Competitions and Festivals

These competitions listed here welcome entries by amateurs and are run by genuine enthusiasts. They all accept entries in English. Sadly many festivals have closed in the last year. See the list of special topics/age limits and  Notes below.

Alphabetical		Closing dates		Play dates		Max length
Abstracta AMPS ARSfilm BIAFF Bitola - Macedonia Canadian International Co-op Young Film Makers Croatian Minute Movie Danube - Rousse DepicT ! Docutah Eulenspiegeleien Eurofilm Festival of Nations FIFA - wildlife FIKE Film Clip/Music Video FilmSharing Festival Four River Youth Frome 5 Minutes Golden Diana Golden Knight Hazel Wolf International Ornithological KRAF Croatia Leeds Young Peoples Melbourne Namur Nature Newcastle (Australia) North V South (UK) OSFAF Outdoor Films Phase 4 Fiction Pilgrim Trust Planet in Focus Port of Tyne PSSST! Silent Films Railway & Transport Films Red Carpet Screenings Rob Knox FF Sarnia Shorts Senftenberg Seoul World Short FF Senior Forum Tallinn Tatra Chamois The One Minutes Thorsaa Film Festival To Love a Man Toti UNCIPAR UNICA Wildscreen West-East FF		January BIAFF Leeds Young Peoples UNCIPAR February Eurofilm Festival of Nations Frome 5 Minutes Pilgrim Trust March Rob Knox FF Senftenberg April Croatian Minute Movie Danube - Rousse FilmSharing Festival Seoul World Short FF May Docutah Sarnia Shorts June Abstracta Canadian FIKE Four River Youth Red Carpet Screenings Young Film Makers July Outdoor Films Tatra Chamois Thorsaa Film Festival August Golden Diana Railway/Transport September AMPS ARSfilm DepicT ! Golden Knight Melbourne Namur Nature   Newcastle (Australia) OSFAF Phase 4 Fiction Port of Tyne Tallinn The One Minutes Toti October Bitola - Macedonia FIFA - wildlife Film Clip/Music Video KRAF Croatia November North V South (UK) Senior Forum December Eulenspiegeleien To Love a Man West-East FF		January Eulenspiegeleien North V South (UK) To Love a Man February Canadian March Eurofilm FIFA - wildlife Frome 5 Minutes Leeds Young Peoples Pilgrim Trust West-East FF April BIAFF Senftenberg UNCIPAR May Croatian Minute June Festival of Nations Danube - Rousse Rob Knox FF Seoul World Short FF July Red Carpet Screenings August Golden Diana UNICA September Abstracta Docutah FIKE Four River Youth Railway/Transport Thorsaa Film Festival October ARSfilm Bitola - Macedonia Film Makers Melbourne Namur Nature Newcastle (Australia) OSFAF Outdoor Films PSSST! Silent Films Sarnia Shorts Tallinn Tatra Chamois November DepicT ! Film Clip/Music Video Golden Knight KRAF Croatia The One Minutes Port of Tyne PSSST! Silent Films Toti Up to 21 December Senior Forum		1 minute Croatian Minute Movie The One Minutes Port of Tyne 1½ minutes DepicT ! 5 minutes Abstracta AMPS (comedies) Frome 5 Minutes Namur Nature 6 minutes Co-op Young Film Makers 15 minutes Bitola - Macedonia FilmSharing Festival KRAF Croatia Newcastle (Australia) Senior Forum 20 minutes ARSfilm Eulenspiegeleien FIFA - wildlife Golden Diana North V South (UK) Pilgrim Trust Tatra Chamois To Love a Man Toti West-East FF 30 minutes AMPS Canadian International Festival of Nations Four River Youth Golden Knight Melbourne OSFAF Phase 4 Fiction Red Carpet Screenings Sarnia Shorts Seoul World Short FF UNCIPAR 40 minutes FIKE 125 minutes Thorsaa Film Festival any length BIAFF Danube - Rousse Docutah Outdoor Films PSSST! Silent Films Railway & Transport Films Rob Knox FF Tallinn

Special topics / types / ages ...

In addition to the specialist ones listed below, several festivals have special categories for young film makers.

Abstracta - abstract subjects
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
Hazel Wolf Environmental - wildlife and environment
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
PSSST! Silent Films - modern silent films
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.