Blog: Film festivals

Located just 50 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Wine Country Film Festival is wine country's original and longest running film festival. It features more spectacular Festival screenings under the stars - Films al Fresco™ - than any other festival in North America.

A top tier event, the festival is slow paced and friendly with time to enjoy a wonderful recreation region.

Praised for its carefully curated program, the Festival takes pride in the discovery and exposure of new talent and broadening the ‘film literacy’ of our audience. It is your film and your voice that create the tone of each edition.

There are seven main sections: World Cinema, U.S. Cinema, Arts in Film, Music in Film, CineLatino, Cinema of Conscience (humanity and social issues), and EcoCinema, plus a special mini-section of Food On Film. We program shorts, documentaries, animation and dramatic features.

Share your passion and unique vision with us. At the Festival your film will be received by an enthusiastic public. You may be invited to participate in Master Classes that are lively and informative. Often we feature Filmmaker personalized tours to wineries and local attractions.

Many supporting events bring a greater appreciation to the art of filmmaking such as performances, readings, exhibitions of paintings, sculpture and photography. Films are screened in local venues and outdoors under the stars in spectacular wine country settings such as the sheltered emerald arena at Muscardini Cellars Winery.

Awards include (partial list)

The Nollywood Travel Festival celebrates the best of Nigerian cinema and will be hosted in Toronto, Canada from 5-7 May 2017. It will be a weekend of special indoor and outdoor screenings, inspiring discussions,meeting,parties and awards.

ONLY FOR FILM-MAKERS FROM SPAIN // SOLO PARA CINEASTAS ESPAÑOLES

The Cardiff Mini Film Festival has been taking over unusual venues to screen film since 2012. To ensure any newcomers to the industry aren't obliterated by any high budget production companies we separate our fiction programming into high budget and low budget, so please ensure you tell us what your budget was for the actual making of the film (marketing and distribution excluded).

You can expect to watch a film in a coffee shop vault, a shopping centre basement, an antique market, themed bars and any other fantastic unusual venues we can get our hands-on. This is a festival for those that like to mingle with a drink throughout the day whilst enjoying the best up and coming short films.

All kinds of people come to our festival, from actors to musicians, as well as special guests from within the industry which in the past have included Boyd Clack (Twin Town, Satellite City, High Hopes), Kirsten Jones (Satellite City, High Hopes), Philip John (Being Human, Kevin Allen (Twin Town), Downton Abbey) Ryan Eddleston (Prevenge), Kevin Allen (Twin Town), S4C, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Creative Skillset, Festival Formula, Cult Cymru and many more people to meet to discuss your career in the industry.

We also screen many special under distributed films for those film lovers out there, in underused spaces such as bars and empty shops.

We are supported by Ffilm Cymru Wales and the BFI.

The International Unseen Film Festival 'Social Films' from Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) is organized by Kultura, Communication y Desarrollo KCD NGOD; Organization dedicated to promoting a human, intercultural, equitable and sustainable development through Communication and Culture.

The International Unseen Film Festival 'Social Films' from Bilbao is an annual celebration dedicated to show a cinema full of diversity and social commitment, a cinema that is usually excluded from commercial screens.
The Festival is centered on four major themes: Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Interculturality and Gender Equity.
With its continuous work, it has become an indispensable appointment for all those interested in communication for development and social transformation.

The Festival is also a recognition of all people who make a communication that allows to reflect through their audiovisual works all those different causes and problems of humanity.

Eye Myth has spent a long time being born. Named after 9 second film by the eminent filmmaker, Stan Brakhage, Eye Myth is about our passion and love of film.

Eye Myth is a platform for emerging and established artists to have the opportunity to have their work seen by as extensive an audience as possible. We value independent filmmaking, artistic integrity, and, above all, artistic innovation. As such our festival is more geared towards films that may be called "art & experimental" but in the interest of not limiting our goals we also accept non-genre narrative films.

All filmmakers are invited to submit.

The 360 VR and AR festival, the first Virtual Reality film festival held in Spain, will celebrate its 8th edition on September 25, 26, and 27, 2024, in which the quality and innovation of the films will be rewarded. national and international virtual reality short films.

The contest is organized by Mecal, which organizes Mecal Pro, the Barcelona International Short Film and Animation Festival.

