About the Festival
Hamilton Film Awards is an international competition with public screenings and an exclusive award ceremony, created to honor the finest talents of the independent film industry, selected from the most prestigious competitions around the world. This award is dedicated exclusively to short films, indie films, experimental films, and music-driven films.
The festival accepts films made after 2023.
Hamilton Film Awards is an international competition with public theatrical screenings and an exclusive award ceremony, designed to celebrate the best independent talents participating in prestigious competitions worldwide.
The Hamilton Film Awards (HFA) aims to discover and honor cinema to which the festival is ready to offer its “hand and heart.”
To identify and preserve those acts of cinematic creation where form becomes revelation and craftsmanship reaches the level of a spiritual feat. We believe that true cinema is not an imitation of life but its transformation into light—where every frame is a carved-in-time ode to the invincible power of beauty in the art of film.
We seek works in which the filmmaker’s reverence for the eternal becomes a visible miracle—film stock turned into revelation, whose final frame becomes pure feeling itself.
The “OVE” statuette is not just an award. It is a living symbol of what lies at the foundation of great cinema: love for creativity and for filmmaking. OVE, holding this gift, becomes the guardian of the eternal. She is not merely inspiration but a conduit between the creator’s world and immortality. In her hands rests the director’s diamond heart — a pledge of loyalty, a promise that even when the director is gone, their love remains, like diamonds that continue to shine in the darkness of eternity.
We believe that true art is the quintessence of eternal values, embodied in the fleeting moment of a single frame. Our goal is to present cinema that evokes emotion, sparks conflict, and is as deep and eternal as true feeling—unique as a proposal of lifelong devotion.
Submitting your work to us is not about winning, career advancement, or recognition in the usual sense. It is for you if you are ready for another kind of dialogue: for your love of cinema to be seen. Not the plot, not the budget, not the technical methods—but the feelings and emotions that make us experience, empathize, love, and live through what gave birth to the film itself. So that your work may be noticed, recognized as a kindred heart, and told: “We know how deeply you love cinema. We see it in every frame.”
If your work is a crystal, we will not shatter it with the hammer of market trends. We will place it in the treasury where cinema becomes legacy—not product. You have already given your heart to the screen. Now allow us to become the mirror in which it is reflected—pure, eternal, and invulnerable.
Your heart, given to art, is recognized and returned to you—cut and polished into a diamond.
OVE is inlaid with a 4-carat diamond heart of exceptional clarity and cut, and coated in 24-carat gold.
Symbolism:
The OVE award is not a prize but a knighthood of vision—a sign of belonging to the brotherhood of those who bring into the world not just a film, but visible proof of the soul’s immortality.
The Hamilton Film Awards strives to become one of the world’s most respected festivals, and its top prize—the OVE statuette—aims to become as coveted as the Oscar.
Hamilton Film Awards announces the launch of its first festival, which has already generated great anticipation thanks to its extraordinary prize.
O. V. E. = Opening — Vertex — End
Symbolizing the Triad of Creation and embodying the three acts—beginning, climax, and finale.
Why submit your work?
So that your “heart,” offered to art, may be recognized and returned to you—cut into a diamond.
Submit to us if you are ready for another kind of dialogue: for your love of cinema to be seen. Not the plot, not the budget, not the techniques—but the emotions, the feelings, the life force that gave birth to the film. So that your work may be recognized as a kindred soul: “We know how deeply you love cinema. We see it in every frame.”
If your film is a crystal, we will not break it with the hammer of convention. We will place it where cinema becomes heritage, not product. You have already given your heart to the screen—now let us become the mirror that reflects it: pure, eternal, invulnerable.
So that your heart, given to art, may be recognized and returned to you—cut into a diamond.
CineAI Fest is an innovative festival that celebrates audiovisual productions created using generative Artificial Intelligence tools. Our goal is to foster dialogue between art and technology, encouraging narrative originality, aesthetic vision, and technical quality. We also aim to inspire creators and filmmakers to produce films with a more cinematic language that can be screened at our in-person event with projection — therefore, vertical videos are not included in the selection.
The program will be divided into three categories:
1) Fiction – fictional narratives, whether original or adapted.
2) Non-Fiction – documentaries, essays, or reports.
3) Experimental – authorial and/or poetic works that explore other forms of expression, such as music videos, video art, manifestos, or innovative formats.
The festival will feature online showcases open to the public and a special in-person event in São Paulo, with audiovisual professionals and AI specialists.
