Farhang Foundation Short Film Festival 6/15/16
Submissions are to be less than 9 minutes in length, must visualize some aspect(s) of Iranian “Heritage”, can be of any genre or style, and must refrain from endorsing or opposing any political or religious views. Submissions will be judged for creativity, quality, and originality. . Link to video. *note: submissions open 4/11/16

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Korea) 5/6/16
Feature Film. Types of films Animation , Documentary, Narrative fiction. Genre: Fantastic, Horror, Mystery, Phantasy, Science fiction, Thriller.  (Account registration required. Entry for BiFan2016 will be open on 18th Jan. 2016.)

River Aire Ten Minute Amateur Film Festival- RATMA (UK) 5/01/16
The River Aire Ten Minute Amateur (RATMA) Film Festival is designed to give a platform to amateur film makers to show their work to a live audience. The main event is held in Keighley. All profits raise money for Stand Up To Cancer. The event was started by students and driven by a dream. It hosted almost 80 short films from directors from across the globe in it’s first year, creating a fantastic event. File Transfer or DVD.

Women’s Voices Now 3/8/16
Our Festival aims to portray diverse and underreported stories of women* and men supporting women. Subjects broached in this festival include women in politics, social and legal change/justice, political rebellion, women’s rights struggles, activism, women living with a disability, health and family, environmental issues, women and employment,  the resilience of women in the face of oppression, women and the arts, expression and experimentation of women, and socio-cultural relations between women and men. *women: meant to include diverse LGTBQ identities, among them being the self-identification as a woman (i.e. trans-woman). online submission. Please email kelsey@womensvoicesnow.org explaining your circumstance of financial hardship or inability to pay. Include a synopsis of your film.

Hi all-
Hope this doesn’t seem off topic, but a filmmaker friend (director Michael Manese) asked for help finding a location to shoot his film. He is looking for an apartment in the New York area. Details below.

best regards,

tracy

Looking for an apartment to shoot in for two days- for Saturday and Sunday March 5+6. The owner CAN BE PRESENT during the shoot, it’s an 8am – 6pm shoot, House or Apartment, Schedule must be flexible in case we have to do reshoots in the future, for extra $, Must be QUIET (no construction nearby or noisy neighbors), Three actors, 1 director, 1 cinematographer, 1 sound person for each day.

For more info please visit: http://www.angrydougfilms.com/the-pleasure-of-being-served.html

(willing to pay up to $250/per day)

Hi all-
One subject that I take a keen interest in is festival strategy. Recently, noentryfeefestivals.com was mentioned in “The Filmmaker’s Journey”, a vlog by Chris Esper. In his episode about film festivals he gives tips for approaching film festivals. You can watch the vblog here.

I welcome any comments. I was intrigued by his advice to contact festivals and am specifically wondering what experiences my readers have had with this, whether festivals are open to looking at work and advising on whether it is appropriate for their festival. Also, I agree that it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether a festival is right for your work. Has anyone accidentally discovered a “niche” after they started applying? For example, you perhaps thought the film fit a certain audience and it seemed to do well with a different audience instead?

Lastly, what other approaches do you take to find festivals and venues? What are your favorite sites?

-tracy

28th Hamburg International Short Film Festival 04/01/16
The topic for the Three-Minute-Quickie Competition for 2016 is: “Switch Off!”

Festival du Film Merveilleux et Imaginaire (Paris, France) 04/01/16
The festival is dedicated to films whose themes are magic, the imaginary, the marvelous, the astonishing, the supernatural, the occult, the strange, experimental cinema, the esoteric, the fantastic, science fiction and myths and legends and poetry, manga, comics, video games..  For short movies competition : 20 mm max. Best Movie, Best animated movie, Best screenplay , 
Special Prize , Music pick : Jury prize. Link or DVD submission.

New Zealand International Film Festival 04/15/16
NZIFF presents a non-competitive, invited season of new films in a wide variety of styles and genres. To demonstrate the development of the art and contribute to a knowledge of new styles and trends in filmmaking. New Zealand’s best.

I have posted in the past about vertical films. This tall format fascinates me. See this example here: https://vimeo.com/150033726  If you haven’t created a vertical film, please consider creating a new film for this festival, or re-formatting existing content to the 9:16 format. Please follow these tips: Techniques for Planning, Shooting and Editing a Vertical Video.

Vertical Film Festival (Australia) 4/30/16
A 21 May screening in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Note: the screening is only for VERTICAL (tall-screen) films. Note that the Vertical Film Festival is unique in that it ONLY accepts films that are made tall-screen (ie. shot with the camera rotated 90º) — horizontal (landscape format) films will be disqualified. Online submission.

Prokuplje Short Film Festival 3/20/16
Feature, documentary, animated and experimental films up to 30 minutes can be submitted for the festival. For domestic authors, a special category is provided – domestic movie. One author can submit more than one film, but each film must be submitted in a separate application. Next to the application form and the film, two photographs from the film, a photo of the author, biography and dialogue list should be submitted. All the films that are listed in the official program of the festival will be screened at the festival, as well as mini-tour festivals in Serbia and abroad.  online submission.

Wiper Film Festival 2/29/16
The Wiper Film Festival is the premiere online film festival. Your work will have the opportunity to be seen by millions of already signed up users. Our team is based in NYC. We love independent filmmakers and their films. The festival is one way we are building a better platform for your work to find an audience and the financial rewards that come with it. Through the festival, films we feature will be available to all Wiper’s users. One thing to know is we don’t require exclusive rights to your work. You can also remove it from Wiper when you like. You’re in charge. Online submission.

UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival 3/17/16
*note: Films from Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia can be submitted for free.
The goal of the UPIKE Film & Media Arts Festival is to promote the art of filmmaking on both the UPIKE campus in Pikeville, KY and in the surrounding tri-state region.  We accept paid submissions from the other 47 United States (sorry, no international submitters).  We have $500 in cash prizes! Online submission.