GRACE! International Film Festival & Cinema Awards is an annual international event focusing on independent filmmakers.
Located in the centre of Berlin, we look forward to host an unique event at Arsenal cinema theatre.
The Festival’s mission is to support independent filmmakers
and to bring them to wider attention.
Our aim is to give the talented filmmakers a helpful step in their future careers and to provide them an alternative to the commercial film experience.
The Festival accepts films of any genre and format and will showcase some of the excellentest international short films in:
- Narrative, Documentary, Experimental, Animation,
- Student, Debut, Woman Filmmaker, Young Filmmaker,
- Trailer, Music Video and Drone Film.
The GRACE! IFF accepts screenplays as well and has a student category to submit and provides special fees for them.
We take to heart the amount of work put into each film.
The committee judge all films equally and with great respect and consideration.
The quality standard of GRACE IFF is very high, so finalists of this competition can be really proud of their achievement.
All the finalists will go to the annual competition ending with the live screening event in Berlin we organize each season.
Some of the winner films will also be screened at other international film festivals.
Please note that we will not display your films or screenplays online, with the exception of a poster, a description and/or a trailer.
The purpose of the festival refers to awareness of both the external filters on the screen, including censorship (commercial, ideological, aesthetic), and the internal filters of screen perception and projection, including self-censorship. NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is an exploration of aestheticization and commodification in art. The next aim of the festival is to expose the complexity, manysidedness, and variety of filmmaking.
NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is a film festival that is held by the Short Movie Club, the platform for cinematic projects. NEFILTRAVANAE KINO is ADAMI Media Prize qualified festival. The International Film Studies Conference is held at the same time as the film festival. In this way, film theory and practice are integrated together at the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO.
Originally the festival was held in Belarus, but because of political repression and publicly stated anti-war stance, screenings and events can be held in different countries. First of all in Lithuania (Vilnius). For example, the 10th Nefiltravanae Kino took place in Berlin, Vilnius and Helsinki last year. There were selected 63 films for 12 film programmes. https://shortmovie.club/programmes/10-2024/
The concept of the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO (Unfiltered Cinema):
ALIENATION PROBLEM
We live in a world of malls and cinema multiplexes. We see that indie cinema and non-commodity art go to the periphery of public attention. Primitive attractions replace the cinematography. The escape audience is alienated behind the big screen. So modern mainstream cinema is part of a manipulating tool that leads to the society of alienation. Thus the tendency is that indie cinema becomes more unreadable for the wide audience. We should understand the context of the filmmaker to understand the independent cinema. That is why the NEFILTRAVANAE KINO concept implies the physical presence of filmmakers.
FILM SELECTION PROBLEM
Filmmakers shoot millions of movies. And thousands of short film festivals organize screenings all over the world every year. On average, several thousand films are submitted to a film festival. So various good films can be neglected for whatever reason. Often selecting probability is like winning a lottery. As a result, filmmakers are left with no feedback. It is a paradox that no one can hear you in the age of the Internet! The mainstream culture prefers attractions and casual viewing.
Also, this idea is based on the film selection problem. Perhaps it’s no surprise one person, i.e. programme director at best, or even students of film schools make a preliminary decision to select a movie. Сoncordance of judges or previewers is more seldom thing than the difference of background, tastes. So selection or judging can be one-sided or perfunctory. It is not bad as the programme director has a good taste and aesthetic sensitivity, of course. But we’ve discovered another conception of “unfiltered cinema”. We matched it against “the best of the best” way. This way aids to perceive cinematic idiom without the dictate of art-curators.
CELEBRATION OF INDIE CINEMA
So the Unfiltered Cinema Film Festival tries to avoid “the best of the best” way but it does not ignore it completely, sure. The festival selects fiction, animation, documentary, experimental and virtual reality sections. A jury awards the best film in every section. The festival holds the screenings at cinema theatres, the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, and art-spaces.