The K-lidoscopi Cultural Association in Cullera is holding its 15th Short Film Festival. The Short Film Festival features three categories (Fiction, Animation and Documentary) and serves as a selection event for the GOYA Awards.
Luberon Film Festival
International Film Festival hosted by the city of PERTUIS. He will be celebrating his 5th year. The LFF forwill reward at the end of these 5 days in a feature film and short film section the Lavender of Gold for the best film.
Founded in 2024 Italy, the Moonlight Short Film Fest was born out of the passion of a group of film lovers and industry professionals. Our goal is to provide a platform for emerging filmmakers and the new generation of industry workers entering the world of cinema.
We firmly believe that the future of cinema lies in independent productions, characterized by freshness and originality, which often come from early short films. Our festival welcomes all types of short films, which is why the theme is open. We want each author to have the freedom to express themselves in their preferred way, without restrictions.
Our association aims to create a film festival celebrating emotions to complement and revitalize the cultural offerings in rural areas, rooted in
its territory of Remiremont and the Vosges Mountains.
Surprise, fear, sadness, anger, joy... Cinema is characterized by these words, these EMOTIONS; everyone has film memories, powerful moments, personal or collective, touching, experienced thanks to cinema.
What a surprise it was when we realized that
EMOTIONS didn't have THEIR OWN Festival!
Emotions are at the heart of our lives; they speak to everyone, regardless of age or background. It's about telling the world in our
way, succeeding in making others visible and making them understand that we share a common humanity with them—this is the very heart of the project. This festival aims to be welcoming, accessible, open to a wide audience, and participatory;
exchange is its essence. In short, a festival that makes you feel good.
The Christian Film Showcase is an audiovisual exhibition space dedicated to the presentation of short films and feature films with Christian themes, whose main purpose is to exalt the name of Jesus Christ and spread the message of the Gospel through the language of cinema.
More than a competitive festival, this showcase was born as a spiritual and artistic gathering, where cinema becomes a means to proclaim the faith, share testimonies, and reflect on the life and teachings of Jesus.
We believe in cinema as a powerful tool for evangelization, formation, and communion.
On the border of Europe and Asia, in the 300-year-old city called the "Russian Manchester" in the middle of the Ural Mountains —
we organize an International Short Film Festival with a quarterly Official Selection and Live Screenings every summer, autumn, winter and spring.
NOW OPEN: Submissions for the Ural Shorts Spring 2026
Grand Prix: $1,000
Ural Shorts consists of four Seasons and Annual Award Event. Every Season the selection committee watches privately the submitted short films and chooses the Official Selections. All selected films enter the competition for the Season Awards.
Within 10 days after the Official Selection list is published the jury announces the Season Winners. The winning films enter the Screening Program in cinemas and on television for all to see.
All Season winners enter the competition for the Annual Awards in the nominations corresponding to the Main and Technical and Performances categories, and for the Grand Prix. They receive an invitation to the Annual Award Event.
The Annual Event takes place in August 2026 in the 300-year-old city of Nizhny Tagil, on the border of Europe and Asia, which is called the "Russian Manchester" in the middle of the Ural Mountains. The winner of the Grand Prix will receive a statuette, a diploma and a cash prize of $1,000. The Annual Award Event consists of a cultural and educational program, the annual awards ceremony, screenings, TV interviews, workshops, and other activities.
We are looking for films that have been censored, banned, or have faced obstacles to their development, production and/or exhibition due to political, social, corporate, religious or other reasons, anywhere in the world over the past two years.
Censurados Film Festival is an international film festival that showcases and promotes “the films they don’t want you to see.” Founded in Peru and with over twelve years of experience, the festival has established itself as a key platform for the defense of freedom of expression, human rights, and cultural diversity through cinema.
In a global context where censorship continues to affect artists, filmmakers, and audiences, the festival creates a space for encounter, reflection, and dialogue around the many forms of censorship shaping contemporary artistic practices.
The 12th edition of the festival will take place from October 9 to 12, 2026, in Caldes d’Estrac (Barcelona), where, over four days, cultural venues and public spaces will host screenings, debates, masterclasses, and educational activities, turning the town into a meeting point for filmmakers, industry professionals, and audiences.
The Official Selection consists of two international competitions that approach censorship from different perspectives:
CENSORSHIP COMPETITION
This section is dedicated to films that have been censored, banned, or have faced obstacles, pressure, threats, or any form of violence affecting their development or circulation.
