Cinema is an art form that needs to be simultaneously nourished and challenged and ÉCU - The European Independent Film Festival provides the perfect arena for indie filmmakers to express authentic cinematic storytelling in the most compelling ways possible.
As one the World’s truly stand out independent film festivals, ÉCU embraces innovation and creativity and allows directors in competition to showcase their films to audiences who appreciate and love independent cinema. Filmmakers who are selected into ÉCU’s Official Selection join an active community of creatives who continually push the boundaries of indie cinema.
"It is always an absolute joy to present one's work at ECU. The team are fantastically helpful, the jury extremely competent, and the selection of the highest quality. I would recommend participating to anyone who's in love with indie filmmaking!" - Celina Liesegang, producer of Viscera: Autopsy of a (non)human body, ÉCU 2022 Official Selection
"It's always a pleasure having our films at ÉCU, especially this year with our awarded short film "Useless"! The communication has been great during the whole process and our filmmakers are so excited to be part of this competition. See you again next year with new projects!" - Marta Salvador Tato, distributor of USELESS, the winner of the Best European Independent Dramatic Short award 2022
Since its inception in 2006 ÉCU has forged a path for independent film and the scope of its presence has grown to a global scale with the festival often being referenced as the European equivalent of Sundance, an honour that we don’t take lightly.
Spring is not only a fabulous time for Paris but an exciting time for ÉCU because that is when we showcase roughly around 100 of the World’s very best independent films. Although ÉCU emphasises European talent, it also recognises the genius of international filmmakers with several categories allocated to non-European films.
The next ÉCU, the 19th edition, will take place on the 19th, 20th and 21st of April, 2024 in Paris, France.
ÉCU isn’t just all about screening an amazing slate of films over its three-day event in Paris in April. There are also professional workshops led by experts in the industry, Q&A’s held with the attending filmmakers after every screening session and a chance to network with fellow filmmakers, producers, agents, industry representatives, prospective film buyers and, of course, the cinema-loving public. At ÉCU, there is a continual dialogue celebrating and critiquing the world’s best indie cinema of today.
Though ÉCU’s main event IS the three-day festival in Paris each spring, there is even more! Thanks to our over 50 partner festivals, partner organizations, film centres and film commissions, ÉCU’s goes on an annual world tour called ÉCU-On-The-Road, which gives award-winning films (as well as many of the Official Selection films) the opportunity to have their films screened to a broader, global audience. ÉCU-On-The-Road showcased films in over 80 countries around the globe in 2016 - 2023 at special ÉCU mini-festivals, partner festivals, cultural institutions and film schools, including an amazing seven day special festival in São Paulo, Brazil. The event was made possible through the support of Caixa Cultural, São Paulo and was a huge success. ÉCU also held special events in Berlin (Germany), Cannes (France) and was part of festivals in Lebanon, Italy, Russia, USA, Romania, Austria, Denmark and other countries. This gives ÉCU filmmakers great exposure to audiences that they may never have reached.
Since 2006, ÉCU has helped the careers of literally hundreds of independent filmmakers, actors, DPs, editors, screenwriters and is honoured to be firmly established as one of the World’s eminent indie film festivals.
Above all, we are proud to be a filmmakers’ festival!
Bilbao City Council is currently organizing the 31st BILBAO FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL – FANT2025, to take place in Bilbao from 2nd to 10th of May 2025.
APÁGAME ESE COUNTRY FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL is a cultural project in rural Asturias that aims to highlight Spanish audiovisual production in short format. Fiction or animation short films will be accepted, with fantasy themes, horror, sci-fi and sub genres... this is our second edition and we would like to have a lot of participation to make it difficult for our programming team who comes eager to work. Don't ask us about the title of the festival...
Indy Film Fest was founded in 2004 to celebrate the art of cinema and to create a shared experience around film in Indianapolis. We are a non-profit, international, independent film festival programming both features and shorts. Our all-volunteer staff strives to bring the best films the industry has to offer to our community from home and abroad. Our programmers aim to foster new talent and help filmmakers connect with the global industry. We are also dedicated to educating and developing audiences for international and independent cinema in Indy, screening the kind of innovative, visionary work that may not normally achieve distribution in this area.
Indy Film Fest is looking for the best independent features and shorts no matter the category or genre including: live action, animated, drama, comedy, narrative, documentary, horror, sci-fi, and experimental. Our annual festival spanning over 10+ days typically programs around 25 features and 100 short films, with over 90% from submissions.
