2 Counties Independent Film Festival (2CIFF)
21–23 August 2026 | Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
This is where bold voices break through.
This is where stories find their audience.
This is where filmmakers step into what’s next.
Welcome to 2CIFF.
A new force on the international festival circuit, 2 Counties Independent Film Festival is built for filmmakers who are not waiting for permission — but are ready to be seen.
We champion daring storytelling, fresh perspectives, and the kind of work that stays with an audience long after the screen goes dark.
A Festival Experience — Not Just a Screening
Taking place 21–23 August 2026, 2CIFF unfolds over a vibrant summer weekend at the iconic Milton Keynes Gallery and the state-of-the-art Sky Room Cinema (in collaboration with Curzon Cinemas).
This is not a passive viewing experience. It’s an immersive, high-energy environment where film, art, and industry collide.
Expect:
Premium cinematic screenings
Curated networking events & afterparties inside a contemporary gallery space
Panels, workshops, and industry conversations designed to elevate emerging voices
A dynamic international audience, with easy access from London and beyond
Built by Filmmakers, For Filmmakers
2CIFF is driven by a team of award-winning actors, directors, producers, writers, and stunt professionals—
We understand the journey because we’ve lived it.
Our mission is clear:
to discover, support, and amplify the next generation of global filmmaking talent.
A Smarter, Fairer Festival Model
We’ve stripped away the complexity and made submission simple:
Submit to just ONE main category
If selected, your film is automatically considered for 20+ award categories
Every selected film receives:
Official screening at the festival
2 complimentary tickets for cast & crew
Access to exclusive networking events, talks and all areas of the festival.
Entry to the Gala and awards ceremony
A curated festival goodie bag
Because we believe your focus should be on your film — not navigating submission systems.
A Region at the Heart of Global Cinema
2CIFF is proudly rooted in a region rich with cinematic heritage and future-facing innovation.
From Pinewood Studios and the National Film and Television School (NFTS) to Cardington Studios and the upcoming Universal Studios development, this is a landscape where global cinema is made.
Home to talent such as Emily Atack, Ben Whishaw, and Sophie Rundle, these counties continue to inspire filmmakers shaping the industry today.
A Platform Designed to Grow With You
2CIFF is not just a festival — it’s a movement in its early chapters.
With ambitious plans to expand year-on-year and achieve internationally recognised status, we are building something that filmmakers can grow with, not just submit to.
The Stage Your Film Deserves
Up to 100 selected films screened across the weekend
Judged by a diverse panel of industry experts and VIP guests
A high-profile awards ceremony celebrating excellence across all genres
A festival atmosphere that balances prestige with genuine community
Whether your work is bold, intimate, experimental, or genre-defining —
if it moves an audience, it belongs at 2CIFF.
Submit your film. Join the experience. Be part of what comes next.
Now in our second year, the Inspired Screenwriting Competition is doubling down on our mission to amplify bold and unique new voices and disrupt the status quo of the film industry. In an effort to make this opportunity more accessible to everyone, we're lowering our entry fee and asking writers to submit only the FIRST 20 PAGES of their screenplays. After reviewing those pages, we'll reach out and request full scripts from everyone who advances to the second round.
We’re looking for feature-length screenplays that stand out, break the mold, and connect with audiences in unforgettable ways.
The Inspired Screenwriting Competition was founded by experienced filmmakers and screenwriters who have had a long history in this business. Frustrated with what felt like a decrease in opportunities for newcomers and unique voices and an increase in the amount of organizations that were happy to take an entry fee and offer nothing in return, we felt it was time to take matters into our own hands.
Our mission is to shake up the industry by changing the kinds of scripts that make it to the screen. We feel that now more than ever, the film business needs to embrace new talent telling authentic stories from unique perspectives.
As writers ourselves, we also hate it when people try to put us in a box. And we don’t want to put you in a box, either. That’s why we don’t have separate genre categories.
WE’RE LOOKING FOR THE STRONGEST VOICES IN SCREENWRITING.
We believe that it’s only through showing who you are with your writing can you truly reach your audience in a meaningful way.
So, send us your best. Send us your personal. Send us the crazy out-there ideas that could have only come from (insert your name here).
Because, whether it’s a high concept comedy, historical drama, elevated horror or something in between (if anyone has that script, btw, def send it our way), if it came from you, we want to read it.
And when we do find that special script? That script that blows our minds?
WE ARE GONNA WANT TO TELL EVERYBODY.
So, use your voice and shout it from the rooftops because…
We’re listening.
The Shawna Foundation presents the Scandriglia Film Festival in honor of Massimiliano Scacchi.