Our aim is to gather people in art, to have a dialogue to be happy with smart communication. Cinema is art but not sport. The key point of our project is to establish communication between the filmmaker and the audience.
Please, read about the festival history through the link to the festival's website. http://shortmovie.club/history/
The Short Movie Club provides constructing of CinemaVan ( see https://www.behance.net/gallery/33392769/Cinema-van-Mobile-library-Amphibia ).
>>ALL THE COUNTRIES:
AND THIS YEAR WE HAVE LATIN AMERICA FOR THE FEATURE FILMS SECTION AND WITH ANY PART OF THE WORLD FOR THE AWARD OF "3 MINUTES OR LESS ON TECHNOLOGIES"
>>ONLY SPAIN:
COSTAFRITO IS A SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL: SHORT FILMS, DOCUMENTARIES AND PILOT SERIES / WEBSERIES,
Longue vue sur le court is an international short film festival celebrating is 6th anniversary! Our festival is focusing on cutting-edge fiction, animation, documentary and experimental shorts. As our name mean's it, we want to be the first to identified your talent and share it to the world!
From the four corners of the planet, LVSC team selects with demanding criteria of cinematic art representing the new narrative and aesthetic trends in tomorrow's filmmaking.
We also offer to our young audience a superb selection of short films for children and teenagers!
LVSC is an annual event dedicated to cinema, and to the short film promotion.
Fantàstik Granollers is the fantastic and horror film festival of Granollers, which has been held since 2012. It has become a unique event in the city, in which a cultural proposal related exclusively to fantastic and horror films is offered. and everything that is related to it, betting very strongly on short films.
It is an excellent opportunity for film lovers to see innovative films, as well as to connect with other people interested in this topic.
Apart from the festival, other activities are carried out during the year related to the dissemination of fantasy and horror films.
The Association of Deaf People of Tolosaldea-Goierri, proposes to organize the XIII. International Festival of Cinema in sign Language, awards GAINDITZEN 2022. We will have a short film contest and on the other hand, we'll present documentary and feature films in sign language.
With this project we intend to bring the new artistic and technological tendencies to the group of Deaf people and provide a space for recognition and new opportunities for this group, which rarely finds barriers to participate in Numerous cultural activities.
The celebration of Awards "GAINDITZEN" 2022 will take place on october 22, in Tolosa, Guipúzcoa, Spain.
Globale Uruguay is an autonomous collective that generates spaces for debate through the dissemination of documentary films.
Committed to the present, we organize an annual festival to support the different struggles that pursue an emancipatory horizon.
We intend to strengthen links with other social organizations to generate debates and share materials and different experiences.
We want to participate in the construction of a critical thinking that visualizes the effects of capitalist globalization and forms part of the reflections and struggles of the movements that everywhere resist the attacks of this system.
Globale has its origin in Berlin -Germany- where it has been held annually since 2003, an initiative that has been extended to other cities such as Warsaw -Polonia-, Montevideo -Uruguay- and since 2011 in Rio de Janeiro -Brazil- and Bogotá -Colombia.
Dumbo Film Festival is a yearly event structured in monthly contests. Every month, each of the categories will be awarded and a final ceremony will be held every year in New York City’s district of Dumbo to award projects that have been judged the very best over the past year. This structure is meant to highlight both affirmed and emergent filmmakers and to launch promising artists into the world film stage.
By the end of the Seventies, a prosperous renewal has brought the district of Dumbo to a new life, and it is now considered to be one of New York’s most glamorous districts and a thriving destination for artists to meet and share their thoughts.
On this background of revival within the New York panorama, DFF aims to establish itself among the most important independent festivals in the world.
Producers and directors from around the world can meet each other here, encounter new ideas, and begin working toward prestigious goals.
DFF can be your stepping stone to go the distance (literally 2797 miles!) to Oscars night.
DFF is organized into six categories: Feature Narrative, Short Narrative, Feature Documentary, Short Documentary, Animation, and Experimental. The monthly nominees will receive a certificate of excellence and be granted access to the final phase of the competition.
