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
- 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
- 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, 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 and Dan Puric, JC Guest film producer 2023 Emmy Award Winner and many others held lectures and led workshops or held masterclasses within the Summer School.
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 SunChild 13th International Environmental Festival will take place from October 3rd to the 7th, 2025, screening over 40 of the best environmental films worldwide. On a planet that faces complex issues that threaten to tear us apart, we hope to provide a platform to find the connection to sustain life․ SunChild IEF is a celebration of nature, creating space for people to come together, learn, and create solutions.
About the Festival
SunChild International Environmental Festival, established by the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), is the first and the only environmental festival in the South Caucasus region. More than 780 films from 150 countries worldwide were screened over its last 15 years of existence. The film festival includes various activities such as carnival marches, dozens of workshops, conferences, and exhibitions. Besides being rich in content, all events are eye-catching due to their colorful and unique approaches. The festival travels in the regions of Armenia throughout the whole year, involving a large number of children and youth, facilitating identification and creative solutions to community environmental issues by organizing thematic film screenings, discussions, and other initiatives. Directly targeting communities through encouragement and support to take action locally, will create a lasting effect within the community. The festival aims to bring nature, wildlife, and the environment into the focus of public attention and increase knowledge about issues among citizens, especially among children and youth.
Theme: Symbiosis between Humans and Nature
Each year SunChild IEF highlights different environmental topics to raise awareness and become a platform for discussion. For the 13th edition of the festival, we chose Symbiosis in a Non-Anthropocentric World as a central theme. All of our events in some way or another aim to unveil the complex nature of symbiosis conservation challenges in Armenia, the South Caucasus Region, and beyond. The symbiotic relationship between humans and nature has a large footnote in human history. By highlighting a potential dying value, we can educate citizens on our micro-destruction/abandonment of habitats that once encouraged a non-anthropocentric civilization. To contrast the abandonment, solutions can be proposed by conserving stories that exemplify our current harmony with nature. With the help of showcasing the destruction, the harmony, and additional conceptual solutions/visions, we can raise awareness of a value that deserves to be recognized and upheld by future generations.
SunChild 13th International Environmental Festival has 4 nominations
• Feature-length Documentaries about Symbiosis between Humans and Nature within the lens of Abandoning Symbiosis and/or Symbiotic Harmony.
This program is dedicated to promoting public awareness of stories, issues, and challenges about symbiosis on earth. Our responsibility is to protect habitats and relationships between humans and nature that are slowly losing contact. Showcasing films that focus on either the abandonment of symbiosis or the encouragement of symbiosis, can emphasize the current problems and solutions we face in modern civilization. Films that may be submitted could be solely about symbiotic separation, and symbiotic harmony, or include both thematic elements.
Documentaries released after March 2024 are welcome to be submitted for this competition.
The film may run between 60 minutes and 3 hours. To have a longer film considered, please contact SunChild IEF.
• Short Films about Symbiosis between Humans and Nature within the lens of Abandoning Symbiosis and/or Symbiotic Harmony.
This program is dedicated to promoting public awareness of stories, issues, and challenges about symbiosis worldwide. Showcasing short films that focus on either the abandonment of symbiosis or the encouragement of symbiosis can emphasize the current problems and solutions we face in modern civilization. Films that may be submitted could be solely about symbiotic separation and symbiotic harmony or include both thematic elements.
Short films of any genre released after March 2024 are welcome to be submitted for this competition. The film may be 5-59 minutes in length.
• John Burton Conservation Award: Films about Conservationists
Films about Conservationists from all around the world.
Named after conservationist John Burton, this award will spotlight films about nature conservation with a strong directorial vision.
With this award, SunChild IEF wants to honor the memory of John Burton, who died in May 2022.
The award will be granted to the best conservation films about individuals, who strive to make a change in the world. John Burton was a revolutionary, visionary, and inspirational conservationist whose creative thinking saved over 300,000 hectares of threatened habitat from damaging development. He challenged the usual approaches to preserving wild creatures and their habitats. Sir David Attenborough described him as “a truly wonderful man, more altruistic, more energetic, braver and more original than almost anyone I have known.”
Films released after March 2024 are welcome to be submitted for this competition.
• Non-Competition Films for Environmental Educational/Awareness-Raising.
In this Non-Competition Program, we highly encourage films to be submitted but not limited to the theme of Symbiosis between Humans and Nature. In this category, we welcome films about environmental issues and challenges from all around the world.
Films of any genre released before March 2024 are welcome to be submitted for this competition.
The film may run between 5 minutes and 2 hours. To have a shorter or longer film considered, please contact SunChild IEF.
The Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) is a film festival that embraces diversity and inclusivity! TINFF is a Telefilm Canada and IMDb-qualifying film festival. https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0010686/2019/1
The Toronto International Film Festival (TINFF) invites you to come to enjoy the diversity that brings local and international films, filmmakers, and artists to the beautiful city of Toronto every year.
The objective of TINFF is to be a prominent film festival in Toronto that celebrates the diversity that defines our beautiful city. The primary goal is to advance creative, independent filmmaking through diversity, innovation, and uniqueness by capturing a series of movements and experiences in a single film. We support, screen, and present music and films from around the world in order to help them find an audience and diversify the film industry as a whole.
The festival's programs and activities will initiate programs that address the capacity building of its organizational structure and personnel while also investing heavily in the development of its stakeholder group and providing support for strategic activities that address major challenges and opportunities.
This year's festival and activity projects will include conferences, screenings with Q&A, live music performances, stage plays, and dance, as well as several audience development activities involving workshop training and mentorship programs in various capacities geared toward increasing workforce capacity and putting diversity and inclusion at the center of its annual program and objectives.
The CBDFM Summit:
As part of the annual festival program, the TINFF-Market, also known as the "Canada Black & Diversity Film Market," will focus on business development, providing support to organizations for business-to-business (B2B) industry activities and business-to-consumer (B2C) audience development activities that bring opportunities for new business leads, collaboration, sales, distribution, and relationships.
Our programs and activities will be offered in three phases to ensure effective planning and execution:
• Festival programs will feature, among other things, screenings with Q&A, interviews, conferences, and seminars.
• Workshops and Training, Mentorship, and Masterclasses: Bridging the Gap in Skills Development Programs
• Acquisitions, networking, production collaboration, negotiations, sales, exhibition screenings, meetings (one-on-one or group meetings), and conferences are all part of the Film Market Summit.
Our initiatives, as a creative hub for filmmakers and industry stakeholders, are geared toward developing opportunities for all Canadians and international filmmakers and stakeholders, with a focus on the marginalized Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) groups.
The Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) is a year-round award competition and live screening festival held in Toronto each year. Every year, we hold a festival event and an award ceremony to celebrate diversity in film. We warmly welcome filmmakers from all around the world to Toronto.
Following the announcement and notification of the Official Selected Films, we will go on to the next stage of the selection process and announce the TINFF Festival Finalists who will compete at the live festival event in Toronto. The names of all Finalists will be published on the TINFF festival website and on the TINFF Facebook page.
TINFF is a music and film festival with an awards ceremony that honours and fosters filmmakers by recognizing, promoting, challenging, and building knowledge of equality, social justice, non-discrimination, diversity, and multiculturalism.
The Víctor Grífols i Lucas Foundation awards this prize to an audiovisual project, with the winning entry receiving 5000 euros to support the production of the finished work.
The prize aims to promote education, discussion and analysis of bioethical issues with a social impact, through work aimed at a general audience.
MOONWATCHERS Association for Cinematographic Culture from Statte (Taranto, Italy) organizes the “Moonwatchers Film Festival” contest for Directors and Film-makers from all the world, who produced their works from January 1st, 2020 onwards. The deadline to send the movies is set to May 31st, 2023.
What is Zinetika Festival
Zinetika is a multidisciplinary festival that explores the relationships between dance and audiovisual arts, body and technology, creating together in search of different artistic experiences. The Festival hosts proposals of dance films, performance, masterclasses and workshops around this theme.
All this makes Zinetika a platform for cultural experiences shared by organisations and creators from different artistic fields and origins, both local and international. The festival is held in Pamplona/Iruña, San Sebastian/Donostia and Bilbao/Bilbo.
AWARDS
Best Film Zinetika 2022: 500 €
Best director Zinetika 2022: 500 €
The films that will be part of the Zinetika Official Selection will be projected in the three cities where the festival will take place.
CineEco - International Environmental Film Festival of Serra da Estrela, organised by the Municipality of Seia, is the only festival in Portugal dedicated to the environment, which has been held uninterruptedlysince 1995.
Based on the motto Films that change the world, the Festival is a meeting point for professionals, researchers and the public. Its mission is to give visibility to today's major environmental issues brought to the Festival by filmmakers and to be a space for reflection and action by offering quality cinema and little-known and alternative cinematographies in relation to the traditional market. It is a Festival that promotes public awareness of cinema, its history and aesthetics, and environmental issues.
2024 Festival 8-12 May. New entries 20th of Oct 2023 (FILM SUBMISSIONS OPEN)
____________________________________________________________________Västerås Film Festival is an international film festival held in autumn every year since 2015. The festival will be moved to April 2024. Västerås film festival shows films in different genres from around the world. We have prizes in different categories. The festival also contains workshops, lectures, debates, film cafés and exhibitions. Västerås Film Festival is one of the most interesting festivals in northern Europe.
