Blog: Film festivals

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.

11th version of the International Documentary Film Festival Globale - Bogotá
The Globale International Documentary Film Festival - Bogotá invites documentary filmmakers and audiovisual producers to submit proposals that revolve around utopias under
construction, that is, human and non-human resistance to live in freedom and autonomy.

About the festival
Globale—Critical and Emancipatory Perspectives is a non-profit and non-competitive festival that exhibits documentaries with political and social themes. It was founded in
Berlin in 2003 and later replicated in Warsaw, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bogota, where it has been held since 2011.
Its objective is to generate scenarios of denunciation, dialogue, awareness, and analysis of reality based on the themes established for each version. Thus, it proposes
transforming established cultural, social, and economic models. For them, we resort to the documentary without a hierarchy of formats, media, qualities, or academic or
industrial validations.

About this version
In this version of the festival, we want to focus on utopias that inspire us to continue resisting the capitalist system of exploitation and domination. Therefore, we are interested
in hopeful audiovisual proposals of living and active struggles and propose the following sub-themes:
Nature in resistance:
Proposals that leave behind the anthropocentric paradigm and focus on different ecologies, organisms, and living systems and their ways of adapting to change through
strategies such as succession, regeneration, retaking, and creating relationships with other forms of life, among others. This theme also includes documentaries that present
other ways in which people relate to their living environment and, in doing so, refuse to participate in the destruction and instrumentalization of life that capitalism promotes.
Collectivities in resistance:
Documentaries that portray the strategies of self-organization, action, cooperation, and creation of networks and communities of collectivities that oppose the various forms of
oppression from places outside the state and its institutions, thereby building paths towards a freer and more supportive world.
Technologies in resistance:
We understand technology as a set of tools, techniques, skills, abilities, knowledge, and processes. From this perspective, we invite documentary proposals that portray
experiences where technology is part of collective or community processes that create autonomy, degrees of freedom, and other/new ways of relating between ecosystems.




EXPANDED INFORMATION: www.globalebogota.wordpress.com / Facebook.com/festivalglobalebogota / globalebogota@gmail.com / @globalebogota

The Luz del Desierto International Festival is an audiovisual Festival that aims to promote cinema within the country and abroad. The festival will take place in october with competition for feature films and short films, both fiction, animation and documentary. There will also be talks and workshops.

In 2018, Almagro International Film Festival -AIFF- born with the aim of establishing a useful platform for the promotion of the audiovisual industry: a space and time for dissemination and promotion of audiovisual content, transforming the city of Almagro into a meeting point for filmmakers, favoring the exchange of initiatives and promoting a market open to the development of new projects.

AIFF will provide a showcase for the most interesting short format projects done within the last recent months, constituting an standard of quality and high level of commitment to the society & culture of Audiovisual Arts. In addition, the Festival has opened an important window to formats created for online distribution, bringing support to one of the most active and emerging sectors of the audiovisual industry: Internet.

O OUFF en Curto busca estimular o formato da curtametraxe no ámbito da Comunidade Autónoma galega como expresión básica da creación audiovisual. É a sección de curtametraxes do Festival de Cine Internacional de Ourense.

Penitente Film Fest is the first Boyacense festival dedicated to genre cinema, emphasizing Sci-Fi, fantasy and terror. It was created as an alternative to the existing festivals in the department and in the country, whose focus is not so particular. From the organization, we believe that the genre cinema remains in force, with the same capacity to amaze, wonder, and unsettle us while transverse or parallel offers new ways to interpret and shape our reality and that of filmmakers around the world.

We begin a journey towards unknown universes, Penitente Film Fest announces its first call, which will take place from April 21 to July 15, 2023.

The OUFF (an acronym standing for Ourense Film Festival) presents annually a selection of the most innovative and outstanding films and audiovisual productions in Galicia, Europe, Latin America and the rest of the world. The OUFF receives each year works from a hundred of countries, whose common denominator are their socially aware subjects and their innovative forms.

Anim!Arte is an international festival of animated films made ​​by children and youth, and made ​​for children and youth.

The Anim!Arte Festival is just for Animated Short Films !
The maximum duration of each film is 15 minutes.

In 2023 will be held the 17th edition of Anim!Arte and the festival will take place in November !

For International Students (students from around the world), there are two competitive categories (only for animated short films): Maxi (18 years or over) and Mini (under 18 years).

For International Professionals there are two categories: "Environmental films", and "World Cultures" .

The selected animations will be projected following the program prepared by the Festival's organization board.

If the film has dialogues in language other than Portuguese, it will be necessary the sending of a text file with the dialogues of the film in English (if possible, with the time code) to the email: animarte@vouanimarte.com.br.

A version of the film with English subtitles is welcome to facilitate the work of translation and subtitling for the Portuguese, but the version that will be shown at the festival must be submitted without subtitles.