Massimiliano was a wonderful husband, father and neighbor. He was also a visionary who created a display along Scandriglia’s Via Entroterra of old farming tools and machines from the rural civilization’s history.
There are over a hundred pieces that can be dated from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1950s, when agricultural mechanization began. Along with the display of the old tools, lights stream throughout Entroterra as ambient music accompanies the path.
Massimiliano also created and has on display a beautiful and intricate presepe (nativity in miniature) for the Christmas season. He created all this because of his love for Scandriglia and it was his way to help rebuild the historic center of his town.
It was all of this that drew the Shawna Foundation’s President of the Board of Directors, Anna Chinappi, and Executive Director, Skip Shea to Scandriglia, where they quickly became friends with Massimiliano, his wife Emanuela Torri and his wonderful family. And very soon, they learned of his love for cinema, which is why a decision to create a film festival there is an easy one and the best way to honor him.
Scandriglia is a 15th Century medieval hilltop village surrounded by the hills of Sabina where you will discover some of the best olive oil in all of the world.
It’s a beautiful and unspoiled historic rural mountain community, but only a 40-minute drive to Rome—the best of all worlds.
The festival will take place at the Teatro Sant'Antonio in the historic center of Scandriglia.
The Xypher Film Festival is a global showcase celebrating bold short films and emerging storytellers from around the world. We provide a free, accessible platform for filmmakers to share their work, gain visibility, and connect with an audience that values fresh perspectives.
Selected films are premiered on our official YouTube channel and promoted across social media, with opportunities to win audience-voted and curated awards.
All genres, styles, and languages are welcome.
Founded in 2015, DARE TO DANCE IN PUBLIC FILM FESTIVAL (D2D) is a Los Angeles based, International Dance Film Festival. Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival believes in the power of dance as an urgent agent of change, an expression of what connects us, and what it is to be alive and human in the world... RIGHT. THIS. MINUTE.
At D2D we are deeply dedicated to the concept of democratizing dance, actively questioning when and where it can happen, creating community, and spreading, promoting, and supporting the international genre of Screen Dance.
D2D annually brings in Internationally renowned choreographers, directors, curators, agents and more as Judges, promoting a rich dialogue about dance and film to determine our Award Winning and Honorably Mentioned Films. Our judges have included Kyle Abraham, Nina McNeely, Paul Lightfoot, Jasmine Albuquerque, Stephen Galloway, Desmond Richardson, Louise Lecavalier, Karole Armitage, Kristy Edmunds, d. Sabela Grimes, Julie McDonald, and many more.
At D2D, we believe in spreading the wealth of dance on film, and that great dance films can be viewed more than once.
DARE TO DANCE IN PUBLIC FILM FESTIVAL, believes in inclusivity and democratizing dance. Unlike Dance Camera West, Dare to Dance in Public believes in spreading the wealth of great dance films… At D2D, we are FILMMAKER FORWARD: We believe that great dance films can be seen multiple times, and at more than one Festival. D2D does NOT REQUIRE submitted films to be Los Angeles PREMIERES… Your films can have played at other LA festivals, and play again at D2D where we invite audiences to see with new eyes and fresh perspectives.
D2D is run by working directors, choreographers and educators who are active at the intersections and pushing the boundaries of dance and feature film, commercials, music videos, stage, circus, site-specific, immersive performance, Screen Dance, and more. Founder/Director Sarah Elgart is an award winning, DGA DIRECTOR, choreographer and producer D2D routinely draws people from the industry to D2D in search of new talent. D2D Founder Director Sarah Elgart worked with Dance Camera West for nearly seven years in numerous capacities and was instrumental in bringing Dance Camera West to institutions such as the Getty, the Music Center, LA County Museum of Art, the Directors’ Guild of America, and much more. Now we are incentivizing D2D with all that experience.
D2D continues to support filmmakers and offer them with opportunities including paid streaming with our partners at LUCID and possibilities at other venues such as BodyVox in Portland and The Kennedy Center.
The Windsor International Black Film Festival (WIBFF) celebrates Black stories from Canada and around the world. Our 3rd annual event will take place on August 14-16th, 2026, to celebrate the contributions of Black filmmakers and storytellers internationally.
Festival days will include film screenings and premieres of our major category winners, alongside immersive discussion panels, followed by a red carpet awards night. PLEASE NOTE THAT AWARD WINNERS THAT ARE NOT PRESENT WILL HAVE TO SEND A REPRESENTATIVE TO PICK UP THEIR AWARD. OR MAKE ALTERNATE ARRANGEMENTS TO GET THE AWARD MAILED OUT.