The MALDITO Videopoetry Festival is organising this competition with the aim of making visible two disciplines that, both together and separately, are much more distant and forgotten than we would like them to be. If experience tells us that both disciplines are minority and marginal in large European capitals, let alone the desert in which they find themselves in provincial capitals, where the circuit for their dissemination is practically nil.
We, as lovers of poetry, image and the expressive possibilities of their symbiosis, propose a line of action, encouraging the approach of the general public to the Festival and trying to make it grow from the first edition.
Our wish is that MALDITO reaches as many people as possible, with a growing presence and repercussion in the media and social networks.
MALDITO seeks to vindicate videopoetry as an art that connects people, that transmits feelings and promotes original or different ways of seeing the world, to try to be a grain of sand that makes any kind of visual or poetic art stop being marginal and cursed.(* The Spanish word for damned is MALDITO).
We expand sections by adding International Poetic Film Showcase.
Mostra La Ploma is a cinema and culture festival organized by Lambda (LGBT+ association).
The annual 2nd CARMEL international short film festival is taking place at the picturesque town of Zikhron Yaakov, on the Carmel mountain, near the mediterranean sea in Israel. Screening will take place in magical historical venues. Our aim is to promote short films and new media - fiction, documentary, animation and VR. International section divided to panorama (non competitive) and competitive awarding prizes of 1k NIS,
Student's movies will be considered to panorama ONLY.
PHILOSOPHY
What drive us:
A contest dedicated to transcendental cinema, at its several meanings, including philosophic, psychological, scientific, anthropological, spiritual and poetic cinema.
Because transcendence in the man and the world, might be eventually ineffable and, on this, cinematographic art has certain advantages, and a huge responsibility.
FREE CINEMA
All cinematographic possibilities are welcome, with a major interest on rareties
WITHOUT TIME
Cinemística as an open space-time, with non restrictive features, enabling the authors to develop their own language: all formats, duration, nationality, year of production, etc. are accepted.
A REFUGE
An international refuge for films that intend, technically or with the plot, an approaching to the big mystery of world representation, in the art and in the man. Without dogmas, under any individual or collective perspective, from faith, but also from agnosticism, spiritual atheism and scientific thought.
A POETIC CINEMA OF CONTEMPLATION
Filmmakers' looks, in all their socio-cultural diversity, interested in any film as a result of personal discovering, researching or experimentation, inspiration and work, from revelation or introspection of the authors. Quotidian, ecstasy and disparity as structures to create depth on the film treatment.
ASCETICISM
Mysticism and asceticism in film production represent, probably, a more absolute estate compare to others, because a cinema with huge budget and more technical complexity could be done, but sometimes the most humble and simple film is, however, universal.
THE STILL
Impermanent cinematographies, from the still, from 'amateur' cinema (from French verb aimer), define directors not only by what they show and how they do it on screen, but by what they decide not to show.
PHENOMENOLOGY
What appears and disappears, topologies emergence, materials or conscious, and their invisibility or subsequent expiration. The sequential surroundings of emptiness, of matters and time. Shafts at the discourse, eloquent, everyone can understand it by himself. Absence and miracle: Mystic as a possible cohabit together.
CORDIALITY, COMMUNICATION & COLLOQIUMS
Great importance of the colloquiums and live interaction between spectators and filmmakers. maximum communication, respect, sympathy and closeness from the organization to the filmmakers, artists and directors who come to present their films.
International film festival of entertaining, fantastic and arthouse free genre films.
The Obscura Filmfest was founded by David Ghane in 2016 and has been run by him alone ever since. He is a passionate genre film fan since 1996, attends several film festivals per year since 2004, sometimes helps out there, acts as an extra in horror films and is an extreme film collector.