There are also 2 exclusive categories (only for Animated short films) just for students who are enrolled in educational institutions in Brazil: Maxi (University Students) and Mini (High School Students, and Students of Elementary Education).

PHILOSOPHY

What drive us:

A contest dedicated to transcendental cinema, at its several meanings, including philosophic, psychological, scientific, anthropological, spiritual and poetic cinema.

Because transcendence in the man and the world, might be eventually ineffable and, on this, cinematographic art has certain advantages, and a huge responsibility.

FREE CINEMA

All cinematographic possibilities are welcome, with a major interest on rareties

WITHOUT TIME

Cinemística as an open space-time, with non restrictive features, enabling the authors to develop their own language: all formats, duration, nationality, year of production, etc. are accepted.

A REFUGE

An international refuge for films that intend, technically or with the plot, an approaching to the big mystery of world representation, in the art and in the man. Without dogmas, under any individual or collective perspective, from faith, but also from agnosticism, spiritual atheism and scientific thought.

A POETIC CINEMA OF CONTEMPLATION

Filmmakers' looks, in all their socio-cultural diversity, interested in any film as a result of personal discovering, researching or experimentation, inspiration and work, from revelation or introspection of the authors. Quotidian, ecstasy and disparity as structures to create depth on the film treatment.

ASCETICISM

Mysticism and asceticism in film production represent, probably, a more absolute estate compare to others, because a cinema with huge budget and more technical complexity could be done, but sometimes the most humble and simple film is, however, universal.

THE STILL

Impermanent cinematographies, from the still, from 'amateur' cinema (from French verb aimer), define directors not only by what they show and how they do it on screen, but by what they decide not to show.

PHENOMENOLOGY

What appears and disappears, topologies emergence, materials or conscious, and their invisibility or subsequent expiration. The sequential surroundings of emptiness, of matters and time. Shafts at the discourse, eloquent, everyone can understand it by himself. Absence and miracle: Mystic as a possible cohabit together.


CORDIALITY, COMMUNICATION & COLLOQIUMS

Great importance of the colloquiums and live interaction between spectators and filmmakers. maximum communication, respect, sympathy and closeness from the organization to the filmmakers, artists and directors who come to present their films.

The Oiasso Roman Museum and the City Council of Irun organize the International Archaeological Film Festival of the Bidasoa.

The aim of the Festival is to present archaeology to the general public, through the diffusion of audio-visual material resulted from the work made by archaeologists, assuring the promotion and the spreading of these films.

The Festival is being celebrated since the year 2001 and from the year 2004 it has four prizes: the Grand Prize of the Festival, the Special Audience Prize, the Educational Values Prize and Arkeolan Prize for Contribution to Science. Since 2006, it’s inside Fedarcine, the European network of Archaeological Film Festivals.

The Gáldar International Film Festival (FIC Gáldar) is one of the most important film festivals in the Canary Islands, and has concentrated in each of its editions the very best of national and international cinema. Organized by the City Council of Gáldar through its Council of Culture since 2013, this festival proposes a live event with important health measures to ensure complete safety and confort.

Our event as of today will be hosted on the original intended dates. We are closely following the rules and regulations set by the government of Spain and, since our hope is that cinemas are allowed to full capacity before our event, we are also open to open our venues in a limited capacity if that was mandatory. If any plans change for our live event, we will notify all selected filmmakers with new dates.

The festival will take place in the city of Gáldar, on the island of Gran Canaria, in october 2024, and its philosophy focuses on the film as the only and great gravitational center, without losing sight of the creators, who deserve a parangonable respect for their works.

Thus, this festival will not make a difference between themes, formats or genres. Submissions are open to all types of feature and short films. We are looking to showcase the best in drama, comedy, horror, sci-fi/fantasy, thrillers/suspense, noir, both in fiction and documentary, both in life action and animation. Submissions are open to films from all over the world.

FIC is committed to cinema for cinema, to a true vision that does not respond to stringings neither social, nor ideological, nor formal. It is, at its core, a film festival without borders.

Alongside this statement of principles regarding the Official Selection, there is also a reverence for the cinema from the past througan evening of fantastic and horror cinema is proposed with "The darkest hour".

Finally, the festival will also pay homage to different personalities from the film industry and will organize workshops and parallel activities.

ANTOFACINE, the Antofagasta International Film Festival, is a gathering instance for national and international filmmakers; based on this premise we would like to contribute to:

● Promoting fiction, nonfiction and animations films as tools for cultural and social transformation and to benefit all of Antofagasta Region residents.

● Fostering the development of audiovisual projects in the region and country, supporting the creation of a professional space in order to promote local, national and international audiovisual works; contributing to audience formation and generating a gathering point in Antofagasta for the necessary interaction of all relevant agents of the audiovisual industry.

