Blog: Film festivals

The Addis International Film Festival (AIFF) is an annual film festival created by Initiative Africa in 2007 and held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The festival is the largest independent documentary cinema festival in Africa and it was established as a unique initiative seeking to use the power of documentary films to support innovative ways of creating awareness on social issues.

The festival is a celebratory and educational event showcasing a carefully curated selection of films from both seasoned and emerging filmmakers addressing a wide range of themes such as peace building, inequality, women empowerment, children's rights, and much more.


The 18th Edition of the Addis International Film Festival (AIFF). As Ethiopia's established social activist, Initiative Africa will be hosting a five-day documentary film festival starting May 15th to May 19th, 2024, bringing more than 30 local and international movies, under the themes of Action for Peace, Security, and Reconciliation, Gender Equality and Inclusivity, Food and Environmental Security, and Health Care which will be taking place at the Alliance Ethio-Française, Hager Fikir Theater, Goethe-Institut Äthiopien and Italian Cultural institute in Addis Ababa.

The audience of the festival are mostly the youth and educated community who have the courage to change their society. We screen the films for free with no payment required for entrance.

BAKUNAWA FEST [Fantastic Film, Art + Music] - (formerly Bakunawa Young Cinema) - is the first fantastic & genre-based film, art & music festival based in The Philippines currently presented by Negros Museum and E Unlimited; and ran by volunteer filmmakers and artists. Bakunawa is a dragon-like creature in Philippine mythology that devoured moons. Because we are a genre-bending film fest, we want to flip the Bakunawa's role and we want it to instead symbolize the creative monsters inside us.

On its tenth year, Bakunawa Fest adds a new cinema to its in-person fest screenings: UPFI Film Center in Quezon City, Metro Manila. Across the islands, The Negros Museum remains our main venue in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental in Western Visayas Region. This year, Bakunawa Fest X opens on August 22, 2023 and will have a five-day physical festival run with a Bakunawa Funtastik Fair at the UPFI Film Center while we're having the Film Camp for first-time filmmakersy this July 2022 in Bacolod City. [Filipino students who want to join the FILM CAMP, pls email us at bakunawafilmfest@gmail.com]

Bakunawa Fest runs annually in one season - spread in fourth months becoming a hybrid festival resulting from the pandemic lockdowns. Bakunawa Fest starts with a film camp which includes a series of film workshops for first time young filmmakers that culminates into a competition - their final works are mostly genre films (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, folk, noir, folk, etc). From the Film Camp, Bakunawa Fest celebrates the year's crop of genre films through both an online and in-person festival screenings (with competitive and curated sections) of local and international films making their Philippine Premiere. Bakunawa Fest ends its season run with Primetime Philippine Cable TV airing and an Awards Show via SolarFlix TV where we can reach to millions of Filipino viewers.

Bakunawa was initially created with this principle: "new visions, new voices". We still stand by this principle as we continue to program young promising filmmakers, artists & musicians who either have no access to expensive workshops and may not have the name recognition to be programmed in festivals. Since our third edition, we have included a section that screens curated local and international selected films mainly for educational purposes. Most of our Bakunawa Fest's film camps are done as outreach programs/workshops and are mostly free. Here our participants are scholars paid for by the festival and its partners usually hosted by different cities/municipalities in the Philippines.

During the pandemic years and lockdowns from 2020-2022, we have temporarily migrated to mostly online screenings but this year 2023, we will conduct more live screenings following health protocols. For our tenth edition, we will do a semi-hybrid festival wherein we screen more films in live venues and do a limited program online.

[ Please note that, since we are an artist and volunteer-ran filmfest, we can't fund filmmakers to come physically and we don't pay screening fees. ]

We are a fantastic film fest. Our festival is interested in: Horror or Thriller Films / Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Adventure / Experimental Films / New Media, Expanded Cinema / Genre-Bending Films / Music Videos / Creative Documentaries / Contemporary Art / Photography.

