The first list of competitions are those which welcome entries
by amateurs and are run by genuine enthusiasts. They all accept
entries in English. See the list of special
topics/age limits and Notes
below. If you want to investigate more festivals - see Amateur & Non-Commercial Festivals below. |
* It is not always easy to discover from their websites or
published material which festivals have an entry fee. Please
send corrections and additions to asstweb@theiac.org.uk
- and note that if you want your film returned you may have to
pay for that. Special topics / types / ages ...In addition to the specialist ones listed below, several festivals have special categories for young film makers. Danube - Rousse - water, specifically river related but open genre. Docutah - documentaries EAFA Mash-Up - make a mash-up using archive film FIFA - wildlife - wildlife subjects Four River Youth - for film makers between 14 and 20 International Ornithological - wildlife (not just ornithology) Namur Nature - wildlife One Take - film must be one continuous take Pilgrim Trust - Scotland Planet In Focus - the environment Psst Silent Film Festival - modern silent films & screenings of classic silents To Love a Man - humanitarian West-East Neighbours ... - chronicles of social change Wildscreen- wildlife subjects Youki - young film makers - 10 to 26 years |
Amateur and Non-Commercial FestivalsThere are several services which aim to make it easier for film
makers to enter festivals. In turn that is good for festivals.
Most of them allow you to fill in details of your film once and
not have to repeat it all for every festival. They usually allow
you to send the film either on DVD, memory stick or other solid
media ... or to upload it to their site, where it can be seen
only by the festivals in which it is entered, |
NotesAlways check the rules carefully. Many competitions are free to enter, others require a fee. Look out for restrictions on length, year of production and subject matter. Some offer special deals to entrants who attend, such as free accommodation. When a European festival refers to "feature films" that has nothing to do with length - it means "fiction films". Many festivals have an English section on their website - look out for a Union Jack/Stars & Stripes/Maple Leaf flag icon to click. Note: this list does not include all the local and regional festivals in the UK - see the Events Diary for details of those. Most of these festivals run every year at about the same dates and with similar rules etc. It can take some months after the last festival before websites are updated and news of the following year's event is circulated. From time to time on other pages of this website we also list competitions run by commercial organisations where they seem to welcome amateurs. These often offer major prizes. Others offer exposure on television. Many amateurs suspect such events are designed to exploit their work for free. Very few of them are. They are mostly advertising some associated activity of the companies behind them. Entering this sort of event may require more in the way of form-filling and record-keeping than most of us are used to. |