Competitions and Festivals

These competitions 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 visit www.filmfestivals.com or www.withoutabox.com - though many festivals they list charge high fees and give no feedback.

Alphabetical		Closing dates		Play dates		Max length		Free Entry *
AMPS ARSfilm BIAFF Bitola - Macedonia Co-op Young Film Makers Croatian Minute Movie Danube - Rousse DepicT ! Docutah Encounters Eulenspiegeleien Eurofilm Festival of Nations FIFA - wildlife Film Clip/Music Video FilmSharing Festival Four River Youth Frome 5 Minutes Golden Diana Golden Knight Grand OFF International Ornithological Leeds Young Peoples Melbourne Namur Nature Newcastle (Australia) NOFI (Armenia) North V South (UK) Outdoor Films Phase 4 Fiction Pilgrim Trust Planet in Focus Port of Tyne Railway & Transport Films Red Carpet Screenings Rob Knox FF Sarnia Shorts Senftenberg Senior Forum Shumen Tallinn Tatra Chamois The One Minutes Thurrock Intnl FF To Love a Man Toti UNCIPAR UNICA Wildscreen		January BIAFF Frome 5 Minutes Leeds Young Peoples UNCIPAR February Eurofilm Festival of Nations Pilgrim Trust March Encounters Rob Knox FF Senftenberg April Croatian Minute Movie FilmSharing Festival NOFI (Armenia) May Danube - Rousse Docutah Four River Youth Red Carpet Screenings Sarnia Shorts Thurrock Intnl FF June Encounters July DepicT ! Outdoor Films Tatra Chamois August Golden Diana Grand OFF Railway/Transport Young Film Makers September ARSfilm Golden Knight Melbourne Namur Nature   Newcastle (Australia) Phase 4 Fiction Port of Tyne Shumen Tallinn Toti October AMPS Bitola - Macedonia FIFA - wildlife Film Clip/Music Video November North V South (UK) Senior Forum December Eulenspiegeleien To Love a Man		January Eulenspiegeleien North V South (UK) To Love a Man February March Eurofilm FIFA - wildlife Frome 5 Minutes Leeds Young Peoples Pilgrim Trust April BIAFF Senftenberg UNCIPAR May Croatian Minute NOFI (Armenia) June Danube - Rousse Festival of Nations Red Carpet Screenings Rob Knox FF Thurrock Intnl FF July August Golden Diana UNICA September DepicT ! Docutah Encounters Four River Youth Railway/Transport Shumen October ARSfilm Melbourne Namur Nature Newcastle (Australia) Outdoor Films Sarnia Shorts Tatra Chamois November Bitola - Macedonia Film Clip/Music Video Golden Knight Port of Tyne Tallinn Toti Up to 21 Young Film Makers December Grand OFF Senior Forum		1 minute Croatian Minute Movie Port of Tyne 1½ minutes DepicT ! 5 minutes AMPS (comedies) Frome 5 Minutes Namur Nature 6 minutes Co-op Young Film Makers 15 minutes Bitola - Macedonia FilmSharing Festival Newcastle (Australia) Senior Forum Shumen Thurrock Intnl FF 20 minutes ARSfilm Eulenspiegeleien FIFA - wildlife Golden Diana NOFI (Armenia) North V South (UK) Pilgrim Trust Tatra Chamois To Love a Man Toti 30 minutes Encounters Festival of Nations Four River Youth Golden Knight Melbourne Phase 4 Fiction Red Carpet Screenings Sarnia Shorts Tallinn UNCIPAR 45 minutes AMPS Grand OFF any length BIAFF Danube - Rousse Docutah Outdoor Films Railway & Transport Films Rob Knox FF		Bitola - Macedonia Co-op Young Film Makers Croatian Minute Movie Danube - Rousse DepicT ! Eulenspiegeleien Film Clip/Music Video FilmSharing Festival Four River Youth Golden Knight Grand OFF International Ornithological Leeds Young Peoples Namur Nature Outdoor Films Port of Tyne Rob Knox FF Senftenberg Shumen Tallinn To Love a Man UNCIPAR

* 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.

ARSfilm - films about art
Co-op Young Film Makers - film makers under 21
Danube - Rousse - water, specifically river related but open genre.
Docutah - documentaries
Eulenspiegeleien - comedy
FIFA - wildlife - wildlife subjects
Film Clip/Music Video - videos around songs
Four River Youth - for film makers between 14 and 20
International Ornithological - wildlife (not just ornithology)
Leeds Young Peoples - filmmakers 25 years or under
Namur Nature - wildlife
North V South (UK) - for clubs in Britain only
Phase 4 Fiction - fiction films
Pilgrim Trust - Scotland
Planet In Focus - wildlife subjects
Railway & Transport Films - !
Senior Forum - film makers over 58
Tatra Chamois - ethnology, how our society works
To Love a Man - humanitarian
Wildscreen- wildlife subjects
WOFF - chronicles of social change

Notes

Always 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.