For 2023, we have made our submissions more streamlined (This is NOT our programming approach though, just for submissions):
► Fantastic Full-legth Features
► Fantastic International Shorts
► Fantastic Indigenous Shorts
► Fantastic Filipino Shorts
► BAKUNAWA FEST Alumni Filmmakers
► Midnight Films
► Digital Art & Photography
► One-Minute Films
► Trash, B-Movie-esque, Underground Shorts
► Rewind (Past films released earlier than 2021)
► Pinoy Horror (no restrictions, no premiere status required)

OUR PROGRAMMING PRINCIPLE - A NOTE ON FILM SUBMISSIONS
Our programmers pride themselves on watching all submitted films with an annual 98-100% watching average. We don't base our decisions on which festivals your film has been accepted. We decide on the merit of your film and not on the popularity of the filmmakers and its actors. Last year (9th edition), all 100% of our competition shorts came from submissions via Festhome and Bakunawa Forms. Bakunawa has two festival advisers and curators who recommend films from around the world - especially, Asia - but these recommendations still has to pass through our chief programmer and are mostly programmed out of competition. So just submit and don't send us all your laurels. While we are happy of your achievements (because we're filmmakers too!), we still look at each film at "face value" - we watch them (usually more than twice) and decide.

THE VERTICAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL. In 2022, the first competition for vertical cinema and videos will be held in Venezuela: Short cinematographic films or social network videos, created and edited with vertical orientation (9:16) for projection on vertical screens or cell phones. Regardless of the theme or genre, with a time not exceeding 5 minutes. ELCOplay calls on filmmakers and content creators to create and submit works that explore the aesthetic potential of the vertical format, on any subject.

Works can be created on any equipment that produces HD quality or better, be it a smartphone, video camera or computer.

Night Terrors Film Festival is a genre festival for short films horror, thriller, supernatural, absurd - anything you can think of. Now open for submissions for the eight season in 2023.

We do not give out waivers and do not accept unsolicited submissions!

Films selected will be screened in Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark on two seperate occasions - unless COVID-19 prohibits it in which case a later date will be found. It is a great opportunity to have your short films screened for a Scandinavian audience that might not have other ways to experience your work. We accept short films with a max of 20 minutes. The screenings will have a lot of guests from outside Denmark aswell, so it must be either English language or have English subtitles provided.

Please note that if your film is selected we cannot provide travel and expenses in case you wanna visit the festival. We are not in this to make money, the low entry fee is only there to cover expenses the arrangers will have and to ensure the seriousness behind your work.

The AX International Audiovisual Short Film Show aims to disseminate short films (documentaries, fiction, animations and experimental) for all ages, children and adolescents, young people and adults, which present as a central or relevant element such as gender relations and sexualities. Thus, short films that show intertwining between gender and sexualities with other markers such as social class, race and ethnicity, generation, disability, migration, are very welcome.
The Show also includes a multitude of themes that can cross issues such as life trajectories, violence against women, masculinities, fatherhood, motherhood, eroticism, corporeality, LGBTQIAphobias, sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive rights and processes of resistance and struggle of women and subject LGBTQIA +, as well as a multitude of fields of sociopolitical life such as the State, capital, coloniality, politics, human rights, education, work, health, culture, public policies, among others.
In recent editions, many short films have been produced and selected that portray more general themes, of collective interest, in the field, for example, of indigenous rights, land, housing or the defense of democracy. So this year, realizing that such productions only enrich, densify and pluralize our Curta o Gênero, we formally opened for submissions of short films of this nature, which will be produced in specials.

Cine-Excess is an international film festival and conference devoted to the critical study of global cult film traditions, and has been running annually since 2007. Cine-Excess hosts UK theatrical premieres and exclusive screenings, visiting international filmmakers, a themed conference and media mentoring sessions for young filmmakers.

Cine-Excess has a strong tradition of attracting global cult filmmakers as guests to the event, who attend as recipients of the annual Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of the previous filmmaking guests of honour to have attended Cine-Excess include Pam Grier, Brandon Cronenberg, Jen and Sylvia Soska, Catherine Breillat, Roger Corman, Dario Argento, Joe Dante, Vanessa Redgrave, Sergio Martino, Franco Nero, John Landis, Enzo G. Castellari, Brian Yuzna, Ruggero Deodato, Victoria Price, Stuart Gordon, Jeff Lieberman, Pete Walker, Norman J. Warren and Jake West.

In 2021 a new Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel will be launched to promote a selection of key films screened at the annual festival. The Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel will stream across both Amazon UK and Uscreen platforms, with the latter outlet providing a 'Director's Vision' imprint that compliments feature film releases with a range of ancillary extras created in collaboration with the filmmakers.