FOOD FILMS _ THIS YEAR'S THEME FOR 2026: JAPAN AND ITS CUISINE
This festival, created by cinema and gastronomy professionals, was born from their passion for these two themes; and from 2 books we wrote: 'les petits plats du grand écran' (Little Dishes of the Big Screen) (1999) (Canal + edition) and Ciné-bouffe (Cinema-Food) (2001) (Hors Collection edition); as well as from a first International Film and Gastronomy Festival that took place in Dijon (2004 and 2005).
It is therefore with a 'gourmand' pleasure that we decided to once again pay tribute, through this festival, to the delicious films (whether sharp or savory) evoking gastronomy, and to the most exquisite table scenes, to try to understand why and how they were 'cooked' by the directors who imagined them.
We also have the desire to use cinema 1 to build a bridge with healthy eating, and to discover or rediscover the taste of cooking in order to make informed choices, to eat less unconsciously. It is therefore with an insatiable 'gastrosophic' 2 pleasure that we have concocted the different themes of this event.
We say of our village, classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France and a 'cité de caractère' (town of character), where the oldest houses date back to the 16th century, that it is a kind of little Hollywood of Brittany. It must be said that more than thirty feature films and series have been shot there, such as Tess, Chouans!, A Very Long Engagement..."
Histeria International Fantastic Film Festival in Costa Rica and Dominican Republic brings together a current international selection of feature films and short films framed within the horror, science fiction and fantasy genre. It is a window in Central America and Caribbean for fantastic movies. Not only for Latin America, but for the rest of the world. A point where filmmakers with their films meet, so that they can be exhibited and seen.
Histeria Lab is a section of the festival focused on feature-length genre projects in the first stage of development. The projects travel to Costa Rica and Dominican Republic to receive advice on script, production, direction, bible design, pitch, photography, sound and art direction.
information: www.histeriafilmfest.com
COCINE is a film show dedicated to exploring and celebrating the richness of gastronomy and food culture through audiovisual art. This event seeks to highlight the deep connection between food and culture, offering a window into the stories behind each dish, recipe and culinary tradition.
From innovation in the kitchen to the preservation of traditional food practices, COCINE is a space where filmmakers, chefs, farmers and food lovers can converge and share their passion for gastronomy. Here, we explore how planting clean and sustainable products can strengthen the traditional cuisines of towns and communities, and how gastronomic culture evolves and adapts in a constantly changing world.
COCINE is an event of the Corporación Gastronómica de Popayán in alliance with the Popayán Short Film Festival that takes place within the framework of the Popayán Gastronomic Congress.
The Clapham International Film Festival is an international film festival that takes place in Clapham, London, UK.
We screen feature and short films in atmospheric venues with a keen eye for independent and cutting-edge material. 2026 will see us return for our 5th edition, and we're committed to providing a platform for daring and adventurous voices.
In 2026 we are looking to showcase out there, avant-garde filmmaking, as well as funny, perplexing and impossible to categorise mp4 format files. We work around the clock to fill the rooms we inhabit with seekers of brave new films, and make things as fun as possible in the process.
The festival takes place in September, and is organised by a crack team of independent filmmakers determined to bring interesting films into our hometown.
The PUCHO DORADO 2026 Festival is now accepting submissions for its international music video competition. We invite musicians, filmmakers, producers, record labels, and bands from around the world to submit their work by July 1, 2026, via the Festhome platform.
This international music video festival is a platform that celebrates the creation and distribution of music videos as an essential artistic expression within the musical universe. Our purpose is to promote the production of audiovisual works that fuse music and image with an authorial vision, fostering the talent of filmmakers, bands, and artists from diverse backgrounds.
Through an open call at both the local and international levels, PUCHO DORADO seeks to establish itself as a meeting place for new audiovisual narratives, where the music video is recognized as a creative piece with its own identity, capable of expanding the aesthetic, cultural, and technological boundaries of contemporary music.
Ricardo Mahnke H.
Audiovisual Communicator
Director, Pucho Dorado Festival
The 36th Message to Man International Festival of documentary, short fiction, animated, and experimental films will take place from 16 to 24 October 2026 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Over the years, the Festival has hosted distinguished figures of world cinema, including Werner Herzog, Ulrich Seidl, Claude Lanzmann, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, Paolo Sorrentino, Alan Berliner, Eric Roberts, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Abdellatif Kechiche, Udo Kier, and many others.
With its history spanning three decades of cinema development, Message to Man was founded in 1989 in Leningrad by filmmaker Mikhail Litvyakov, who now serves as the Honorary President of the Festival.
