1995, has delighted audiences with a selection of the bizarre, the unique, and just plain old well-made movies from independent producers all over the world. With an eye toward the abstract, the innovative and the weird, Brainwash saluted it's 25th Silver Anniversary in the 2019 season, and, we're still going strong. We have consistently attracted entries we curate to be able to display some of the most cutting edge cinema from up and and coming directors, actors, producers and crews consistently year after year. So please send us yours this year!

Since the International Short film Contest Festival “Ciudad de Soria” considers at all times Short Films CINEMA in capital and appreciates as essential culture dissemination, our purpose is to promote as mean of audiovisual expression; the contribution to acknowledgment and dissemination. This format must be essentially and basically a part of CINEMA.

Some call it the “Lady Tickler,” “Lip Spinach,” or even, the “Cookie Duster.” Formally, it is known simply as “The Moustache.” In all of its forms it represents a man’s individuality and inner strength. Whether a full, furry and lustrous lip warmer or a smooth, sleek line of suave sophistication weaving it’s way across a dude’s upper lip, a man’s Moustache is an indication of his robust heart and the very soul of his being.

As part of the annual Facial Hair Fest—a celebration of facial hair in Portland, Maine—we are now looking for submissions for the International Moustache Film Festival (IMFF). Films will be screened in several venues throughout the week of March 21 through March 28, 2015,.

The Facial Hair Fest features all sorts of delightfully hairy good times, including the 8th annual Stache Pag (a moustache pageant), the Facial Hair Farmers Market, the Can-Am Beard and Moustache Competition, and of course, the IMFF. A number of IMFF screening blocks will be held, each dedicated to a different kind of stache. And despite the official name of the festival, beards are welcome. They are, after all, the less refined cousin to the moustache.

Films will be selected based on two criteria. First, we want good films. Second, we want films that highlight conspicuous, outstanding, and awesome facial hair. It's that simple.

Past years have seen the IMFF covered in the global press, including: Movie|Line, EW.com, The Guardian, BBC, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Boston.com, Yahoo.com, The Times of India, Buenos Aires Herald, DownEast Magazine, The Tribune, American Mustache Institute, The Beard Club and Stuff.Co.NZ.

Have a main character with a nice stache? Send us your film.

A documentary about hippies with beards? That's good to.

A film about Salvador Dali or Jesus? Totally qualifies.

A film about any of the following:
Hippies. Prophets. Musicians. Mountain Men. Cops. Robbers. Firemen. Old Fashioned Strong Men. Cowboys. NFL Quarterbacks. Private Investigators. Scientists. Political Leaders. Pirates. Canadians. Wizards. Dwarves. Dads. Cavemen. You. Your friends. Your enemies.

So send us some films, and please consider attending the International Moustache Film Festival!

The Unreal Film Festival is an annual film competition held in September in Memphis, TN. The festival accepts both short and feature length films from all over the world, but only films that fall under the horror, sci-fi, and/or fantasy film genres.

The year 2015 by can be easily termed as the ‘year of intolerance ‘in Indian socio-political and cultural milieu. This was coming all the way from the time the right wing party was voted to rule the country. It began with re-writing Indian history and text books for schools, colleges and academic institutions, running down Gandhiji, the architect of free India as also the free thinkers, eliminating rationalist, outspoken intellectuals and scholars, isolating artists and film makers, taking control of Central Board of Film Certification by forcing the eminent men and women constituted that body to resign en-mass. The right wing people have taken charge of all public art and cultural organizations.

People from the minority communities have been lynched and killed for suspecting to have eaten beef. Cow slaughter has been banned in states like Maharashtra taking away food from the tables of minority communities as well as daliths and increasing the burden on the farmers already bending backward with debt and are committing suicide. Those who protested the beef ban have been beaten up in Kashmir, in Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi. When the public very clearly understood that the general response of the government to these problems were dismissive as something that is done by antisocial elements people began to take action. The prominent scholars, writers, poets, actors, film makers and theatre personalities started returning the awards they received from the government. There were protests across the country, from politicians and eminent citizens.

Another aspect of this intolerance is manifested in witch hunting NGOs like Green Peace for very prominently taking up environmental issues and challenging the implementation of economic projects without proper environmental impact assessment. Those NGOs on the hit list of the government is harassed in every possible ways including cancelling their FCRA numbers and freezing their accounts. Fortunately so far the justice system was very fair in their judgments which has given much relief to the NGOs under the government scanner. Generally NGOs these days are seen by the politicians as people ‘against development’.

