Blog: Film festivals

Sicilymovie – Agrigento Film Festival is a festival of feature films, short film, documentaries, videoclip, spot and animation shorts, created and organized by the Southmovie Association, which was created with the aim of bringing outdoor cinema for everyone to the heart of Sicily: the evocative Valley of the Temples of Agrigento, a city named Italian Capital of Culture 2025. The themes addressed in the works of directors from all over the world are multiple and educational.

The ninth edition of Sicilymovie is aimed at the best productions and distributions of short films and documentaries in the world who will compete for the Golden Demetra, the representative statuette of the Festival which recalls ancient Greece, cultural symbol of ancient Akragas, the city of Agrigento.
The project is supported and sponsored by the Valle dei Templi Archaeological and Landscape Park of Agrigento, the Municipality of Agrigento, the Sicily Film Commission and the Tourism Department of the Sicily Region. The Valle dei Templi Archaeological and Landscape Park is about 1300 hectares wide and here belong the remains of the ancient city of Akragas and the surrounding area up to the sea. The Valley of the Temples was declared a "World Heritage Site" by Unesco in 1997. Today the Valley of the Temples has more than one million visitors a year.

PLACE, DATE AND DEADLINE

Sicilymovie - Agrigento Film Festival will take place from 18 to 21 July 2024 at the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento

The deadline for the call will be 2024, May 31 at 23:59

Arizona Underground Film Festival is Arizona’s only premier underground cult film festival! Celebrating our 15th year, we make it our sole mission to showcase the work of filmmakers with defiantly independent visions. We are on a quest to represent every genre of independent film from across the world celebrating the artist, and their work. We will cover categories from Narrative, Horror, Documentaries, Experimental, Animation, and Exploitation. Join us in the underground!

Many of the films that have screened at the festival over the years have gone on to receive distribution from the festival screening, or attention from press and other festivals. We have been the World Premiere for many films over the past 10 years, and we will continue to premiere films, and showcase the best of independent cinema.

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT AZUFF

“It’s got the vision and confidence of fests that have been around a lot longer.” - Filmmaker Magazine

“Prestigious festival” – The Huffington Post

“Unbeatable!” - Arizona Daily Star

“Truly Amazing” - Tucson Citizen

“AZUFF shed(s) light on the underground network… bringing independent films into the lime-light” - Yahoo News

“A Top-Notch Film Festival” - Trashwire

“A Real Powerhouse of a Festival” - Underground Film Journal

“A Wild Ride to the Edges of Visionary Independent Cinema” - Film Festival Examiner

The deadline to participate in the fourth edition of the Hygeia Awards, the nursing and physiotherapy short film festival, is now open. With this contest we seek to learn about and show nursing and physiotherapy from the perspective of citizens and health professionals themselves through their camera or smartphone. To do this, anyone who wishes can participate until March 15, 2024. Don't wait any longer... and take action!

History

JIFF 2025 will be a Greatest Edition in the World Cinema History

JIFF is the World's Biggest Competitive Film Festival (in fiction films).

The Jaipur International Film Festival, the world's fastest growing film festival, is held every year in January in Jaipur, India

Launched in January 2009, Jaipur International Film Festival -JIFF became expanding establishing name in organizing world film festival every year in Rajasthan.

The purpose of this film festival is to promote new movie makers, exchange of knowledge, information, ideas & culture between India & other nations in context of their social and cultural ethos. JIFF also promotes friendship and co-operation among people of the world through the medium of films & documentaries.

Though the film festivals have became a regular affair in most countries yet most of them cater only to selected audience as well as entertain the commercially successful film makers and related personalities. However, JIFF intends to organize a festival that connects the film fans & movie goers with the world, especially the serious filmmakers & their associates so as to bring about greater understanding of the art of film making.

The Sixteenth JIFF 2024 received 2971 films from 82+ countries and 329 films nominated for screening.

The Fifteenth JIFF 2023 received 2205 films from 63+ countries and 282 films nominated for screening.

The Fourteen JIFF 2022 received 2100 films from 52+ countries and 279 films nominated for screening. (COVID 19 - Hybrid Edition)The Fourteen JIFF 2022 received 2100 films from 52+ countries and 279 films nominated for screening. (COVID 19 - Hybrid Edition)

The Thirteen JIFF 2021 received 2121 films from 85+ countries and 266 films nominated for screening. (COVID 19 - Online Edition)

The Twelfth JIFF 2020 has received 2411 films from 100+ countries and 240 films nominated in competition for screening.

The Eleventh Aryan JIFF 2019 has received 2221 films from 103 countries and 232 films nominated for screening.

The Tenth JIFF 2018 has received 2019 films from 100+ countries and 136 films nominated for screening.