Västerås Film Festival 2024 becomes a genre film festival, there will be changes in prices.
The "Corto di sera" Festival takes place in August in Itala, in the province of Messina since 2012.
Participation to the Festival is free and open to all Italians and foreign authors, single filmmakers orcollectives/associations.
- The Festival is exclusively dedicated to short films that last less than 25minutes.
- Any genre will be accepted (documentary, fiction, classic and/or digital animation)
- All foreign works shot in any language which is not Italian must be subtitled in Italian . Non-subtitled foreign short films will not be selected.
- Each author may submit up to a maximum of three works.
- The organizers reserve the possibility to create additional sections.
Festival’s purpose is to promote the independent short film production in all its forms as an artistic and expressive language. The aim of to create an annual event in Italy where filmmakers, video makers, professionals or enthusiasts cinema can meet and connect different experiences.
Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival(UMFF) is the first international mountain film festival in South Korea, dedicated to presenting and promoting films & culture dealing with mountains, adventure, exploration, nature, and the environment. The festival also provides an opportunity for filmmakers and mountaineers to meet and exchange ideas through seminars, events, screenings, and social gatherings.
The 10th UMFF will be held in Ulsan & Ulju, South Korea in autumn, 2025.
(En español debajo)
The HFF is the first short film festival in Hendaye. Since its creation in 2013, on the initiative of the association Begiradak, this Festival focuses on the distribution of films that value differences (both linguistically and culturally and socially):
The presented works can participate and be judged by a jury of recognized professionals of the sector.
An international official section.
In addition, short films and documentaries out of competition will be presented in the context of a focus, a tribute, a previews or exceptional sessions.-------------------------------------------------
El HFF es el primer festival de cortometrajes en Hendaya. Desde su creación en 2013, por iniciativa de la asociación Begiradak, este Festival se centra en la distribución de películas que valoran las diferencias (tanto lingüísticas como culturales y sociales):
Los trabajos presentados pueden participar y ser juzgados por un jurado de reconocidos profesionales del sector.
Una sección oficial internacional.
Además, cortometrajes y documentales fuera de concurso se presentarán en el contexto de un enfoque, un homenaje, una vista previa o sesiones excepcionales.
ENGLISH: SHORTS MÉXICO 20TH EDITION
CALL FOR ENTRIES – SUBMIT YOUR FILM
SHORTS MEXICO has become the largest International short film festival in Latin America. Do not miss the chance to be part of its 20th celebration.
FILM SUBMISSION REGULATIONS
SHORTS MEXICO - Mexico International Short Film Festival call for entries begins February 17th through May 31st, 2025 at 23:59 (CST) Mexico City. We are open to receive Short Films from all over the world inviting all production genres.
SHORTS MEXICO is recognized as the biggest International short film festival in Iberoamerica. An international exhibition platform specialized in short films. It promotes cinema creative expressions, diverse voices, distinctive and innovative visions, bold quality films from filmmakers from all over the world. At SHORTS MEXICO we encourage the growth and development of short films as well as the filmmakers.
The 20th Edition of SHORTS MEXICO will be held from September 1st through the 30th 2025 in Mexico City. The National Cinematheque of Mexico is the main venue of the festival, and the most prestigious cinema venue in the country. The festival amounts other important venues as CINEMEX Theaters, one of the largest cinema chains in the world, famous Vasconcelo´s Library, Centro Cultural Universitario de la UNAM, CDMX´s Cultural Centers, etc. The festival amounts over 70 venues in Mexico, and holds exhibitions in every one of the 32 States of the Mexican Republic, so the event truly occurs throughout the entire country of Mexico. Since the pandemic, SHORTS MÉXICO is presented in a hybrid format, holding virtual and televised exhibitions as well, having over 1 million spectators per edition.
Throughout the year the festival features previews, exhibitions, retrospectives and master classes. The Shorts Mexico Tour includes cities, towns and villages of Mexico, as well as exhibitions in various countries around the world. Shorts Mexico Academy, consists in master classes and conferences, an academic offer aimed at developing professionalization in various specialized areas of filmmaking. The festival will also present Shorts México Pitching Competition, Work In Progress Contest, and its Screenplay Short Film Competition, with the goal of encouraging and promoting the creation and production of quality films.
FESTIVAL SECTIONS
COMPETITIVE SECTIONS
INTERNATIONAL Competition (Live Action, Animation and Documentary)
IBEROAMERICAN Competition (Live Action, Animation and Documentary)
MEXICAN Competition (Live Action, Animation, Documentary, NeoMex)
Once your short film is registered, you are eligible to participate in all the festival sections, either competitive, showcase, or special programes.