Always growing and adapting, the Indy Film Fest began as the three-day Indianapolis International Film Festival in 2004. We quickly expanded to our current 10-day format in 2006, moved our festivities to the summer in 2009, changed our name to the Indy Film Fest in 2014, and since 2018 have been back home in our original spring timeframe. Due to COVID-19 our 2020 and 2021 festivals were primarily virtual and our 2022 - 2024 festivals were hybrid 5-day in-person festivals followed by virtual availability and concluding with award-winner in-person screenings on the final weekend. That format is our goal for the 2025 festival and before selection decisions are made filmmakers will be informed of any changes to dates or format and given the opportunity to request their submission fee be applied to a future festival if those changes are not acceptable.
Alumni of the Indy Film Fest (and Indianapolis International Film Festival) are eligible for a reasonable number of free submissions. Films with significant ties to Indiana are eligible for drastically reduced submission fees. Examples of eligibility include the director or writer being a current Indiana resident or native, or the film being primarily shot within Indiana. Please contact submissions@indyfilmfest.org to see if you are eligible for either of these opportunities.
Interactive Festival where the public enjoys Short Films, theater, music and surprises.
The public participates in an active way during the event.
We accept any gender except Horror. Open to all types of filmmakers, whether professional or amateur.
The festival will be held in the town of Gavà, Barcelona (Spain), in mid-February. The VIII Edition will take place on Saturday, February 15, 2025.
The Life Beyond Life Film Festival is proposed by the ArtInMovimento Popular University and the Cultural Association SystemOut (both at Torino, Italy), being in synergy with A.R.E.I. ( The Afterlife Research and Education Institute, Normal/IL, USA) and Religion Today Film Festival, and linked to the International Afterlife Conferences Andare Oltre. Uniti nell Luce e Oltre L’Oltre. This Afertlife Cine Fest will lay the focus on eschatological subjects referring, in the main, to the Hereafter.
Death for many cultures represents the great taboo, where instilling fear and terror, anxieties are hidden behind, along with emotions, probably based on a dominant mainstream, that subjects most people by orienting themselves towards particular lifestyles and behaviors.The Life Beyond Life Film Festival, casted on, by an anthropological and esoteric eye, welcomes clips/shorts, medium and feature film, documentaries/fact films, video arts, and cartoons, thematising the terminal care, grief, transition, the visions of the Afterlife, Eternity, Immortality and Destiny; the Coincidences, the Divine, Angels and Demons, Karma and Darma, Samsãra, the Akashi Records, Entanglement, the Multiverse (parallel dimensions), Quantum Physics and Universal Energy. There will be even space for testimonials, narratives, bearing witness specially to the learnings of mediums, psychics and holistic operators, being both in continuos connection with the Afterlife and having had some experiences with it, as well as cinematographic products of great worth, having a significant social and spiritual value, where the message linked to Death will be Hope, Solidarity and Lightness.
Welcome to the Northstar Filmfare International Film Festival—an avant-garde cinematic journey that extends beyond traditional boundaries. Focused on empowering emerging filmmakers in the dynamic world of cinema, NFIFF emphasizes globally showcasing your work, securing press coverage, and fostering connections with influential figures in the industry.
At NFIFF, we warmly embrace filmmakers from around the world, anticipating films that embody courage, determination, and unique voices. Our commitment extends to supporting content creators and cultivating an environment where creativity thrives.
In the realm of NFIFF, the spotlight illuminates filmmaking every month. Winners receive an exclusive laurel and certificate, tangible recognition of their accomplishments. Submit your masterpiece today and explore new horizons in the world of filmmaking with NFIFF.
The International Video Poetry Festival in Athens attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry. The IVPF has been around since 2011. It is one of the largest international platform for video poetry. Every year, it offers poets, film directors, video artists and festival makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. With poetry readings, live performances, concerts, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops and lectures present in various sections the diversity of the genre of video poetry and spoken word music.
The International Video Poetry Festival happens in two different zones. The first day is the Show Room Video Poetry, a unique zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry and performances by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day is the Live Performance Zone with multimedia poetry readings, concerts with experimental music, workshops and spoken word lives.
Poets, filmmakers, video and digital artists, media and performance artists are called to submit creative works to The 11th Annual International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. The festival celebrates and will screen a large scope of video projects developed through the medium of poetry. The International Video Poetry Festival will also host a series of panels, guest speakers, workshops, and public dialogues regarding film and video poetry. In addition to the screenings, programmers also curate a video art exhibition.