Films of any genre—fiction, documentary, animation, or experimental—from anywhere in the world may participate, provided they have been subject to censorship or interference at any stage of the filmmaking process, from research and concept development, through writing, production, shooting, and post-production, to their exhibition, distribution, or public circulation.
Applicants must provide verifiable information demonstrating the situation of censorship, pressure, threat, or conflict that has affected the work.
STORIES OF CENSORSHIP COMPETITION
This section is dedicated to films that explore censorship as a theme from a narrative, artistic, or documentary perspective.
Films from anywhere in the world may participate if they portray, denounce, or reflect on situations of censorship in cinema or in any other artistic field, as well as on the tensions between creation, power, and freedom of expression.
The Puerto Madryn MAFICI International Film Festival has been held for 14 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.
Chambal International Film Festival Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were grand success.
In Season 1, 316 films from 28 Countries were submitted and 160 films were selected for screening. India’s official entry to Academy awards ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ (2009) was also screened under special focus in Season 1.
In Season 2, 492 films from 35 Countries were submitted and 243 films were selected for screening. India’s official entry to Academy awards ‘Court’ (2015) was also screened under special focus in Season 2.
In Season 3, 604 films from 40 Countries were submitted and 398 films were selected for screening. India’s official entry to Academy awards ‘Shwaas’ (2004) was also screened under special focus in Season 3.
In Season 4, 701 films from 54 Countries were submitted and 464 films were selected for screening.
In Season 5, 809 films from 63 Countries were submitted and 494 films were selected for screening.
In Season 6, 903 films from 71 Countries were submitted and more than 300 films were selected for screening.
In Season 7, 1007 films from 82 Countries were submitted and more than 250 films were selected for screening. Loksabha Speaker Hon'ble Mr. Om Birla Sir inaugurated the opening ceremony.
In Season 8, 1104 films from 93 Countries were submitted and more than 250 films were selected for screening.
In Season 9, 1205 films and projects from 101 Countries were submitted. Renowned actress Seema Biswas Ma'am was the Chief Guest.
The highlights are:
1. Free Hospitality to all the film makers including stay at hotel, meals and conveyance (hotel to venue).
2. Awards in 75 categories.
3. Jury members are from INDIAN FILM INDUSTRY.
4. Excellent media coverage.
5. Great Exposure (5000 plus audience)
6. Support for releasing films on leading OTT platforms.
7. World’s one of the most loved and best reviewed film festivals.
8. Workshops, Networking and Seminars.
9. Certificate Of Official Selection to all the Nominated Films.
10. Certificate Of Participation to all the participants.
11. The films were screened on multiple screens
Chambal International Film Festival, India is a platform where film makers will get an opportunity to showcase their talent to film loving great audience. Also the audience will get a chance to watch some wonderful short films, documentary films, animation films and music videos of various film makers of the World. The Honorable Jury members Mr. Sayeed Quadri (Renowned Lyricist), Mr. Kshitij Tarey (Famous Singer and Music Composer) and Mr. Ranjan Das (Eminent Editor and Writer) from Indian Film Industry are reputed names. Late Mr. Suresh Naik (Highly Experienced DOP and Special Effect Co- Ordinator) was also a part of the jury.
Colors of Love - Queer Film Festival is a vibrant LGBTIQ community initiative created by filmmakers to celebrate and curate queer short films, documentaries, animations, music videos, and web series. Our mission is to introduce these stories to new audiences in a fun, engaging, and informative way.
We welcome submissions of any short films, documentaries, animations, music videos, or web series that explore LGBTQ+ themes, regardless of when they were made. Please ensure that you hold all the rights to your film, including music, images, and likenesses used in it.
With the success of last year’s event, we’re thrilled to announce that this year we are expanding the length of eligible films from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. Additionally, we are introducing a brand-new LGBTQ Feature Film category to further showcase diverse and powerful queer stories.
Colors of Love Queer Film Festival become the official part of FilmyBees Cine Club, which manages and hosts the festival and associated programs. The last event took place on 22nd - 23rd June during Pride Month, celebrating the diversity of love in Mumbai, the Bollywood city of India.
By submitting your film, you grant us permission to screen it in unlimited live screenings throughout the year.
Additionally, we will host an online event at the end of the year, where all selected films will be screened via our online film streaming partners. This is a non-exclusive agreement, meaning you are free to share your film elsewhere.