SHORTS MEXICO’S SHOWCASE - FESTIVAL´S FAVORITES / OUT OF COMPETITION
International - Iberoamerican
- World Cinema
- Queer Shorts (LGBTTTQ+)
- Fantascorto (Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror)
- Ecoshorts (Environmental Conservation)
- Kids
- Indigenous Peoples
- Afro Shorts (African diaspora and culture)
- Fun Shorts (Comedy)
- Experimental
- International (Live Action, Animation, Documentary, Experimental)
- AI Shorts (Artificial Intelligence)
Mexican
- Mexican (Live Action, Documentary)
- Pueblos Indígenas y Originarios
- Infantil – Kids
- Mujeres Mexicanas en el Cine
- Queer Shorts (LGBTTTQ+)
- Afro Shorts (Cultura y Diáspora Africana)
- Fantascorto (Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror)
- Experimental
- Ecoshorts (conservación ambiental)
- Funshorts (Cine de Comedia)
- AI Shorts (Inteligencia Artificial)
MI PRIMER FESTIVAL (MY FIRST FESTIVAL) - International film festival for children, Barcelona & Madrid - 17th edition: from November 9 to 23, 2025.
"Mi Primer Festival" is an International film festival for children from 2 to 12 years. My First Film Festival features over 100 films in a total of 21 screenings. In short, MPF is a film extravaganza that showcases both different techniques and formats and the creativity of artists from all around the world.
The international competition of SHORT FILMS for children will include 4 programmes:
- International Short Competition for children over 2 years old
- International Short Competition for children over 4 years old
- International Short Competition for children over 7 years old
- International Short Competition for children over 10 years old
The international competition of FEATURE FILMS will include one programme of films, with a maximum of 10 titles.
The festival will take place in November simultaneously in Barcelona and Madrid and is a great opportunity for boys and girls from 2 to 12 years old to discover unique and unprecedented cinema.
The festival also programs films that have not been created specifically for children, which is why it encourages film directors as well as distributors to present their works even if they have not been conceived for this audience profile. Younger viewers rise to the challenge, and the introductions and discussions that accompany viewings provide a good context for understanding and enjoying the films.
The Ponferrada International Film Festival is an event specialized in the dissemination and promotion of short films from all over the world, regardless of their production format, distribution, exhibition, category, genre, or theme.
Short films, in addition to being a learning resource for new professionals in the film industry and a promotional tool for making the leap to feature films, can also be a highly creative and free form of expression, storytelling, and experimentation, independent of the market.
We are also committed to highlighting films that, regardless of their length, reflect the cultural, social, and linguistic diversity of any region of the world as part of the memory of peoples and the most unknown universal audiovisual heritag
To indigenous and non-indigenous audiovisual filmmakers, of various nationalities and territories, to submit their works on indigenous and/or Afro-descendant themes, free style and extension, of individual or collective creation, to the 8th edition of the FicWallmapu Festival, to be held between on November 14 and 18, 2023, in the city of Temuko, Ngülumapu and surrounding communes of the Mapuche territory, Araucanía Region.
14th Bangalore Shorts Film Festival-25 is a movement to recognize & popularize the work of young & experienced filmmakers from across the India & world. The humble journey of BSFF has began in year 2012 to mark the 100 years celebration of Indian cinema & to salute the contribution of the Kannada film industry towards the development of cinema in India. The festival provide platform to aspiring and professional filmmakers for showcasing their talent with networking & marketing opportunities in film industry.
The festival objective is to create short films culture in India, promotion of upcoming filmmakers, developing sources of revenue generation for short films and to make short film making a commercial enterprise. BSFF-2012-2024 were great success with huge participation of filmmakers from across the country & abroad.
BSFF-25 aim is to even bigger & better with the participation from filmmakers. This year festival will introduce more workshops & master classes. The Miniboxoffice Film Market will be the highlight for those filmmakers who want to venture into feature film production. The short film contest & festival programming will be the delight to treat.
The XVI Film Festival: Childhood and Adolescence -2025, is a festival with spaces for circulation and audiovisual training for children, adolescents and young people, with exhibitions, recreational activities, workshops, panels and discussions, whose fundamental objective is to promote Bogotá, as a pioneering city in Latin America in terms of a visible, protagonist and full of rights childhood and adolescence through audiovisual construction.
Participation is free of charge for the exhibition and circulation of audiovisual content. The Contest will be held from September 2 to 6, 2025. Children and adolescents will have access to an audiovisual program made up of national and international animated and fiction short films, television series and the category of the "FESTICINE AWARD" that is awarded to audiovisuals made by children in Colombia. They will be accompanied by recreational activities to reflect on the thematic axis: "CITIZEN CULTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT".