There are no restrictions regarding when the film was produced or if the film has premiered regionally or internationally. There are no restrictions on subject matter, theme, topic, or the language of origin. The International Video Poetry Festival will accept submissions of poetry films, filmpoems, digital-poetry, poetry video, Cin(E)-Poetry, spoken word films, videopoema, visual poetry, choreopoems, poetrinca, media poetry, and all films and videos that are driven visually by text or voice.
Live performances, video mapping, installation proposals, and grand-scale video art presentations that contain strong aspects of poetry are encouraged. The IVPF also calls for experimental film and video work that explores poetry or literature whether it be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes non-narrative work and the avant-garde.
The IVPF strongly considers artwork that examines and challenges traditional visual communication methods while continuing to function as a tool for exploring poetry. The International Video Poetry Festival will consider documentaries that focus on poets, poems, poetry, poetic technique, literary movements, and historical events within these realms. The documentaries must have English or Greek subtitles.
The IVPF also calls for video work that explores poetry and literature whether it be oral, written, visual, or symbolic. This includes the film essay or cinematic essay, non-narrative work, and the avant-guard. We will also strongly consider work that challenges traditional and current visual communication methods while continuing to function as a mode for exploring narrative and personal expression.
Organizer and promoter of the International Video Poetry Festival are the Institute for Experimental Arts in co-operation with Void Network.
We would like to thank Dave Bonta from the influential video art site Moving Poems, a global site with the best video poems on the web that inspired us to create the International Video Poetry Festival in Athens and we cooperate since 2011 to spread out the announcement of the Festival each year so as to gather participations from all over the world.
Welcome to the Inaugural Taita Taveta Film Festival! The Festival was founded out of a strong desire to promote Taita Taveta filmmakers while simultaneously showing off Taita region, its people, talent, and culture through quality cinema. The Taita Taveta Film Festival will be an annual two-day celebration of film and creativity featuring industry panels, peer-to-peer interviews, evening afterparties, live screenings, Q&A’s and overall fun times.
Every year, the Festival will invite artists from all over the region to give their own interpretation of the world of today and tomorrow. Our vision is to achieve longevity while still remaining faithful to our founding purpose: to draw attention to and raise the profile of films, with the aim of contributing towards the development of cinema, boosting the film industry worldwide and celebrating cinema at an international level. We will always painstakingly curate our offering to ensure we showcase hidden gems alongside more mainstream films.
We also recognise that we are in a world of constantly changing images; as such, we must continue to reinvent ourselves from the inside. We endeavour to do so by constantly asking ourselves questions about the various aspects of the event that we can best prepare for the future with conviction and commitment, while staying attuned to the issues of our time.
The ninth edition of 24 Risas por Segundo, Comedy Film Festival, will be held on May 6 to 11 in Mexico City and that is why we CALL Mexican and foreign filmmakers to register their comedy films (short films and feature films) to be part of our programme.
The Río Negro International Social Film Festival is an audiovisual festival that aims to promote cinema within the country and abroad. The festival will be held in March with a competition of feature films and short films, both fiction, animation and documentary. There will also be talks and workshops.
Engativá is the third most populous locality in Bogotá; however, it is one of the least developed in terms of culture and cinema. There is talk of the cultural movements in Bosa, Kennedy, Ciudad Bolívar, and Suba, but Engativá is not mentioned. We are organizing this event to put the locality on the national and international map, with a large-scale event and outstanding films from around the world. Join us in making Engativá the epicenter of cinema in Bogotá and turning the Engativá International Film Festival into one of the country's most important film events.
>> IFFA | INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL OF ATHENS, a yearly event taking place in March.
1 - 10 | 3 | 2024
Celebrating Outstanding Filmmakers and Writers from all over the world
The Bollywood USA International Film Festival is a highly esteemed and prestigious event that celebrates the vibrant, colorful, and diverse world of cinema from around the globe. This remarkable festival is an essential platform for filmmakers, talented actors, and industry professionals to come together and showcase their outstanding work. It features an array of films, including captivating feature films, thought-provoking documentaries, engaging short films, inspiring music videos, creative screenplays, and even novels that have been adapted for the screen.
This festival promotes cross-cultural understanding and encourages the appreciation of cinema internationally. The event attracts a diverse audience, allowing viewers to experience a rich tapestry of storytelling that transcends geographical boundaries. By highlighting various cinematic styles and narratives, the Bollywood USA International Film Festival plays a crucial role in fostering dialogue among different cultures and paving the way for future collaborations within the global film industry.
Don’t forget feedback, which is the one element most festivals ignore.
We don't just charge you a fee and ignore you if you're rejected.