In terms of its programming strategy, Cine-Excess hosts a range of UK theatrical premieres and exclusive retrospective screenings from around the world, but with a strong focus on the following global territories: Europe, North America/Canada, Central America, Asia and Australia. The festival also retains a wide definition of cult film that encompasses a broad range of horror cycles, unconventional thrillers, revisionist or hybrid genres (such as science fiction, gangster cinema, dark love dramas or the western), action cycles or fantastic titles that can also be linked to wider national film traditions.

Cine-Excess remains committed to issues of diversity and inclusion, and this ethos informs both the annual festival and filmmakers promoted across the new Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel.

The Center for Common Memory for Democracy and Peace, a national association that campaigns for universal human values and defends human rights, including the right to "a dignified life to the end", cannot remain insensitive to the current debate on the environment and the search by international community for practical solutions to curb its worrying deterioration.

While the right to life is an irreversible achievement, the emergence of the fourth generation of rights associates human well-being with "a healthy life in a healthy environment". So any degradation of the environment means a degradation of the quality of life.

The theme of "The Memory of the sky and the ground", chosen as the unifying theme of the 13th edition of the International Festival of Cinema and Shared Memory, to be held in Nador from 5 to 11 october 2024, is part of efforts to raise awareness, through art in general and cinema in particular, of a devastating scourge that threatens humanity.

The festival organizing committee is therefore calling for:

1- Documentary films that tackle issues such as:
- The ravages of global warming
- The destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems
- The depletion of natural resources
- The consequences of deforestation
- Water and air pollution
- Disasters caused by industrial activities
- The damaging effects of excessive industrialization
- Over-exploitation of natural resources

2- Short and feature films which, without being subject to the unifying theme of the edition:
- Tackle memory or human rights;
- Deal with human causes using new approaches;
- Propose new themes with a modern vision.

The Puerto Madryn MAFICI International Film Festival has been held for 11 years and is one of the most important Festivals in Latin America, which takes place in the Argentine Patagonia.

The objective of the Festival is to provide the possibility of screening national and foreign films both feature films and short films and thus generate a meeting space and diffusion of the cinema, from a corner of the Argentine Patagonia.

The Festival will reward the First Movies to Argentine and foreign filmmakers, with the "Southern Right Whale" award, in addition to the different awards of the Official Section in Competition.

MAFICI proposes from its beginnings, reward and promote the new directors of the world, announcing his first cinematographic work, being the only Argentine Festival with this unique peculiarity.

On the other hand, we intend to encourage the development of the film industry, care of the Environment and contribute to the tourist, cultural potential that our beautiful city of Puerto Madryn.

ABOUT TNFF

IMDb qualifier’s The North Film Festival (TNFF) is an international film festival, dedicated to international and European shorts and features of all genres - with screenings online and an annual live screening and awards event in Stockholm, Sweden . TNFF is partnered with the LOVE & HOPE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - BARCELONA (L'HIFF) (Sep 17 - 21, 2024 in Barcelona -* Spain)
https://www.lhifilmfestival.com/


Each quarter, the submitted projects are judged by an enthusiastic team of film industry professionals and academics.

The quarterly winners will automatically qualify to be screened at the TNFF annual event in Stockholm, Sweden (February 21 - 23 - 2024) - and also to be both considered and compete for the coveted Annual awards.

TNFF Welcomes you to Stockholm.

Stockholm is a city that is open to different perspectives and new ideas. An amazing destination where innovations in music, film, design, fashion and technology are born. A place fit for creative visionaries such as you, Dear Filmmakers. And remember, bring your jacket, hat and gloves, if you're selected for the screenings in Stockholm on February 2024! Let's do magic Together!

The 14th edition which was to take place from April 27 to May 2 has been postponed to November 9. Films sent for the previous edition are maintained, if they have been selected International music film festival of Pau since 2007. Documentaries, fictions, clips, concerts, meet and greets, DJ sets, viewings, record fair, presentations... Rock this Town of Pau is the first International Music Film Festival of its kind in France. It explores rock and current music at length. Documentaries, fictions, shorts films, biopics are shown on the big screen in an ever-changing festival open to all. A selection of never-before-seen movies: revival films, underground treasures, and regional movies. These movies all have a connection to current music: rock, electro, hip hop, jazz, world music... but is not limited to simple indie music. Behind the currents of the rock stories these movies tell, it is the culture, societies, way of life, history, struggles, utopias, dreams and revolutions that make them a hit.