Open World Animation Festival encourages creators to explore the frontiers of animation through both traditional & emerging mediums. Its mission is to help general audiences understand the artistry in animation and its diversity of subject matter. It aims to showcase many voices, styles, & perspectives. Anyone is welcome to take part!

For the 2024 Festival we are partnering with the Emmaus Theatre as our official screening location! This 450-seat venue is one of only 600 surviving independent theaters in the Nation. The Emmaus Theatre is equipped with DLP Cinema for a state of the art cinematic experience!

http://www.emmaustheatre.com

Open World also features animation retrospectives, Virtual Reality set-ups, GIF displays, a cereal bar & more!

The festival began in 2016 as a series of independent animation screenings from around the world, curated in a 4-day celebration of the medium. Open World is organized by the Alternative Gallery, a non-profit community art space, and is run 100% by volunteers.

The Alternative Gallery is located in Allentown, PA within the Cigar Factory Artist studios, featuring; exhibit & performance spaces, over 40 artist studios, a printshop, wood shop, darkroom, film archive, makerspace, classrooms & more. The organization & festival are both run 100% through the efforts of dedicated volunteers.

YOU GIVE US STORIES...

Maine has beautiful locations, a talented and professional crew, and a mystique that brings millions of tourists to our fair home every year. Our film production community is growing quickly, and we need films to make. That's where you come in!

We want your screenplays and pilots. We want films that we can make here in our wonderful state, bold and original stories that will take advantage of everything Maine has to offer as a film-making destination. Give us something interesting we can make here, and we will make it.

...WE MAKE YOUR MOVIE

Here's where it gets interesting! One of the winning scripts will be selected for production. This production will be funded by the application fees from the contest. Our goal and our hope is that there will be enough money over and above the cash awards, paying readers, and small amount of overhead, to finance a Maine film production, using the talented cast and crew available to us right here in the Pine Tree State.

MFI will collaborate directly with the winning writer, inviting them to participate in every step of the process. It might be a five hundred dollar short. It might be two hundred thousand dollar feature. The scope of the production depends on the number of entries we receive.

Our goal with MFI is to reward daring screenwriters and support local film artists. We want to encourage making movies in Maine by making a movie in Maine…maybe your movie!

IT´S OPEN TO ALL

The finalist short films will make up the competitive exhibition. This will be screened in the various screening spaces scheduled for this year's edition of the 2024 Festival.

As part of the festival's decentralized activities, this finalist screening may be programmed in audiovisual and cultural events organized or co-organized by the Cinco Minutos Cinco association.

The Futbolero World Film Festival seeks to promote football as a space for intercultural dialogue and heritage of humanity, through the meeting of different actors in this social phenomenon. It proposes as axes of work: Audiovisual Media, Conversations, Sports Practice, Literature and Diploma Training.

The “Corto Helvetico al Femminile” cultural association are planning the 7th edition of “Corto Helvetico al Femminile - Women’s International Short Film Festival in Tessin (Switzerland) from September 27th to 29th. The awards ceremony will be held on September 29th 2019.
The International “Corto Helvetico al Femminile” Short Film Festival offers an invitation for female directors around the world. The male attendance is not excluded if the Short Film shows the female world and a woman as a main character.

Scandinavian International Film Festival (SCIFF) is proud to advance into its third annual, world-class event. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the mission of this exclusive film festival: The Scandinavian International Film Festival serves as a cinematic cultural template for emerging, talented filmmakers who wish to express their uniqueness through the lens of past excellence while exposing themselves to the latest innovative concepts in the arts.

THE SCANDINAVIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is considered as culture high level event in Helsinki, Finland.
SCIFF creates a wonderful screening environment allowing participants to feature their films in the high quality venues available to the audience in Helsinki. Professionals and industry makers will be invited to evaluate best work to be awarded in the end of the Festival.
The SCIFF’s objective is to highlights today’s conflicts such as Racism, Radicalism and Human crises issues to the Scandinavian and European audience by edifying and developing the Finnish and the international cinematic community, who focuses and faces those topics. This objective cannot be achieved without tight, talented and strong films and filmmakers.