Moscow International Children’s Film Festival invites children, teenagers, youth, parents and teachers to get acquainted with the best films for children, teenagers and youth and films made by children and teenagers (under 18) under the guidance of adults.
The film festival presents to the public the best films from all over the world made by adults for a children’s audience, as well as films made by children and teenagers from different cities and countries, trying themselves as producers, screenwriters, actors, directors, animators.
The extensive program of the Moscow International Children’s Film Festival is designed for children (6+), teenagers planning to go to the film and art schools, their parents and teachers.
The film festival brings together filmmakers making films for children with young filmmakers who make their first steps at film and video creation. Our goal is to inspire and support young filmmakers, and give wide audiences the opportunity to get acquainted with modern films for children and teenagers.
The Moscow International Children’s Film Festival is a large-scale festive event with an extensive and vibrant program of films on the big screan for children and teenagers, as well as parents, a series of meetings with directors and master classes from leading film experts representing various film schools.
All best films that were selected for the screening, will be shown on the big screen during the solemn final ceremony on March 18 – 21, 2027 in Moscow, Russia and will be able to struggle for the main prize and the title of the “Best film”. As well as for the prizes in the standalone nominations.
The Latin American Film Week will take place over five consecutive days, with its official venues at Arthaus and Cine Arte Cacodelphia in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2026.
During the event, special activities will accompany the screenings, including training workshops, forums, and networking opportunities for industry professionals.
Since 2017, we have been creating spaces for dialogue and debate, with a strong focus on building audiences. We believe it is important that our viewers have a great experience at every screening and leave inspired to continue discovering Latin American cinema.
«38Retinas» is an annual, traveling, thematic film festival that aims to bring comedy short films to the municipalities of the El Bierzo region that request them
SIMFEST is a TV and film festival – competition, the only one of this kind in Romania and one of the few in Europe.
It is organized every year by "SIMFEST Cultural Association", which supports and promotes the creators in visual arts. SIMFEST stands for professionalism and for the freedom of expression of the journalists and the media producers. The festival promotes, at the same time, local journalism and community mass-media.
It is a complex manifestation for electronic mass-media. It is the annual meeting point of the TV's and film’s world specialists from Romania and from all of the world, of students, independent producers, and of media enthusiasts; it is a competition that it's designed to find and form values and talents, to give them the needed validation and for connecting them with the medium in which they can develop. It is a competition and, at the same time, a media school and a cultural event.
The SIMFEST components are:
- The Competition
- The Summer School for journalists and media creators and film
- The official program of the festival
The Competition is opened to all the media creators, reporters, cameramen and media producers from Romania but also from other countries, but is also opened to freelancers, to students and territorial correspondents of central televisions, production houses, as well as to all multimedia creators. It has eight sections.
- PUBLISHING (REPORTAGE/ DOCUMENTARY/ INQUIRY/ ESSAY / TALK-SHOW etc.)
- ENTERTAINMENT
- VIDEO
- MULTIMEDIA (+IA)
- STUDENT PROJECTS (fiction and non fiction)
- TOURISTIC FILM
- FICTION (short movie and feature film)
- ANIMATION
The jury of the competition consists out of well-known personalities in the field of journalism, TV and cinema from Romania and from other countries.
The Summer School for journalists and media creators was founded and included within the festival in 2007, and through it, SIMFEST became in the past few years an institution of non-formal education of media creators and film , especially from the audiovisual section.
The journalists Romeo Couți and Brândușa Armanca (TVR), the writer Bogdan Hrib, Assoc. Prof. PhD. Ion Stavre (SNSPA), Assoc. Prof. PhD. Lucian Ionică (West University of Timișoara), the director Ștefan Fischer (Germany), Charles Fletcher, MBE (Scotland), TV producer Codruț Pânzaru, TV producer Tamas Barok (Hungary), the director Copel Moscu (UNATC Bucharest), Iulia Badea Gueritee and Raymond Clarinard (Courrier International Paris), Beata Biel (Google expert, Poland), Ovidiu Gyarmath (Director of photography), Prof. PhD. Laura Baron (UNATC Bucharest), grat Romanian actors like Marcel Iures , Daniela Nane and Dan Puric, Elisabeta Bostan film producer, JC Guest film producer 2023 Emmy Award Winner and many others held lectures and led workshops or held masterclasses within the Summer School., Toma Enache film producer
The official program of the festival is available for the public with the purpose to, on one hand, construct a way of communication between the creators of media and those whom they serve: the consumers of information in order for the audience to correctly understand the messages transmitted through mass-media. On the other hand, it offers a space of free expression and a non-formal platform for professional development for the journalists and filmmakers. Therefore, SIMFEST is a festival not only a TV and film competition but also a cultural complex.