The Obscura Filmfest specialises in entertaining and fantastic B-movies, films that are rarely shown in cinemas. They show mostly big blockbusters or arthouse films that can be found at most other ordinary film festivals. Even comparable festivals are expanding their programmes to include more and more arthouse. Those who instead like entertaining, smaller and special independent films, but can also imagine bigger productions from far away countries, will find what they are looking for at the Obscura Filmfest: Films that are fun with rough edges, raw and uncompromising; from nasty little horror films to Asian battle epics, there is something for every fan, just no boredom.
It started with small, offbeat, trashy and depraved underground grindhouse films, meanwhile the Obscura also screens commercial, mid-sized films that are traded on the big film markets.
Highlights of the previous festival editions included the German premieres of the Argentinian fantasy sci fi cyberpunk action film "Daemonium", the Ukrainian thriller "Egregor", the Filipino zombie shocker "Day Zero", the Danish horror film "Finale", the ghost comedy "Deadtectives" and the two Backwoods films "What the Waters Left Behind" and its sequel "Scars" 5 years later.
The European premieres of the Indonesian comic superhero film "Valentine" and the Backwoods film "Drifter" were also screened.
Another highlight was the crazy Japanese splatterfest "Kodoku - Meatball Machine" which can look back on a long festival history including the biggest festivals of its kind, as well as the Universal/Blumhouse production "The Hunt".
With "Redbad" and "The Great Battle", two big battle epics were also screened at the Obscura.
The German premiere of the hard-hitting exploitation film "Trauma" in Hanover was even attended by visitors from the Ruhr area.
After its international premiere at the Obscura, the cowboy backwoods film "Lasso" was shown a few months later at the famous british Frightfest.
In 2022, the Obscura had its first two feature-length film world premieres with "All through the Hall" and "Hidden in the Woods II".
At each Obscura there were film guests who introduced their film in person and were available for a Q&A. They came from Ireland, UK, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Hungary, USA, Argentina, Mexico and of course Germany.
More information incl. an archive on the new and old websites:
https://www.obscurafilmfest.com
https://dvdscot.wixsite.com/obscura
Vintage Film Foundation Present
5th Vintage International Film Festival, 2023
Considering the historical and ancient background in the field of cinema from this cultural city like Kolhapur, the Vintage Film Foundation came into existence. New artists entering this field of cinema can get a huge platform through short films and documentaries, so these artists need exposure to the film industry through such platforms but looking for future perspectives they don’t get a proper platform to showcase their talent. This talent mustn’t be restricted to their local level, so we are providing them a chance to showcase it at the international level.
This historic city has given birth to many famous and prestigious artists like Baburao Painter, V. Shantaram, Master Vinayak, Master Vithhal, Bhalji Pendharkar, etc., who have great contributions in Marathi as well as World cinema, who are still rising and becoming successful. By looking forward to these artists as an idol, the upcoming youth of Kolhapur are chasing their dreams.
Here 5th Vintage International Film Festival gives them a chance to showcase their efforts at the international level to express their ideas, thoughts, and innovations in front of national and international artists and audiences.
Similarly, we have decided to organize a workshop to provide exposure and knowledge about minute details, and techniques of filmmaking to groom the new artist.
The Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 3rd consecutive year in 2020.
The 2019 festival showcased 32 short films from 9 different countries and hosted the Canadian Premiere of the award-winning horror feature film Puppet Killer by Lisa Ovies. The VHS awards filmmakers for their work in 17 categories including best performances, best director, and the Blair Witch award, which celebrates incredible cinematic achievements on a shoestring budget. In 2019, the VHS also introduce a screenwriting competition which will continue in 2020.
At the VHS, what terrifies us is what unites us. Our goal is to celebrate the power of storytelling and provide a platform for emerging talent in the world of independent filmmaking.
Selection Process:
Official selections are determined by the programming team using a graded criteria assessment.
Award Process:
All award categories will have nominees chosen by our programming team. The nominees will then be screened / graded by 3 different judges anonymously and given an overall grade. In the event of a tie, there will be two winners.
The VHS Short But Sweet Audience Award will be chosen live at the event. Those in attendance will be asked to vote for their favourite film of the night.