With us, rejected films have access to feedback, the one element most festivals ignore.
Instead of paying submission fees and getting nothing in return, EVERYONE who submits to BUIFF will receive EITHER OF TWO benefits:
Either 1) your film is already competition caliber and becomes an Official Selection,
OR 2): You’ll receive a letter outlining exactly what prevents it from being accepted.
If you can make corrections, you can resubmit for FREE.
First-time filmmakers: when have you ever received a letter and had the festival explain WHY your film was rejected?
Much less let you resubmit for FREE, even the following season (In case you did not have enough time to fix it)
VeCine - Social and community film festival, was born with the initiative of promoting the circulation and appreciation of short films of Colombian production with their public exhibition, sowing the seed of cultivating the viewer's gaze and strengthening the formation of audiences, decentralizing the vision of art in the city and circulating the works through vital spaces that allow listening, reflection and community participation of those stories that explore relevant social issues through audiovisuals.
Announcement
In this first version, the festival will be held in the south of the city of Bogotá, Colombia, between February 23 to March 3, 2024, with the support of the Scholarship for the strengthening of cultural and creative projects in the town of Tunjuelito - It's Local Culture Fourth Version.
Registration of audiovisual works for the competition and official selection will be open from Wednesday, January 10, 2024 to Wednesday, January 31, 2024 through the Google Forms registration form https://forms.gle/aNXM7KrhxWDxYME56
Participation categories
Film minutes / short films of 3 to a maximum of 20 minutes in length of any genre (fiction, documentary, animation and/or experimental) completed or released as of January 1, 2021, of Colombian production or directed by Colombian filmmakers / creators, can participate. in any of the following thematic selection categories:
• Conflict, memory, peace and/or reconciliation
• Women and gender.
• Environment and/or climate change.
• Stories of the territory. (Works made, produced or inspired in the town of Tunjuelito)
• Childhood and adolescence. (Works aimed at children: boys, girls and/or adolescents)
Section that has been several years and invites you to participate in a contest where you must terrorize the audience in just 2 minutes, has prizes in money to the first, second and third place, plus a recognition to the most popular audience, elected through popular vote among those who attend the night function. Jury made up of local and national filmmakers and festival personalities and the audiovisual media.
The Esoteric International Film Festival collects the best esoteric films from around the world, which were created both by professionals and by enthusiasts, and helps to get them across to the Russian audience.
We admit only the esoteric films, both modern and historical ones. As well as those films, where esoteric world is an important part of the synopsis.
Esoteric International Film Festival invite filmmakers who make films and documentaries about ghosts and spirits, brownies and witches, fairies and sorcerers, exorcism and parapsychology, telekinesis and transmission of thoughts at a distance, prophetic dreams and premonitions, alchemy, amulets, amulets, non-traditional religious cults, voodoo religion, animism, shamanism, theosophy and anthroposophy, the hidden edges of reality and other dimensions; self-discovery, the search for the meaning of life, the search for yourself in this world and your mission, life after death, human energy, chakras, aura, meditation, yoga, retreats, spiritual practices, spiritual teachers and ashrams, reincarnation and the recollection of past lives, the power of thoughts and the work of the subconscious; alternative medicine and non-standard methods of treatment, the universal mind, the energies of the new time, high vibrations, etc.
All films must be in English (orRussian). Alternatively, have the English or Russian subtitles (with the exception of all films without words), regardless of the country of production.
All best films that were selected for the vscreening, will be shown on the big screen during the solemn final ceremony on February 07-08, 2026 in Moscow, Russia and will be able to struggle for the main prize and the title of the "Best Esoteric film". As well as for the oteric in the standalone nominations.
- The festival provides accommodation and internal transportation during the festival period
Alexandria short film festival ( Egypt ) was founded by Alexandria Art Circle Association in order to give a chance for filmmakers to present their work to the public and this in the heart of Alexandria to be a lighthouse of cinema in the world.
The festival is held annually and its first edition was in 2015.
The festival aims to provide a suitable atmosphere to exchange experiences between filmmakers from all over the world and give opportunities for short filmmakers to present their films whether narrative, documentary, or animation in front of the audience, with the aim of conducting fruitful discussions between the filmmaker and the audience and providing a safe platform for presenting their work.
The festival aims to develop and advance short cinema .
FICCUE was born from the need to promote local, national and international cinema in Cuenca and its province of a genre as yet unexploited as comedy. Addressing this genre as the exclusive objective of this festival makes it unique both on a national and international scene, making Cuenca the headquarters of comedy cinema.