The Ninth JIFF 2017 has received 2004 films from 100+ countries.

The Eighth JIFF 2016 has received 2176 films from 100+ countries.

The Seventh JIFF 2015 has received 1807 films from 100+ countries.

The Sixth JIFF 2014 has received 1587 films from 90+ countries.

The Fifth JIFF 2013 has received 1397 films from 90 countries.

The Fourth JIFF 2012 has received 902 films from 70 countries.

18000 film lovers and film makers visited the festival.

The third JIFF 2011 was held with overwhelming response & it was a feather in crown.

The second JIFF 2010 was held with overwhelming response & it was a feather in crown.

The first JIFF 2009 was a first milestone towards success.

NEW CATEGORIES:
Sridevi JIFF Indian Panorama (All submitted films will be included automatically in this panorama from India only without any additional fee or you can submit directly in this panorama only, made/produced in all regional languages) new from JIFF 2019

Focus Country, Guest Country, Tribute, Retrospective and more - By Invitation Only

NEW CATEGORIES:
(You can submit according to your submission eligibility or write us for any support at myjiffindia@gmail.com)

JAIPUR CRITICS – For feature fiction films only, best film award from film critics. Total nominations: Around 5 films.

HONORARY ASIA - We welcome you in JIFF 2024 as senior and experienced film producer and director. This category is only for Asian continent for feature fiction films, who have produced/directed minimum 5 films in their respective career, we request you please submit your film/s produced/released/un released after 1st Jan. 2022 or film in post-production. It is non-competitive international nominations category, in this category will screen top two or three films out of all submissions.

WELCOME REGARD - For directors and producers 1st feature fiction film, in other words this submission should be first project/film as a director or producer. It is competitive international nominations category, in this category will screen top two or three films out of all submissions.

THESE ARE DIFFERENT SUBMISSION BETWEEN MAIN SUBMISSION IN THE FEATURE FILM (FICTION) CATEGORY.

OLD IS GOLD - screenings (by invitation only)
Classic World (Classical films from India and the world) – By Invitation Only

Films made by Crowdfunding (mention in the submission form)

Films made by/with Co-Production (mention in the submission form)

Web Series (up to 30 minute/s)

Mobile Film Making on Social Issues (film should be shoot by mobile camera, up to 30 minute/s)

Submit Song/Ad Film//Music/Album/Poster/Live performance

Top 10 Dialogue.


NEW CATEGORIES FROM JIFF 2025:

Films Nominated at Oscar 2025 (Short Fiction/Live Action) - Official entry to the Oscars
Films nominated at Oscar 2025 (Short Documentary) - Official entry to the Oscars
Films nominated at Oscar 2025 (Feature Fiction) - Official entry to the Oscars
Films nominated at Oscar 2025 (Feature Documentary) - Official entry to the Oscars

Films nominated at Oscar 2025 (Academy Awards, USA)
from different countries as official entry to the Oscars and official nominations through various ways, will be directly part of the competition in JIFF 2025. The awards will be separate for these categories and will be finalized by international jury members (World cinema leaders). Few top films will be screened in JIFF 2025 for global audience. Other rules will be the same as film submission in JIFF 2025.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH held annually with the aim of presenting an overview of the new film productions for children and adolescents, to the best and most diverse materials to the region. It also seeks to motivate local distributors to buy new films, TV shows and new formats with its extensive programming. Divercine is an open festival, he has never charged for sending works to your selection.

The Arapiraca Film Festival aims to promote Brazilian cinema, as well reflections on the democratization of access and the challenges of independent production. The Festival's program consists of three competitive shows: Mostra Brasil, Mostra Nordeste and Mostra NAVI de Cinema de Formação.

LIBERTAS ARTIS the international film festival that rewards the best and little recognized independent films. A true display of cinematographic art and technique.

www.LibertasArtis.com

Starting for its 5th edition, Curta Caicó has been contributing to the formation of audiovisual audiences, professional qualification through the realization of cinema workshops and stimulating the creative economy in the audiovisual segment.

Curta Caicó is a production of Reference Comunicação, an advertising and cultural production agency that has been operating in the market for ten years.

Aware of the importance of audiovisual media in Spanish society today and, trying to make them both a comunication and education media, to promote values of solidarity and tolerance, the International Social Film Festival of Castilla-La Mancha was born and it will be held in Toledo, It will continue in Toledo, Torrijos, Cuenca, Olías del Rey...

In this Festival are invited to take part to public and private entities that share the same concerns.

The Festival consists of several sections, including a contest of short and documentaries, social issues include: xenophobia, generational conflict, child labor, domestic violence, social roles, ecology, children's rights, coexistence, etc.