Most of the showings take place at the Méliès cinema downtown. But Rock this Town is an interactive festival that takes their audience around different parts of the city: kiosks, shops, and cafés, music halls and media libraries are in the loop.

Concerts, DJ sets, meet and greets, showings, books & comics, record fair and presentations have become must see sites at this event. In 2021, Rock This Town will open up a competition by inviting an international jury to deliberate the selections. Students who study in art or language actively participate in this annual event and a number of schools turn-up for the showings.

The Cinematographic Residence CINEMALAB 2020 V2.0
"INDEPENDENT CINEMA IN THE AGE OF STREAMING"

CinemaLab is an opportunity for the maturation of feature film projects and low-budget series, in the script, construction (work in progress) or finalized in search of promotion and distribution, so that, strengthened by the collaboration and advice of experts, they can advance and consolidate.

In Zapatoca "The Happiest Town in the World", 20 selected projects will be incubated, within a national and international call, providing the right environment for filmmakers to focus their energies and move forward, through new and creative paths.

The laboratory will focus on the most neuralgic areas of realization, an immersion through individual, group and master classes, with renowned filmmakers.

Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre (BARS) is an international film festival devoted to the genres of HORROR, science fiction and fantasy.

Born in 2000 to put focus on independent genre film, and since 2004 in the form of a competitive festival.

The third annual Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival will take place at the EVENT Cinemas George St complex from August 25-28.

The four-day event is Australasia's largest celebration of speculative cinema, providing a global community hub for fans and filmmakers alike.

For the first time in its history, the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival will partner with Australia’s largest exhibition chain, Event Cinemas. The primary screening venue for the key festival dates will be the flagship George Street multiplex.

“With over 100 years of Australian exhibition prestige to their name, it is an extraordinary honour to have the Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival establish this partnership with Event Cinemas,” says Festival Director Simon Foster. “I’ve spent the best part of my life on the George Street cinema strip. It’s where I saw Star Wars and Close Encounters of The Third Kind, so to find myself programming science fiction films for the venue is humbling.”

The purpose of "Agropoli International Film Festival" is to honor the vision, the art and the work of Independent Filmmakers Worldwide.

The Live Event will be on October 2020 in the "Area of movies" in Agropoli, a beautiful village in the Cilento Coast (Italy).

In more than 36 hours of screening, the best Short Films, Videoclips, Documentaries and Feature Film will be showcased and recognized.

Please, read carefully the rules before submitting.

The Fail Film Festival is an educational and therapeutic space that invites amateur and experienced filmmakers to accept and share their failure stories: their most intimate projects full of effort, honesty, and learning; aiming for the festival to be a constant networking space between members of the industry, since, despite the growing number of members and the creation of audiovisual projects in our country, the connection between them is scarce. If we want to become a true industry, we must first be a community; And for that to happen, we must begin to experiment, innovate and collaborate with each other.

OBJECTIVES

Demystifying the negative connotation of failure within the creative process, and is inherent and necessary for our learning and improvement both personally, and professionally.

From the management position to the assistants (in all its varieties), bring them together to share their work experiences and their learning process, with the aim of giving them visibility and recognizing their importance within an audiovisual production.

Interconnect the various associations in the sector, since, despite their great variety and increase in recent years, they do not know each other. Our objective is to generate conversation and debate among them, on current issues and of social importance.

Decentralize the production of national cinema, from a regional and gender perspective.

Create community and encourage the development of projects through workshops, talks, consultancies, and networking.

The Elche Film Festival, organized by Mediterraneo Foundation's main objective is to offer a cultural space to filmmakers and moviegoers.

In a constant commitment to the promotion of culture and supporting emerging values of cinema, focusing on innovation, public conversation with the authors and the elimination of technological compete when barriers and vote.