The 12 version of the Antofagasta International Film Festival, ANTOFACINE 2023 will be held from November 14 to 18, in the city of Antofagasta and other places of the region.

The Shortfilm Festival "San Rafael in short" aims dissemination, disclosure and the screening of cinematographic works as well as the knowledge of these by the audience. The works presented not opt to a prize or award, only the assessment of the audience.

The Culture Department of the San Nicolás del Puerto Town Hall and the Punto Vuela of San Nicolás del Puerto announce the IX “La Vieja Encina” Horror and Fantasy Short Film Festival 2024, to be held on November 28, 29, 30, and December 1, 2024.

Prokuplje Short Film Festival, founded in 2011, is the youngest film festival in Serbia. In Prokplje is event where audience can see the best from the field of documentary, experimental, animated and fiction from around the world. Thousands of films from all over the world arrive at the festival's address, and it has been reflected by the numerous audiences in Prokuplje, but also in other cities in Serbia and the region,because the team organizes Tour in which the best films are presented in over 30 cities. The lack of the Cinema, as well as the lack of a movie as a subject at school, prevents young people from learning about this art.

In order to see something of this content, the young people must go to Nis, or even to Belgrade. This is an opportunity to see the latest short film achievements from all around the world in Prokuplje. In recent years, according to research, there is a decline in audience attendance at the festivals all over the world. So because of that and because of the introduction of the film to young people, we brought the work with them, in all primary and secondary schools, which are potential audiences and will be animated by the presentation of festival films and the discussion on the significance of the Festival. In addition to work with young people in Prokuplje,the Film Club Prokuplje is the first to start animating the audience from the rural areas, which are completely excluded from all events, especially cultural events.

Chulpicine began its work in 2002 with the first ever Itinerant Children & Youth Film Festival in Quito. The warm welcome that the project received allowed the festival to become an annual event during the months of July to September, bringing an educational and entertaining event at no cost, to sectors with few cultural activities.

Thanks to the positive reaction, Chulpicine became a cultural and educational non-profit foundation in June 2004. After more than 10 years of experience, Chulpicine have reach a stable proposal and working methodology that has spread at national level. The Festival has promoted the creation of coaching staff; cultural managers working in different communities; and a large group of followers.

Chulpicine has designed a set of activities and workshops for institutions, community organizations or outreach workers to educate and train in different areas related to cinema, audiovisual, communication and Internet used as social intervention tools. These activities and workshops have been the beginning of a formation of learning communities by harnessing the capabilities of young people, as well as the setting up of an active and engaged network of social facilitators through the film and audiovisual work.

The Foundation carries out the following program lines: training; intervention; appropriation of public spaces; diffusion and production. This line of work is an alternative to foster community networks to develop communication skills, analysis and reflection in the various stakeholders of the community, thereby strengthening its organizational and self-development skills.

The foundation has a multidisciplinary team currently working on the projects. These people are responsible for different areas: there is a psychologist, a producer, a programmer, a communicator and an accountant.

In addition, every year about 12 people are hired to assist in the implementation of activities. This group is made up of people who have worked in the past in the festival and some new young people that wish to join the group. Also, each year we have the support of volunteers from different organizations.

Lucca Film Festival is an annual event that celebrates and promotes cinematographic culture. Through screenings, exhibitions, conferences and performances, the Festival has been able to captivate an ever-increasing audience with a program that ranges from experimental to mainstream films. Through the years, Lucca Film Festival has carved out a niche for itself, standing apart from the many other festivals thanks to its bold yet carefully studied programming. Over the years, great names of international filmmakers and well-known celebrities have attended Lucca Film Festival as invited guests; David Lynch, Oliver Stone, Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, George Romero, Terry Gilliam, William Friedkin, Alfonso Cuarón, John Boorman, Rutger Hauer, Joe Dante and Peter Greenaway, just to name a few. At the same time, the Festival has offered retrospectives of “old” glories while unearthing new talents. To top it all off, breathtaking Lucca serve as a stunning backdrop to an event that has now firmly established itself, becoming a highly anticipated and not-to-be-missed appointment in Italy and in Europe: the Lucca Film Festival.

Since its creation, the festival has always been committed to promoting contemporary films.
Therefore, directors from all over the world can submit their films to the competitive section of the festival through the dedicated call for entries. The 2022 edition of Lucca Film Festival will be held from 23 Semptember to 1 October, both in cinemas and online.

The 2023 will be the 8th edition of the Lucca Film Festival International Feature Film Competition. In the previous editions important personalities of cinema like Cristi Puiu, Rutger Hauer, Philip Groening and Claudio Giovannesi had been part of the international jury.

The films shown during this competition are Italian premieres and last edition was won by "Yamabuki" di Juichiro Yamasaki.

