Festivals
From 4docs
Festivals are a great place for shorts. They are easier to programme in compilation slots and expose your film to an ever- expanding network of audiences, consisting of other festival programmers, cinema programmers and distributors, as well as normal audiences.
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Shorts Festivals
UK Festivals
Encounters Short Film Festival - November. Now in its 15th year, Encounters has become known world-wide for the extraordinary community of filmmakers it attracts, and for the quality and scope of its programming.
London Short Film Festival - takes place in January.
Rushes Short Film Festival takes place in July. They hold all sorts of special events and screenings, but this year they are also hosting screenings of the best Straight 8s from 2009 (see Competitions Worth Entering).
International Shorts Festivals
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2010 (January 29 - February 6)
Good festivals that focus on documentaries are:
Bilbao International Festival for Documentary and Short Film This festival is held annually at the end of November. 2009 will be the festivals 51st year.
Krakow Film Festival - May/June
Documentary Festivals
Doc Fest Leipzig - Oct/Nov
Sheffield Doc/Fest - November
IDFA - International Film Festival of Amsterdam - takes place in Novemember. One of the biggest and the best doc festivals in Europe.
General Festivals
There are hundreds of festivals around the world. The following are those that are considered very prestigious to have your short accepted to. All others can be found on a number of websites.
Sundance Film Festival - takes place in January
Film Festival - takes place in February
Cannes Film Festival - May
Toronto Film Festival - September
Venice Film Festival - September
Festival websites
Withoutabox enter your film once to the site and then it helps you select and enter as many festivals as you want with minimum effort.
BRITFILMS A searchable database of over 600 international film festivals, including television and video festivals, giving details on how and when to enter.
FilmFestivals.com lists the festivals and festival news.