These very arrogant postures of the government was downsized by the people of India through democratic resurgence. First they lost a very high pitched assembly election in Delhi to Aam Admi Party and later in another high pitched assembly election in Bihar the right wing lost to an alliance of democratic forces represented by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar the local leaders. In all these instances the media was very pro-establishment. Were they too scared to investigate issues and inform the public?! While we hope that the people will elect democratic and secular parties in the Assembly elections happening now in April/May 2016,we need to nurture grass root level democratic practices which is one of the major objective of the festival. Whatever work we are engaged in now is from a very diminished public sphere. We do not know what the future holds for us but for now we belong to the breed of marginal citizens of this country.

As for our experience in this specific field is concerned, Bangalore Film Society was the South India coordinator of Tri-continental Film Festival "Human Rights in Frames from 2007 to 2009 organised by an NGO called Breakthrough. An average 5000 to 6000 people used to attend this festival in Bangalore in three days and the event had become very popular. Apart from this, we used to take these films to academic institutions as well as film societies in all South Indian States. However, the tricontinental film festival closed after 2009 and at present to the best of my knowledge we don't have a human rights film festival of that magnitude.
In the present Indian context, Bangalore Film Society wish to start an International Human Rights Traveling film festival from December 7th to 10th or from 9th to the 12th 2016 (depending on the availability of the auditorium) and organise a conference on freedom of speech and the right to dissent. The films selected will address major international human rights concerns such as refugees, lgbt sexuality, boarders, women, socio-political conflict, communal conflicts, child labour/abuse and so on The emphasis on the impact it should create. Once the festival is over these films will be circulated for screenings in educational, media institutions and film societies across India.

The 12th Annual Toyama International Film Festival will take place in June of 2025 in Toyama Prefecture. With such great success in previous years, we are excited to once again share the visions of filmmakers from all over the world with our local community in the countryside of Japan.

Submissions will be open until April 14th, 2025.

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The Annual Toyama International Film Festival (TIFF) began in the rural prefecture of Toyama, Japan. Started by a few English teachers in the area, we hoped to reach people not just in Japan, but around the globe.

The first TIFF took place in a small room inside of a shopping center, where about 70 people watched the 10 films we had received. The following year was a tremendous success with over 100 submissions from different countries, quite a step from our first year. The event was held in the city of Toyama at a local independently-owned venue, Bodegas-Mambo with around 80-100 guests coming to view the films. Every year since, we hope to expand even further and provide an even larger venue for participants and the movie-going community in Japan.

Today, with over 3000 submissions each year from countries around the world, TIFF has become a highly-anticipated annual event and a staple of Toyama's international community.

Note: Due to time constraints, we cannot accept films that run over 10 minutes. However, any genre of short film will be considered for exhibition.

Dallas Videofest is the major event presented by the Video Association of Dallas, which is dedicated to promoting an understanding of video as a creative medium and cultural force in our society, and to supporting and advancing the work of Texas artists working in video and the electronic arts. Through its programs and information services, the Video Association intends to educate and inform artists, students, educators, critics, video and film producers and an interested public so they may better understand, appreciate and evaluate the creative possibilities of the video medium. It will also provide a forum for the work of regional video artists, in order to stimulate excellence in their work and provide the opportunity for dialogue and critical discussion.

Ars Independent Festival 2019 will be the 9th multimedia festival of film, animation, video games and music videos. The upcoming edition will take place in Katowice, between the 24th and 29th of September 2019.

The festival is searching for what’s cool in young, debuting, contemporary audio-visual culture. It’s not afraid to watch videos with 27 views on YouTube, it’s missing the “least popular” sorting option on itch.io and considers Festival Scope Pro decidedly “too mainstream”.

The heart of the festival are four international competitions, in which the audience decides about the awarding of prizes. The Black Horse of Film (feature films from all over the world) and the Black Horse of Animation (short features) present the cinematographic debuts by directors from the entire world, often as their Polish premieres. The Black Horse of Video Games and the Black Horse of Music Video are devoted to new games and music videos.

Additionally, every year festivalgoers are treated to: screenings of films, animations and music videos, video game exhibitions, virtual reality and new technologies, discussion panels and Q&As with artists, concerts, live acts and musical afterparties.

In previous years, the festival hosted a variety of artists from all over the world, including Béla Tarr, Nina Menkes, Phil Mulloy, Laila Pakalnina, Bruce LaBruce, Tami Tamaki, Stephen „M.O.O.N.” Gilarde, Jakuba Dvorský, Mariola Brillowska, Piotr Dumała, Arkadiusz Jakubik, Bodo Kox, Łukasz Barczyk, Sos Sosowski, Wiktor Stribog and Władysław Komendarek.