There are three awards: Best feature film prize (3000€), awarded by a jury of renowned guests from both the cinematographic and academic worlds; and Best feature film – university jury prize (awarded by an university jury), Best feature film - Popular jury and the Marcello Petrozziello Award.

For those who are interested in this competition, the last day for submissions is July 14 2023, until midnight.

There are no limitations to the genre or topic of the films. The only requirements are the following: the films must be at least 60 minutes long and must have been produced in 2022. Moreover, they must be Italian premieres, so they cannot have been presented in any other Italian festival, shown on any online open platform or distributed in any other way in Italy.

For the 18th year in a row, it will take place the historic short films competition, whose winner will receive a 500€ prize. Every year, the selection committee of this competition receives more than 300 films to evaluate. Among the directors who took part in earlier editions, there are celebrities like Adan Jodorowsky, son of the famous Chilean filmmaker.
Even though the “free experimentation” is the fil rouge of this year's edition, the films have no limitations in genre and topic. The only requirement is that they cannot last more than 29 minutes. For the short films competition, the last day for submissions is July 28, 2023, until midnight.

Lucca Film Festival launches, for the 2023 edition, a new short film competition, "Lucca Film Festival for Future", which was born thanks to the collaboration with the Sofidel Group, 2nd producer in Europe and 7th in the world for production capacity in the sector of paper for hygienic and domestic use (known in particular for the Regina brand), which has made sustainability a strategic lever of development and responsible growth to reduce its impact on natural capital and favour the transition towards a low carbon impact economy. The prize is 1000€.

List of the selected films will be published on the festival’s website within September 15, 2023. During the festival the movies will be shown in the cinemas taking part in the event and on demand online.

The Lucca Film Festival, coordinated by Nicola Borrelli, is one of the key events organized and sponsored by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca.

The event's main sponsors are Banca Generali and Banca Pictet, whereas the exhibits are produced with the support of Banca Société Générale. The organization of the Lucca Film Festival has also been possible thanks to the funding from Funder35 and the support of Gesam Gas & Luce S.p.A Istituto Luce Cinecittà S.r.l., Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, Baldini Vernici, Lucar S.p.A Lions Club Lucca Le Mura, Alleanza Assicurazioni S.p.A, Luccaorganizza, Il Ciocco S.p.A, MiBACT (the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism), the Region of Tuscany, the City of Lucca, the Province of Lucca with the collaboration and co-production of the Giglio Theatre in Lucca, Consociazione Nazionale donatori di sangue Fratres, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini e Museo Puccini – Casa Natale, Fondazione Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Fondazione Mario Tobino, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Martinelli Luce, CG Entertainment, Fondazione Centro Arti Visive e Fondazione UIBI. Thanks also to Lucca Comics & Games, Trenitalia Regional Management, Unicoop Firenze and to the Degree Course in Performing Arts and Civilization Department of Communication and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa, Photolux Festival and App18 for their collaboration.

Come to the Lucca Film Festival and experience a full 360° immersion in both the cinema and the heart of Tuscany.

The main objective of the Short Film Festival is the dissemination of ecosystems and biological heritage through cinematographic and audiovisual works selected through quality criteria.

Montevideo Fantastic Film Festival is the first Uruguayan festival dedicated to promoting national and international film productions related to horror, fantasy and science fiction genres. Its objective is to annually present independent and ultra-independent creations that are often considered "minor", and that hardly access commercial and cultural circuits.

It has sections related to short and long feature films in competition, as well as exhibitions, tributes to different figures of the genre, lectures presented by specialists, and promotion of different cultural activities that occur in the country.

The Montevideo Fantastic Film Festival has been declared of Cultural Interest by the Ministry of Education and Culture, of Municipal Interest by the Intendance of Montevideo, and of Tourist Interest by the Ministry of Tourism in Uruguay.

It was screened in the Punta del Este International Film Festival, LatinUy Film Festival ("Cinema Fantasy" section, in La Barra), Piriápolis de Película International Film Festival ("FantaPiria" section), as well as in several foreign genre festivals like 'Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre' from Argentina; 'Brasilia International Fantastic Film Festival' from Brazil; 'FIXIÓN Fest' from Chile and 'Zinema Zombie Fest' from Colombia.

Our up coming LIVE event will take place at Maya Cinemas on August 10, 2024.

SFO Short Film Festival is dedicated to promoting short films created by College Film Students, High School Students, and Independent Filmmakers. Awards are given to symbolize a record of accomplishment and Distribution is offered for marketing.

SHORT FILM CATEGORY SUBMISSION: (Minimum length 2 minutes; No longer than 30 minutes, including credits.)

1) Independent Filmmaker Short
2) Film Student Short
3) High School Short
4) Animation Short

SHORT FILM GENRES:

Short Film: Drama/Action/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
Short Film: Comedy/Romance
Short Film: Horror/ Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Short Film: Animation