International recognition: SIMFEST is known and recognized in the Romanian mass-media as a role model in the promotion of artists' free expression and for the promotion and being an advocate of real media professionalism. Most of the creators attending SIMFEST for the past years, have also won international recognition at competitions organized in Sibiu, Prague, Belgrade, Bucharest, London, Kishinaw and Tel Aviv. SIMFEST is also in collaboration or in partnership with other similar manifestations: CRONOGRAF Chishinaw, DETECTIVEFEST Moskow, CINEPOLITICA Bucharest etc.
The Athens Short Film Festival is an annual event that spotlights international independent breakout shorts. Taking place in the multicultural and artistic Greek capital, ASFF supports the city’s underground scene and breaks its geographical boundaries by gathering a mixed audience of locals and internationals. Local cinemas have always been a place where conversations and debates on social, political and gender issues sparked. And it is part of ASFF’s mission to rejuvenate these spaces and honour their cultural significance.
The Festival’s screening programme features emerging talents from all over the world and all filmmakers regardless of background are invited to submit their artworks. Expanding year by year, the Athens Short Film Festival aims to enrich its programme with industry events, workshops and seminars and become a reference Film festival for the Athenian independent cinema scene.
The Athens Short Festival is organised by HFP, a pioneer organisation that runs Film Festivals and other events showcasing and championing ideas of diversity. Through our global series of film Festivals that spread over 13 countries, we open the path to voices with a compelling story to share. Our main mission is to honour independent cinema and establish a network of artists eager to join forces and spread their work across all nations.
We conceive IBZCF as a window into contemporary cinema, its new trends and creators who contribute new narrative paths to create vibrant, necessary, and modern films.
The 11th edition of IBZCF will take place in 10 venues across the island's five municipalities and online on the Filmin platform. Ibizacinefest renews its commitment to Ibiza and its culture through a program of national and international titles never before seen on the island, exclusive premieres in the Balearic Islands and Spain, activities aimed at professionals, short film sections to discover and promote local and Balearic talent, and our educational program with special screenings to create new audiences.
Reflection will also be given space through open discussions on the relationship between cinema and various current sociocultural issues.
Short films are once again the focus of IBZCF, once again as a qualifier for the Premios Goya,Forqué Awards, and the Fugaz Awards, collaborating once again with the European Film Academy on the Shortfilms on Tour program.
Xavi Herrero
Director and programmer IBZCF2-European Film Academy Member
BITBANG International Animation Festival opens its call for entries and invites you to be part of its twelfth edition, which will take place in October 2026, in person, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BITBANG is a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards® (Oscars). The winners of the Bitbang Official Competition, in the categories of Best International Short Film and Best Latin American Short Film, will be automatically eligible to enter the OSCARS® Short Film competition.
BITBANG disseminates and promotes innovative, experimental and authorial proposals through projections, exhibitions and competitions. We promote audiovisual creation in Argentina, orientated towards the development and consolidation of the industry as a cultural contribution on a worldwide level.
We place special emphasis on training and capacitation, for that during BITBANG there are being held masterclasses, seminars, conferences and workshops. In addition to that, there are laboratories, spotlights, retrospectives, illustration contests, installations, exhibitions, making a film in 24 hours, and thematic parties. All screenings are with free admission.
Since 2015 we have organized BITBANG, a unique experience that each edition allows all those interested in art, creativity and innovation, to meet with the most important referents in the country and the world. It is a meeting point that enables collaboration between artists from different disciplines and generates the construction of new languages and other perspectives.
In previous years, the venues were CCK, Planetarium Galileo Galilei, Espacio INCAA Km 0 Gaumont, C3 Museum, Borges Cultural Center, Recoleta Cultural Center, Cosmos Uba Cinema, Da Vinci School, Otra Historia Club Cultural, Local, Club Lucero, C Complejo Art Media, Deseo, Dune Park, La Paz Arriba, Bar El Destello, Arcade Club Social, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Also we held BITBANG in different parts of Argentina, spreading the best of Argentinean and International Animation.
In this 12th Edition BITBANG welcomes you to these artistic proposals and to the fans and professional audiovisual community.
