The Chicago film industry was a central hub for motion picture production and exhibition before Hollywood became the undisputed capital of filmmaking. In the early 1900s, Chicago boasted the most significant number of production companies and filmmakers. This situation was partially preserved until 1920, when the Chicago film industry met decline for a combination of reasons, including the impact of the Great Depression. Not until the 1980s and early 21st century has Chicago experienced a film production revival. Movie production again entered Chicago in the 1980s, with the state of Illinois becoming a leader in money spent on film production. Blockbusters, such as Blues Brothers, Sixteen Candles, and The Dark Knight, have rejuvenated the Chicago film scene. Inspired by this tradition, the mission of the Chicago Filmmaker Awards, aka Cifawards, is to recognize and reward independent filmmakers that are currently missing in mainstream Hollywood. Whether your talent is in front of the camera or behind it, we have a category for you. We are waiting to watch your films. We are interested in professionally made independent works. Submissions are open for shorts, feature narratives, documentaries and animation, and even experimental films and music videos. This will be a seasonal Awards event with yearly live screening. Each season, we will select the best-known movies and promote the winners through social media and the official website. Few of the winners of each season will be selected for our online event.
Brussels World Film Festival is a seasonal GOLD FilmFreeway competition to be celebrated at the Brussels city. We are committed to promote new filmmakers projects and showcase their films to international audiences. Our mission is to screen independent films of all genres from all around the world.
London indie festival of 24frames is a bi-monthly IMDB qualified online short award festival based in London. The festival aims to provide a platform for short filmmakers to be seen and heard as best as possible. With this goal, filmmakers don't need to submit their projects for every award category to be considered for different awards. Each project only needs to be submitted for one general category. With each submission, the project will be considered for all of the prizes. All of this happens at a very affordable price. The festival is very competitive: Each season, our jury selects each category's winners through private screenings (there will be no physical screening; we will issue customized certificates for the winners). The winners of each season will be then considered for the online competition.
Are you fed up with the politicization of art in contemporary society? Do you believe that you are an excellent filmmaker because of the inner artistic quality of your work and not because of the political layers of your film?. Do you find it irritating that festivals constantly ask you about your identities, your political views and make you fill interrogative forms in which you have to justify that you are a "good" morally correct artist for society? If you think any of this, welcome to the Hollywood International Golden Age Festival for ALL! We believe that an artist should be free to create her work, and no institutions for any reason should impose on her how her art should look. For us, a just and democratic cinema is a cinema that treats everybody the same and equally without imposing any artistic criteria to follow. This is the first principle of democracy. Each artist's "dignity" and free opinion is more important than the "assumptions" of intellectuals who feel they know what justice is and want to teach it to everybody. Every artist is equal, and every artist should be treated equally and with the same degree of respect. We have created this radical festival which this specific line of thoughts. This is the festival in which the only criteria to judge your work is its "artistic" quality and not any political demand of the current society. We judge films based on their inner qualities, and we don't care to be a politically correct festival. We want to prioritize once more the "art" of filmmaking. The organizing and administrative team of Hollywood Golden Age started their activities in New York 2 years ago. This is a monthly New York-based film festival with a yearly event. Every month, our Jury will award the best films through private screenings. Monthly Award Winners will be chosen to compete in the online Award.
The Seattle Movie Awards is a festival that showcases the best independent films from around the world. Every season we award the best film makers, writers and producers by inviting them to our online competition hosted in Seattle, US. We showcase various genres from non-fiction to fiction films. Not only do we grant prizes to the winners, but we also connect film makers to our network of professionals. Connecting filmmakers with our extensive database of agents, distributors and other industry professionals. Our festival is also globally orientated meaning we not only look for Western films but also films from Africa, Asia, South America and Australia.
Niagara Falls International Short Festival, an IMDB qualified festival, is a bi-monthly Us-based short online film festival held in the beautiful Niagara Falls, New York. Niagara is valued not only for its waterfall but also for its beautiful inns, hotels, restaurants and tourist destinations such as its wineries. Filmmakers and artists have been attracted to Niagara Falls and have used its potentials to set their films. Niagara Falls has been used as background in numerous feature films, including the famous Marilyn Monroe film, titled Niagara (1953), and Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean, to name a few. The spectacular natural scenery of Niagara Falls has always given an extra layer of beauty to films shown on the silver screen, and we hope to use these infrastructures to offer you a fantastic festival experience. If you have a film ready to be submitted, you can send your film to us before the next deadline. This is an online festival, which means that films will be privately judged, and we will announce the winners; if you are a winner, your project "might" be considered for our online event.
About us: Tokyo shorts is an online award-based monthly festival. The mission of the festival is to bring international independent short film to the widest possible audience in Japan and beyond. The Festival aims to provide a cultural alternative to the commercial film experience, to support independent filmmakers, and promote the art of filmmaking and its related disciplines. The Tokyo Shorts was established to utilise the power of film to further the goal of inter-cultural understanding among nations and to assist in the building of a shared artistic experience. During each edition, our jury selects the winners of each category through private screenings. The winners of each edition may be then considered for the yearly online screening. If this happens, they will be shown online and compete with other films-winners at the yearly event.
Berlin Short Awards is a bi-monthly IMDb qualified online short awards event. We are happy to welcome filmmakers from all genres, particularly low or no-budget ones, and all countries, especially from those traditionally underrepresented in the global film industry. Our main goal is to showcase their brilliant projects in Berlin's beautiful city for a diverse audience of cinephiles. Berlin, as a city dates to the 13th century. Reminders of the city's turbulent 20th-century history can be seen in the parts of city. The city's also known for its art scene and modern landmarks like the gold-coloured, swoop-roofed Berliner Philharmonic, built in 1963. We encourage you to submit your work to this online event. The selected projects are privately judged by a random team of invited experts from academia and the film industry worldwide, against a high standard of merit. From the official selection pool, which has a very competitive acceptance rate, Berlin Shorts Award chose the nominees and award winners of the month. All the Winners will receive the Official Laurels and the winning-category certificate.
Paris Lady MovieMakers Festival is a competitive online event that valorizes the work of women filmmakers or films about women. In this festival, we are looking for a unique and innovative perspective from female filmmakers to introduce them and promote them. We also accept projects directed by non-female directors who have something important to say about womanhood. We are an online event based in Paris and we are dedicated to female cinema.
Our festival was founded to support and promote independent short films from all around the world. We recognize how difficult it is to get your short film ’out there’, and find a platform where your film can reach the right audience. We aim to promote and provide exposure to these films and organize a fun and culturally diverse night of indie cinema for filmmakers and cinephiles alike. Our program will reflect the diversity and opportunities within the short film genre, and our goal is to show films that the audience would otherwise have not seen, and leave a lasting impact. We look forward to seeing your submissions and welcoming you to Stockholm Short Film Festival! Our submission window for our 1st edition is now open! For each season, the official selection will be carefully picked by our panel of expert judges and will consist of the films nominated for an award. The movie that got an award will have the option to be screened online during our annual event if they get into the next round; they will also be promoted on our social media platforms and website.