The Addis International Film Festival (AIFF) is an annual film festival created by Initiative Africa in 2007 and held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The festival is the largest independent documentary cinema festival in Africa and it was established as a unique initiative seeking to use the power of documentary films to support innovative ways of creating awareness on social issues.

The festival is a celebratory and educational event showcasing a carefully curated selection of films from both seasoned and emerging filmmakers addressing a wide range of themes such as peace building, inequality, women empowerment, children's rights, and much more.


The 18th Edition of the Addis International Film Festival (AIFF). As Ethiopia's established social activist, Initiative Africa will be hosting a five-day documentary film festival starting May 15th to May 19th, 2024, bringing more than 30 local and international movies, under the themes of Action for Peace, Security, and Reconciliation, Gender Equality and Inclusivity, Food and Environmental Security, and Health Care which will be taking place at the Alliance Ethio-Française, Hager Fikir Theater, Goethe-Institut Äthiopien and Italian Cultural institute in Addis Ababa.

The audience of the festival are mostly the youth and educated community who have the courage to change their society. We screen the films for free with no payment required for entrance.

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.

THE VERTICAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL. In 2022, the first competition for vertical cinema and videos will be held in Venezuela: Short cinematographic films or social network videos, created and edited with vertical orientation (9:16) for projection on vertical screens or cell phones. Regardless of the theme or genre, with a time not exceeding 5 minutes. ELCOplay calls on filmmakers and content creators to create and submit works that explore the aesthetic potential of the vertical format, on any subject.

Works can be created on any equipment that produces HD quality or better, be it a smartphone, video camera or computer.

Night Terrors Film Festival is a genre festival for short films horror, thriller, supernatural, absurd - anything you can think of. Now open for submissions for the eight season in 2023.

We do not give out waivers and do not accept unsolicited submissions!

Films selected will be screened in Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark on two seperate occasions - unless COVID-19 prohibits it in which case a later date will be found. It is a great opportunity to have your short films screened for a Scandinavian audience that might not have other ways to experience your work. We accept short films with a max of 20 minutes. The screenings will have a lot of guests from outside Denmark aswell, so it must be either English language or have English subtitles provided.

Please note that if your film is selected we cannot provide travel and expenses in case you wanna visit the festival. We are not in this to make money, the low entry fee is only there to cover expenses the arrangers will have and to ensure the seriousness behind your work.

The AX International Audiovisual Short Film Show aims to disseminate short films (documentaries, fiction, animations and experimental) for all ages, children and adolescents, young people and adults, which present as a central or relevant element such as gender relations and sexualities. Thus, short films that show intertwining between gender and sexualities with other markers such as social class, race and ethnicity, generation, disability, migration, are very welcome.
The Show also includes a multitude of themes that can cross issues such as life trajectories, violence against women, masculinities, fatherhood, motherhood, eroticism, corporeality, LGBTQIAphobias, sexual exploitation, sexual and reproductive rights and processes of resistance and struggle of women and subject LGBTQIA +, as well as a multitude of fields of sociopolitical life such as the State, capital, coloniality, politics, human rights, education, work, health, culture, public policies, among others.
In recent editions, many short films have been produced and selected that portray more general themes, of collective interest, in the field, for example, of indigenous rights, land, housing or the defense of democracy. So this year, realizing that such productions only enrich, densify and pluralize our Curta o Gênero, we formally opened for submissions of short films of this nature, which will be produced in specials.

Cine-Excess is an international film festival and conference devoted to the critical study of global cult film traditions, and has been running annually since 2007. Cine-Excess hosts UK theatrical premieres and exclusive screenings, visiting international filmmakers, a themed conference and media mentoring sessions for young filmmakers.

Cine-Excess has a strong tradition of attracting global cult filmmakers as guests to the event, who attend as recipients of the annual Cine-Excess Lifetime Achievement Award. Some of the previous filmmaking guests of honour to have attended Cine-Excess include Pam Grier, Brandon Cronenberg, Jen and Sylvia Soska, Catherine Breillat, Roger Corman, Dario Argento, Joe Dante, Vanessa Redgrave, Sergio Martino, Franco Nero, John Landis, Enzo G. Castellari, Brian Yuzna, Ruggero Deodato, Victoria Price, Stuart Gordon, Jeff Lieberman, Pete Walker, Norman J. Warren and Jake West.

In 2021 a new Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel will be launched to promote a selection of key films screened at the annual festival. The Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel will stream across both Amazon UK and Uscreen platforms, with the latter outlet providing a 'Director's Vision' imprint that compliments feature film releases with a range of ancillary extras created in collaboration with the filmmakers.