Edinburgh Short Film Festival Now Open! International Tours & Cash Awards

The 14th edition of the ESFF with International Film Festival showcases, more short film screenings, trophies, cash prizes and awards!

Max Length 25 minutes, international films welcomed, all genres eligible.

Open for entries online and via Festhome!

http://www.edinburghshortfilmfestival.com/

Looking forward to seeing your films!

Bucharest Short Film Festival [BSFF]

Independent is the key word for Bucharest Short Film Festival [BSFF], as it is founded by independent film professionals and focuses on independent artists in cinema, from all over the world. Bucharest Short Film Festival aims at recognizing, showcasing and spreading-out the most professional, most innovative, and most interesting fresh short international films, while always prioritizing independent short films.

Bucharest Short Film Festival will showcase some of the finest short international film in Narrative, Animation, Student, Experimental, Documentary, Music Video and Human Rights. We take to heart the amount of work put into each film. Therefore, the festival rules ensure that each movie is reviewed at least two times and well-debated by our team. Some of the awarded films will also be screened at other international film festivals.

Independent artists and their short films will meet an effervescent, and a quite experienced with cinema and film festivals audience, ensuring quality networking, and engaging opportunities, while the selected films will be determined by a panel of industry experts.

Bucharest Short Film Festival is building a strong community of interest around international independent film professionals and film lovers, in the heart of one of the most interesting emergent capitals of arts and culture, a city that never sleeps – Bucharest.

The festival will run film screenings, preceded or followed by artists Q&A, or networking side events, and, surely, parties, that all take place in various conventional and unconventional stages around Bucharest, as in cinemas, open spaces, and even summer theatres. Bucharest, you’ve heard about it, eventually – a city for young people. Well known for different things – like “Old Paris” nickname, in its bourgeois times, before the communism decades, or the world’s biggest parliamentary building [and one of the largest buildings of any kind], from its communism times, new architecture, or the explosive contemporary art scene, and the also quite impressive underground arts and music and nightlife communities, in its current times.

At B-Retina Festival we want to become a platform for B-Movies of all kinds, from guerrilla trash cinema to unclassifiable cult masterpieces; therefore, emergent talents, consecrated artists and difficult to classify characters will show us how they understand and see the world around us using their inventiveness and boldness.

During the days of the festival, we will become a showcase for a variety of classic films, premieres, shorts, web series, talks, interviews, and many surprises.

The festival has several sections:

-International competition in the official FEATURE FILMS section

-International competition in the official SHORT FILM section

-Retrospectives

-Free outdoor shows

-Screenings for all audiences

-Talks

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.

Cinefilia Tanguera is an Itinerant & International Short Film Festival linked to TANGO, not competitive.
Our primary objective is promote the tango and cinema, from an original perspective without dissemination and promotion anywhere in the world, as are the works of short films and documentaries about the identity of the tango in all sense.

Since 2009 was presented in some of the most prestigious cultural events in the world, performing at Cagliari (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016), Barcelona (2009, 2016, 2017), Moscow, London (2009, 2013, 2016), Madrid (2009, 2016), Ámsterdam (2009, 2018), Brussels (2010, 2018), Liège, Catania, Hamburg, Jordan, Buenos Aires (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Athens, Valladolid, Zurich, Bergen (Norway), Milán, Eindhoven, Sassari (2012, 2016), Berlin, Paris, Crete (2016, 2017, 2019), Budapest, Tenerife, Formentera (2016, 2018), Ibiza, Prague, Zagreb, Timisoara, Novi Sad, Istanbul, Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Bali, Bilbao, Montecarlo, Arles, Georgetown (Guyana), Oslo, Toronto and Cairo.

Leonel Mitre
Managing Director

Calling all filmmakers! Submit your film to Zimbabwe's biggest, fastest growing film festival. The theme for the 16th edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) is OF WOMEN, BY WOMEN FOR THE PEOPLE.

IIFF is an internationally recognised festival held to inspire positive images of women, interrogate, debate and celebrate the world of women, as well as the communities that women live in through films that exhibit gender sensitive narratives.

We are looking for films that;
-show women's contribution to a better society and world
-engage with global issues and how they affect women
-show men help women
-focus on the journey of African women
-are about allies for African and African diaspora women.