The Movie Mouse International Short Film Festival is an annual short film competition featuring an official award ceremony. The festival organizers reserve the right to hold the award ceremony in any format—whether in person at the festival venue, online, or simply by announcing the results on the festival website and mailing diplomas and awards to participants.
The festival was created with the objective of identifying talented filmmakers and promoting short films. The festival organizers are the film production company "Mouse and Husband Production" /
www.mimproduction.info.
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE FIFTH SEASON OF THE FESTIVAL WILL
OPEN ON FEBRUARY 1, 2026*. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS NOVEMBER 1, 2026.
The result announcement dates (PUBLICATION ON THE OFFICIAL FESTIVAL WEBSITE) for the stages are:
OFFICIAL SELECTION (LONGLIST), SEMIFINAL (SEMIFINAL) — December 1 to 15, 2026.
FINAL (SHORTLIST), NOMINEES, WINNERS — December 15 to 25, 2026.
The date and location of the upcoming award ceremony (if held) are indicated on the official film festival website.
Categories:
Feature films · Animation films · Documentaries
Nominations:
1. DRAMA — Best short film of the drama/melodrama /psychological drama genre, with a running time between 10 and 40 minutes.
2. SUPER-SHORT — Best short film of the drama /melodrama /psychological drama genre up to 10 minutes in duration.
3. ACTION / COMEDY — Best short film of the detective/horror/comedy/action genre.
4. SPORTS — Best short film with a sports theme.
5. SILENT — Best short film of the SILENT CINEMA genre.
6. DOC — Best short documentary film of any genre.
7. ANIMATION — Best short animated film of any genre.
8. DEBUT — Best debut film and student feature film.
9. KIDS — Best short film for children and adolescents (0+ category).
10. RISING STAR — Best short film made by children and adolescents (0+ category).
Submitted projects are reviewed and evaluated by a professional jury, which includes at least three Russian and international film experts each season.
Stages:
1. All films submitted by filmmakers are reviewed by the jury members, after which some of them, separately in each category, are included in the official selection (LONGLIST).
2. Depending on the number of films that pass the official selection, additional selection stages are formed in each category: quarterfinal (QUARTERFINAL), semifinal (SEMIFINAL), finalists (SHORT LIST), award nominees (NOMINEE), and winner (WINNER) — Festival Grand Prix.
3. The festival organizers reserve the right to carry out the selection process sequentially through all stages, or to omit some of them, depending on the number of participants in each category.
4. Semifinalists and finalists in each category are invited to the award ceremony (if held in person), which will be announced on the festival website. All filmmakers who have submitted a film to the competition program have the right to request attendance at the official award ceremony from the festival organizers.
5. The Grand Prix winner in each category (the category winner) is announced from among the nominees.