In 2010, Alexei Uchitel, a renowned director of documentaries and feature films, assumed the role of the Festival's President.
The Festival programme revolves around three competitions: international, national, and experimental, providing a platform for both full-length and short films to vie for the Festival's Grand Prix. Message to Man consistently draws thousands of cinema enthusiasts to St. Petersburg each year.
Most Festival is an annual event that aims to showcase the best international audiovisual work linked to viniculture, wine and cava. At the same time, the festival aims to make a toast for good cinema by projecting unreleased films by great authors.
Held in the Penedès, a zone very close to Barcelona (Spain) with a long winemaking tradition and several wine-related tourist attractions, the festival wants to promote viniculture and arts linked to wine and cava through audiovisual works and also explore all aspects of winemaking, especially values such as quality, diversity, wine tourism and ties to the region.
We accept only films about the right to health and subtitled in Italian or English
The Premio Fausto Rossano Association announces the twelfth edition of the "Premio Fausto Rossano," which will be held in Naples, Italy, at the beginning of November 2026
. The award commemorates the life and work of Fausto Rossano, a Jungian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who passed away in 2012.
The event aims to challenge the stigma and prejudices surrounding mental suffering and to highlight the importance of recognizing each individual's personal experience. Through cinema and dialogue with authors, professionals, and experts, the Festival seeks to promote social awareness on these critical issues.
The Festival is sponsored by the Premio Fausto Rossano Association
Fotofilm Internatıonal Short Film Festival is an innovative concept that aims to shine a spotlight on new generation world-language filmmakers and to give internet users across the globe the chance to share their enthusiasm for world cinema.
Our mission is to promote films, and be another step up in the filmmakers' careers.
Fotofilm International Short Film Festival is a festival open to filmmakers and film lovers. Is festival of world cinematography, where short films, videoclips, webseries and video arts from all over the world come together to compete for the various prizes of the festival.
Welcome to our Fall Season that runs Monthly from October thru December 2026.
NewFilmmakers NY is New York's longest running year round Film Festival. Throughout it's twenty-eight year run NewFilmmakers has provided a platform for first time and veteran filmmakers.
We have taken an exciting new direction with NewFilmmakers called NewFilmmakersPlus which will move our festival into the digital age and allow us to reach international audiences.
While theaters have been closed, our online audiences have greatly exceeded those in theaters. With NewFilmmakers Plus we have added the missing audience participation to our online screenings.
Now filmmakers, cast, and crew as well as audience members can create interactive video screening rooms while watching a film. Just by pushing the START A GROUPVIEW button to the right of the film they can invite up to six people to talk about the film in a video conference. It’s almost like watching side-by-side in real life — without having to share your popcorn.
In addition our films will now be available for one month and screenable any time of the day instead of only one night. This allows more people to see our films and makes it easier to set up a screening event with friends and colleagues. As requested we are switching to filmmaker hosted files utilizing unlisted YouTube links which will eliminate the need to transcode and to send us large files as well as giving filmmakers control over their film.
In today’s world online screenings give filmmakers worldwide audiences instead of limited local ones. With NewFilmmakers Plus filmmakers not only reach worldwide audiences but can interact with them as they would at a traditional theater.
The Golden Smile Comedy Festival is part of Holland Film Festival. With special awards and separate viewings and different public.
The festival has one rule; make the audience laugh!
Submit your best comic work, joy the fun!
Humour is universal and brings people together. The Golden Smile International Comedy Film Festival wants to show you the best and funniest films and video's in the world. We accept all genres, our only rule is simple, make the audience laugh. From slapstick to feature films, short clips, ultra short clips, hidden camera, documentaries, you name it.
Maximum length is 30 minutes, no minimum.
We encourage filmmakers from all over the world to submit their work. There is so much to discover in the world of humor. Broaden our perspective and make us smile.
The film festival takes place in Bergen Netherlands. (Not far from Amsterdam.)
Welcome to Sinistro Fest, the festival that celebrates fantasy, horror, science fiction, suspense, and experimental cinema.
For six days, Fortaleza will be the stage for a selection of films, ranging from features to short films, some with world, international, Latin American, and Brazilian premieres.
SINISTRO will also be a meeting point for filmmakers, producers, actors, technicians, and distributors, creating a space for the exchange of ideas and experiences.
With its unique energy, Fortaleza is the perfect place to foster dialogue and collaboration between cinema professionals and film enthusiasts.
Lloret Negre is the first noir genre festival of the Costa Brava. It's objetive is to promote the noir genre and as well as Lloret de Mar and it's heritage.