14th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival-24, Delhi NCR, India

Celebrating Excellence in Cinema


The Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival is a not-to-profit, non-commercial & India’s only independent film festival, established in the year 2011 in Delhi NCR with a mission to celebrate the cinema & work of aspiring, young, independent & professional filmmakers. The festival is important for Indian film industry as it is organized on 30 April each year to mark the birth anniversary of Late.Shri. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who is regarded as the father of Indian Cinema & fondly remembered as Dada Saheb Phalke by the film fraternity across the India & globe. Its aim is to recognize the enlightening, entertaining & progressive new age cinema of youth & experienced filmmakers.

In past years festival gains reputation & regarded as among most prestigious festival in India. The festival grows over the years & attracts filmmakers from across the India & 90+ nations across the world. The festival has sections for feature films, short films, documentaries, animations, music videos & ad films. The festival awards the filmmakers in production, creative, music & performance categories.

14th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival-2024 aims to celebrate the excellence in cinema. Dada Saheb Phalke started the movement of cinema in India in real sense & he is the symbol of excellence. His contribution to Indian cinema is unparallel. Today Indian cinema is touching the sky in terms of both content & technology but it is worth mentioning that it was started by legendry Dada Saheb Phalke and we are just carrying it forward.

Founded by the Educationexpo TV, a leading entertainment research & branding company and managed by Miniboxoffice, Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival-24 provides chance to filmmakers to showcase their creativity. While the festival is open to filmmakers of all age, we feel that just as it is imperative that we should support and encourage participation by filmmaking community members & professional, it is also important that we find and cultivate the future members of the entertainment industry.

What is Zinetika Festival

Zinetika is a multidisciplinary festival that explores the relationships between dance and audiovisual arts, body and technology, creating together in search of different artistic experiences. The Festival hosts proposals of dance films, performance, masterclasses and workshops around this theme.

All this makes Zinetika a platform for cultural experiences shared by organisations and creators from different artistic fields and origins, both local and international. The festival is held in Pamplona/Iruña, San Sebastian/Donostia and Bilbao/Bilbo.

AWARDS

Best Film Zinetika 2022: 500 €
Best director Zinetika 2022: 500 €

The films that will be part of the Zinetika Official Selection will be projected in the three cities where the festival will take place.

▪ ▪ Welcome aboard Latin America's first drone film festival ▪ ▪

Thanks to the popularization of camera-mounted drones, independent filmmakers can now reach an aesthetics of mainstream productions, and break with image creation constraints such as never seen before in the history of digital cinema!

A whole new path in the art of moving images is yet to be explored!

NO AR Brazil showcases and awards artists who are resorting to this new device to create breath-taking imagery and innovative visual languages.

Submissions are curated by highly-recognized media professionals from TV, film and photography industries, besides scholars from Brazilian, Canadian, Mexican and French universities. Nominated filmmakers are invited to join the jury board for a debate during the awards ceremony.

Palácio das Artes, a public iconic art venue signed by Brazil’s foremost architect Oscar Niemeyer, located right at the heart of Belo Horizonte, is the regular host of NO AR.
But as Cine Humberto Mauro, the four-decade movie theater located within the palace, could not host our projections due to covid-19 pandemic, NO AR has switched to a joyful online ceremony, which allowed filmmakers from several countries to attend.

Its blasting success gave us a lot of energy to build up a hybrid format (with online and big screen). The effort it takes to deploy such a project , added to the importance the festival has gained, have led us to an important decision: to transform NO AR into a biannual event.

Our purpose is not to be a mere repository of beautiful drone footage. We are here to question the paths that drone can propose to art.

Submissions to NO AR IV are open!

▪ Visit our website and fanpage for more information ▪
▪ http://noar.ticotico.tv/
▪ www.facebook.com/NoArBrazil

The festival is a showcase of films in all genres by young emerging filmmakers.The cultural capital of India hosts numerous film festivals every year. Our team has taken into account the features of most film festivals. To present something new, we decided to place our primary focus on independent underknown filmmaking from all over the world. Besides, we realize that the boundaries of cinema have expanded significantly over the past two decades due to the digital "revolution.” Nowadays, one can shoot films with a smartphone, without using special equipment or being a professional filmmaker. Therefore, the cinema has become far more expressive and entered a new era of its development, uncovering all shades of life, all colours of culture and subcultures. We believe that the programme of Venus Brightest Star Film Festival gives a free hand to any way of artistic expression.

We welcome any experimental ways that create new film languages evolving the cinema!