The event is organized by the culture institution Katowice the City of Gardens and the City of Katowice.

Arizona Underground Film Festival is Arizona’s only premier underground cult film festival! Celebrating our 18th year, we make it our sole mission to showcase the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions. We are on a quest to represent every genre of independent film from across the world celebrating the artist, and their work. We will cover categories from Narrative, Horror, Documentaries, Experimental, Animation, and Exploitation. Join us in the underground!

Many of the films that have screened at the festival over the years have gone on to receive distribution from the festival screening, or attention from press and other festivals. We have been the World Premiere for many films over the past 10 years, and we will continue to premiere films, and showcase the best of independent cinema.

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT AZUFF

“It’s got the vision and confidence of fests that have been around a lot longer.” - Filmmaker Magazine

“Prestigious festival” – The Huffington Post

“Unbeatable!” - Arizona Daily Star

“Truly Amazing” - Tucson Citizen

“AZUFF shed(s) light on the underground network… bringing independent films into the lime-light” - Yahoo News

“A Top-Notch Film Festival” - Trashwire

“A Real Powerhouse of a Festival” - Underground Film Journal

“A Wild Ride to the Edges of Visionary Independent Cinema” - Film Festival Examiner

Her Point of View has entered into a partnership agreement with the Community Education Department of Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in Nashville TN. The Nashville festival will be held at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film in September 2015. Specific dates are being finalized and will be released soon. Stay tuned! New programming developments occurring every day.


Empowering current and future generations of artists currently underrepresented in front of and behind the camera, Her Point of View, a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, launches this year and will present arts and entertainment created from a woman’s point of view in Nashville, TN with screenings in Atlanta GA. New cities are added everyday.

In each city, Her Point of View will conduct a four (4) day international film festival complete with workshops, panels, independent and studio films, fine art gallery, live music events, industry parties and plenty of networking mixers. Filmmakers, film, TV, music, art and entertainment executives and celebrities are invited to participate in the event developed to highlight women artists from around the world.

"Sundance South of The Border!"
-Spotlight Magazine

"One of the Top 25 Festivals in the world "
-MovieMaker Magazine

"A new star is born in the Film Festival Universe"
-IndieRocks!

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!

New NAMES, new GENRES, new CINEMA LANGUAGES on a big screen in the middle of Siberia!

International Kansk Video Festival (Russia/Siberia) is not a conventional film festival. It is an experiment in time and space. The small Siberian city of Kansk, was found on the Internet by chance and selected as its name correlates with the Cannes Film Festival, Kansk in the Russian language is pronounced the same as Cannes.

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Since 2002 the festival has taken place annually in the depths of Siberia. Far away from the Côte d`Azur in the severe Taiga climate, 7000 km from London, 4500 km from Moscow and 300 km from Krasnoyarsk by the Trans-Siberian Railway formerly used to transport shackled contvicts. In this area, full of wonderful and brave Siberian people, pelmeni and cedar nuts, even buses seem reminiscent of the old school buses from a long lost Soviet place full of magic.

The Kansk Video festival has grown immeasurably from it’s 2002 beginnings. Each year it hosts an international jury from the industry and artistic communities, running international film and video-art competitions with a special screenings program and a bank of ideas big enough for the next 150 years. The festival promotes new names, new genres and new cinema trends of the independent and uncompromising video and filmmaking industry.

FESTER is a regular film series in Los Angeles showcasing “Mindfuck Movies,” films that crawl inside your head and stay there like the memory of a fever dream.

Did you make the next Primer or Donnie Darko? Did other festivals think your film was too weird or complex or out there? Want to show your Mindfuck Film at a cool venue in LA? Submit!

We want the best plot-twisting, genre-bending, mind-fucking movies unfindable on TV, Netflix, iTunes, or anywhere else outside our monthly screenings. No restrictions on year of production or previous festival appearances!

Rural FilmFest, member of Green Film Network (GFN), is an international itinerant film festival, which offers a current overview of international documentary film, fiction and animation in a short, medium and long format related to the rural world, ecology, sustainability and natural and cultural resources. Rural FilmFest is not a common film festival, it is a unique and unrepeatable event. It is a summer camp, with excursions, multi-adventure, geocaching awards ceremony (Yes, you read that right. As a filmmaker you will have to find your trophy at the closing gala via GPS coordinates), international coexistence, dance, party and lifelong friendships. It is the experience of your life and if you attend, you will not want it goes over and you will want to return next year... Just read the reviews to discover the opinions of other filmmakers who have attended the Rural FilmFest. If you have a fiction film, animation or documentary whether it is a short film or a feature film, do not hesitate to submit.