⁣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.

About us:
⁣An IMDb qualified festvial , Rotterdam Independent Film Festival (Riff) is a brand new, up-and-coming online seasonal short film festival in Netherland, a country with great filmmakers like Johan van der Keuken and popular international film festivals. Riff is an exclusive online short film competition, and our main goal is to showcase the brilliant short projects for a diverse audience of cinephiles.
RIFF is more than just a Film event; it is a strong connection among all filmmakers worldwide. RIFF is a hub for international filmmakers to celebrate their premieres, thank their cast and crew, and meet their fans. Exposing young talented filmmakers to an environment of industry professionals with vast experience in their field is a priority for us. One of our top aims is to help first-time filmmakers promote their talent regardless of their age. The objective of RIFF is to provide support to indie filmmakers globally through reviewing, judging, marketing, and distribution networking. We aim to create networks that lead to further opportunities for filmmakers.
RIFF is an online award film festival. You have two steps in front to advance to the annual event. At first, each season, our jury selects the winners of each category through "private" screenings. Every submitted film has a chance to be a winner for each season. In the next step, we select few films from the winner projects for the annual event. If you get to the second stage, we will get in touch with you for the annual event (not getting a notification from us means that you are not a selected film for the second stage). If you advance to the yearly event, you need to send us materials for online screening.
Our judges consist of filmmakers and industry professionals from 5 different countries. We believe that having such a multicultural team behind our festival helps our festival thrive among Indie Festivals.

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Calgary Independent Film Festival ( formerly Phoenix Genre/Comedy festival) is a bi-monthly online celebration of the best of independent cinema. The festival's goal is to present all forms of independent films to the general public. We accept all genres of films, including Horror, Action, Crime, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction, Sports, Thriller, War, Western, Student, Covid, Women Empowerment, Documentary, Experimental, LGBTQ, Animation from all around the world. All the best films of each month "might" get into our annual physical event, which occurs once per year in Calgary. During the yearly event, the festival brings together new voices in the industry professionals in filmmaking to encourage and support new, creative additions to cinema arts.

⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣Welcome to the Austin International Art Festival page, a festival held in the beautiful city of Austin, US. This is a festival for both short and featured films. We accept films from all over the world, from American filmmakers and international ones. The main criterion for participating in the festival is artistic criteria and merits. Considering Austin's tremendous importance in the American cinematic environment and our professional platform, we hope to provide a suitable environment for the introduction of short films and feature films.
The festival believes that many films are produced in today's world, and many of these films want to know of their outcome as soon as possible. With this in mind, our program will be held monthly. The monthly festival is held in the form of an online award festival, which means that the works are reviewed and evaluated "privately" by the jury, and finally, the jury announces the best result. If they want, monthly winners can request a public online screening. We do also promote our winners through our social media and issue certificates for our winners. We do have an annual online l event as well. Once a year, few selected films will be chosen from all monthly winners and broadcast in an online platform. The jury of the above festival has been chosen from the expert members of cinema, from the university environment, from the working and professional background of cinema and the well-known cinema distributors.
We do believe our structure is the best answer to the reality of contemporary filmmaking. It allows the filmmaker to be informed of his work's result in the shortest time possible and enables them to provide a more suitable and timely platform for advertising and promoting the film.

⁣⁣⁣⁣Arthouse Festival of Beverly Hills, an IMDB qualifying festival, is a bi-monthly competitive Film Festival dedicated to short films. We accept all types of short films and offer awards for Best Us Film, Best Intl Film, Best male and female director, among others. We also accept all kinds of genre films, including Horror, Action, Crime, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction, Sports, Thriller, War and Western from all around the world. The festival has a seasonal structure, first, our programmes select the official selection of the festival, then the judges will privately review the selected films, and subsequently, they will announce the winners. The winner's projects will then have the option to be streamed online.

⁣San Francisco International Film Awards is a newly established physical event taking place in San Francisco. The festival’s mission is to celebrate films and the art of filmmaking. We hope to provide a venue for filmmakers to exhibit their latest work, meet other filmmakers, and learn from industry professionals. We also hope to serve as a forum for discussion and debate about films and filmmaking. Our biggest dream is that our festival can also be a tool for marketing your movies; we hope to generate buzz and interest in your new releases. And be sure that we will do our best so that the festvial allows honest, objective feedback from audiences who don’t have any connection to you or your film. We hope to see your movie soon at the festvial!

⁣⁣Brooklyn International Short Awards is an online awards event. The festvial will welcome any independent project from all genres. The Festival is looking for independent projects from all genres, particularly low or no-budget ones and all countries. The selection process has two parts. First, the submitted projects are judged through private screenings by our internal programming team, and they will select the Finalist films of each edition. Then the Festival’s jurors, who are a random team of invited experts mainly from the film industry, will privately review the films and award the best projects. All of the winners will receive the official laurel and an achievement certificate and can request an online screening. Winner’s announcements will be released through our social media to help promote the films.

⁣Hamburg Indie Fest is an international online film institution and competition, celebrating the language of cinema, indie filmmaking and film projects of all genres from all over the world.
The committee consists of filmmakers and authors based from all over the world.
Our monthly festival seeks to promote and award filmmakers and create online networking and events for filmmakers and screenwriters in order to promote film projects.
The festival stands with independent filmmaking and believes in the power of cinema. It is our pleasure to consider film and script projects of all genres for various categories of the festival. Our festival will also award acting, writing, cinematography, editing and composing for film music in each monthly edition of the festival as well.

⁣Rome has had a special place in the art and beauty of the world from years ago. The Roman baths, the outstanding architecture created in this beautiful city throughout history, the sculptures, and the paintings all reflect the special place of Rome in the art of the world. Meanwhile, Rome has always been a unique city among Italian filmmakers. Directors like Pasolini, Fellini and Antonioni, and other contemporary filmmakers have always used the city of Rome and its beauties in their films and created unexpected cinematic moments for us.
We hope to use Roman history and grandeur in favour of creating a unique festival atmosphere. This festival will be held seasonally in Rome, to show outstanding short films in this beautiful city each season. Roma short is dedicated to celebrating the works of independent filmmakers from around the world, and we pay special attention to ultra low-budget films by first and second-time directors. The festival hopes to provide a place for cinema lovers, independent filmmakers to get acquainted with the latest works in cinema. We hope to create a social space around cinema and promote new discourses about the future of cinema.
The festival has a seasonal structure. First of all, our jury will review the nominated films. We award films in each season . Seasonal semi-finalist selections are screened privately for consideration. Among the winner movies, a limited number will be selected for online screening. Winners will receive laurels. Seasonal winners will be listed on our website and Instagram.

⁣Dublin World Film Festival champions new film talent by providing a seasonal showcase and meeting point for new and established filmmakers, industry delegates and the local audience.
The festival is a friendly and inclusive festival in which the work of emerging filmmakers is presented in the context of an international programme. We believe that international collaboration is vital for filmmakers. The festival not only advocates the importance of short films in progressing future generations of filmmakers but provides a meeting place where the partnership can begin. The selection process has two parts. First, the submitted projects are judged through private screenings by our internal programming team, and they will select the semi-finals films of each edition. Then the Festival's jurors, a random team of invited experts mainly from the film industry, will privately review the films and award the best projects. All of the winners will receive the official laurel and an achievement certificate. The winner's announcements will be released through our social media to help promote the films.