⁣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.

⁣Welcome to the Austin International Art Festival, an online IMDB qualified awards event. 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. 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. 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.

⁣⁣⁣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.

⁣Madrid Arthouse film festival is an IMDb qualified bi-monthly online festival based in Madrid. The festival aims to provide a platform for short and long feature filmmakers to be seen and heard as best as possible.
The festival is very competitive: Each season, our jury selects each category's winners through private screenings (there will be no physical screening). The winners of each month may be then considered for the yearly online competition. If this happens, they will be shown and compete with other films-winners at the annual online event.

⁣⁣⁣⁣Vienna Indie Short Festival is an online seasonal film festival. Vienna, Austria’s capital, lies in the east on the Danube River. Its artistic and intellectual legacy was shaped by residents including Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. The city is also known for its Imperial palaces, including Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs’ summer residence. An enticing place for art & culture. Vienna Indie Short Film Festival will welcome any independent project from all genres. During each edition, our jury selects the winners of each category through private screenings. Our judges consist of industry professionals from 5 different countries. Such a multicultural team behind our festival helps make our festival thrive amongst Independent Festivals. After private screenings, the jurors will announce the name of the winners and we will reveal them through our social medias. If you become a winner project, your project will consider officially selected films of the festival deemed for online screening upon the request.

⁣New Orleans International Film Awards’s mission is to bring international independent films to the widest possible audience in the region. The Festival aims to provide a cultural alternative to the commercial film experience, to support independent filmmakers, and promote the art of filmmaking.
New Orleans is part of an amazing worldwide community; a unique collaboration of multi-talented writers, film score composers and filmmakers. The festival mission is to entertain, inform, inspire, encourage and educate. We honor those artists who, through their creative work, actively increase awareness, provide multiple viewpoints, address complex social issues, and strengthen ties between international audiences. At the festvial, you can come together with other writers, directors and producers to create new opportunities, develop tools for success and forge new alliances within the international film and entertainment industry.

⁣⁣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.

⁣Welcome to the Glasgow Film Awards, a distinguished celebration of cinematic artistry from around the world. Set in the vibrant city of Glasgow, known for its rich cultural heritage and dynamic arts scene, our festival honors exceptional films, both short and feature-length, across a diverse range of genres and styles.
At the core of the Glasgow Film Awards is our commitment to recognizing and celebrating the talent and creativity of filmmakers everywhere. We believe in the transformative power of cinema to evoke emotion, spark dialogue, and bridge cultural divides. Our festival provides a platform for stories that resonate deeply with audiences, showcasing films that highlight the breadth and depth of human experience.
Our carefully curated program features a wide array of films, from thought-provoking dramas and insightful documentaries to innovative animations and compelling shorts. Each film is selected for its unique perspective, storytelling excellence, and the ability to captivate and inspire viewers.
Join us at the Glasgow Film Awards, where we celebrate the artistry, passion, and creativity of filmmakers. Whether you are a filmmaker, a film enthusiast, or someone passionate about storytelling, our festival offers a unique and enriching experience in one of the UK's most exciting cultural hubs.

Civilizations can’t flourish without the arts, and film has definitely become the art form and literature of the modern age. San Jose Independent Film Festival hopes to be like the art gallery displaying these cultural treasures that reflect creativity and diverse viewpoints. We hope to offer an online platform for our young filmmakers to present their creative ideas, their singular stories and storytelling, their talent and skill in their making and, not least, their passion for communicating how they feel and think about the world they live in. These are things they share with us, the audience, and with other filmmakers, whether they are making more familiar live-action dramas or provocative experimental films.
With this in mind, our programming is not dictated only by the demands of ticket sales and audiences. We are a safe space to show films that are not calculated by a formula nor constructed by a committee of studio heads eager to make a profit. Our mission is to showcase new and uncharted territory, offer invigorating new perspectives and exhilarating new styles in storytelling, and provide a more authentic cathartic experience for the audience. And, finally, we are a classy festival for an elegant town. Although we program part of the festival with an eye toward our community audience, we also create a program that will gain respect amongst our peers in the industry. If you have a film ready, we are waiting for your submissions!

⁣⁣IMDb qualifier's Toronto Independent Festival of CIFT was established in Toronto in 2015. In the short span of time, it became a well-recognized international festival in Toronto with more than 10000 patrons each year, and it is now after Tiff it is the most successful local festival that is held each year at TIFF Bell Light Box, the house of Toronto International Film Festival (Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, opened the past two editions of the festival; in the past years, Globe and Mail and CBC, two prominent news outlet in Canada covered the festival).
The eighth edition of the festival has both a bi-monthly and a yearly structure for film competition; on the first round, our jury selects the winners of each season through private screenings. In the case they get selected by the programming team of the yearly event, the winners of each season may be then considered for the yearly competition. If this happens, they will be shown and compete with other films-winners at the yearly event.