In terms of its programming strategy, Cine-Excess hosts a range of UK theatrical premieres and exclusive retrospective screenings from around the world, but with a strong focus on the following global territories: Europe, North America/Canada, Central America, Asia and Australia. The festival also retains a wide definition of cult film that encompasses a broad range of horror cycles, unconventional thrillers, revisionist or hybrid genres (such as science fiction, gangster cinema, dark love dramas or the western), action cycles or fantastic titles that can also be linked to wider national film traditions.

Cine-Excess remains committed to issues of diversity and inclusion, and this ethos informs both the annual festival and filmmakers promoted across the new Cine-Excess Digital Film Channel.

The Center for Common Memory for Democracy and Peace, a national association that campaigns for universal human values and defends human rights, including the right to "a dignified life to the end", cannot remain insensitive to the current debate on the environment and the search by international community for practical solutions to curb its worrying deterioration.

While the right to life is an irreversible achievement, the emergence of the fourth generation of rights associates human well-being with "a healthy life in a healthy environment". So any degradation of the environment means a degradation of the quality of life.

The theme of "The Memory of the sky and the ground", chosen as the unifying theme of the 13th edition of the International Festival of Cinema and Shared Memory, to be held in Nador from 5 to 11 october 2024, is part of efforts to raise awareness, through art in general and cinema in particular, of a devastating scourge that threatens humanity.

The festival organizing committee is therefore calling for:

1- Documentary films that tackle issues such as:
- The ravages of global warming
- The destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems
- The depletion of natural resources
- The consequences of deforestation
- Water and air pollution
- Disasters caused by industrial activities
- The damaging effects of excessive industrialization
- Over-exploitation of natural resources

2- Short and feature films which, without being subject to the unifying theme of the edition:
- Tackle memory or human rights;
- Deal with human causes using new approaches;
- Propose new themes with a modern vision.

The Puerto Madryn MAFICI International Film Festival has been held for 11 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.

ABOUT TNFF

IMDb qualifier’s The North Film Festival (TNFF) is an international film festival, dedicated to international and European shorts and features of all genres - with screenings online and an annual live screening and awards event in Stockholm, Sweden . TNFF is partnered with the LOVE & HOPE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - BARCELONA (L'HIFF) (Sep 17 - 21, 2024 in Barcelona -* Spain)
https://www.lhifilmfestival.com/


Each quarter, the submitted projects are judged by an enthusiastic team of film industry professionals and academics.

The quarterly winners will automatically qualify to be screened at the TNFF annual event in Stockholm, Sweden (February 21 - 23 - 2024) - and also to be both considered and compete for the coveted Annual awards.

TNFF Welcomes you to Stockholm.

Stockholm is a city that is open to different perspectives and new ideas. An amazing destination where innovations in music, film, design, fashion and technology are born. A place fit for creative visionaries such as you, Dear Filmmakers. And remember, bring your jacket, hat and gloves, if you're selected for the screenings in Stockholm on February 2024! Let's do magic Together!

The 14th edition which was to take place from April 27 to May 2 has been postponed to November 9. Films sent for the previous edition are maintained, if they have been selected International music film festival of Pau since 2007. Documentaries, fictions, clips, concerts, meet and greets, DJ sets, viewings, record fair, presentations... Rock this Town of Pau is the first International Music Film Festival of its kind in France. It explores rock and current music at length. Documentaries, fictions, shorts films, biopics are shown on the big screen in an ever-changing festival open to all. A selection of never-before-seen movies: revival films, underground treasures, and regional movies. These movies all have a connection to current music: rock, electro, hip hop, jazz, world music... but is not limited to simple indie music. Behind the currents of the rock stories these movies tell, it is the culture, societies, way of life, history, struggles, utopias, dreams and revolutions that make them a hit.

Most of the showings take place at the Méliès cinema downtown. But Rock this Town is an interactive festival that takes their audience around different parts of the city: kiosks, shops, and cafés, music halls and media libraries are in the loop.

Concerts, DJ sets, meet and greets, showings, books & comics, record fair and presentations have become must see sites at this event. In 2021, Rock This Town will open up a competition by inviting an international jury to deliberate the selections. Students who study in art or language actively participate in this annual event and a number of schools turn-up for the showings.

The Cinematographic Residence CINEMALAB 2020 V2.0
"INDEPENDENT CINEMA IN THE AGE OF STREAMING"

CinemaLab is an opportunity for the maturation of feature film projects and low-budget series, in the script, construction (work in progress) or finalized in search of promotion and distribution, so that, strengthened by the collaboration and advice of experts, they can advance and consolidate.

In Zapatoca "The Happiest Town in the World", 20 selected projects will be incubated, within a national and international call, providing the right environment for filmmakers to focus their energies and move forward, through new and creative paths.

The laboratory will focus on the most neuralgic areas of realization, an immersion through individual, group and master classes, with renowned filmmakers.