Torrerífico - Festival De Cortometrajes De Terror De Torrevieja (6)

Festival start: 23 October 2026      Festival end: 25 October 2026

The purpose of this call is to promote, on a competitive basis, an open contest to encourage cultural creation, helping to increase the quality of productions by creators in the audiovisual sector.

At the festival, called “Torrerífico,” the short films must have a horror theme, and the works selected as finalists will be screened, with the winners being announced. In this regard, the audience attending the event will vote for the audience award.

To this end, the Vice-Rectorate for Culture, Sport, and University Extension at the University of Alicante is organizing the Short Film Competition through the Torrevieja University Campus, in collaboration with the Torrevieja City Council's Youth Department and the Torrevieja Alternative Leisure Association.

Cash Prizes: 1,700€

Se concederá un número máximo de 3 premios, distribuyendo la asignación hasta un límite de 1700 € de la siguiente manera:

Premio del jurado al mejor cortometraje, dotado con 1000 €
Premio del jurado accésit, dotado con 500 €.
Premio del público, dotado con 200 €.

“TORRERÍFICO” SHORT FILM COMPETITION (2025)

1. Purpose of the call for entries and award procedure

The purpose of this call for entries, on a competitive basis, is to promote an open competition to encourage cultural creation, helping to increase the quality of productions by creators in the audiovisual sector.

At the festival, called “Torrerífico,” the short films must have a horror theme, and the films selected as finalists will be screened, with the winners being announced. In this regard, the audience attending the event will vote for the audience award.

To this end, the Vice-Rectorate for Culture, Sport, and University Extension at the University of Alicante is organizing the Short Film Competition through the Torrevieja University Campus, in collaboration with the Torrevieja City Council Youth Department and the La Comarca Youth Association.

2. Requirements for Beneficiaries

Any individual who meets the following conditions may obtain and apply for this award:

Minimum age of 14.
Tax residence in Spain.
Authorization from a parent or legal guardian is required if the participant is under 18 years of age. If the parents are divorced or separated, the permission must be signed by the guardian who has custody. Legal representation must be proven.


3. Number and value of prizes.

A maximum of three prizes will be awarded, with a total value of up to €1,700, distributed as follows:

First prize from the jury for the best short film, worth €1,000.
Second prize from the jury, worth €500.
Audience prize, worth €200.


4. Deadline and application procedure

4.1. Submission deadline

The call for applications will be published in the BOUA (Official Gazette of the Autonomous Community of Aragon) for information purposes, prior to the publication of its extract in the DOGV (Official Gazette of the Valencian Community).


The application period begins on March 20 and ends on September 25, 2026.

4.2. Submission procedure

The short film must be submitted via Festhome.com. They may also be submitted by email to sede.torrevieja@ua.es and info@torrerifico.com, indicating the details of this call for entries and sending the short film and all the required documentation via a non-expiring link (Dropbox, Google Drive). All files must remain unmodified and available at the link until the day after the awards ceremony.

The following documentation must be attached:

- A document with personal details: name, surname(s), pseudonym if applicable, full postal address, telephone number, and email address of the author (or representative in the case of minors). If the participant is under 18 years of age, authorization from a parent or legal guardian must also be included.

- A document with a copy of the ID of the person who created the work (director).

- A digital file with the highest resolution possible and in .mp4 format with the submitted work and its title. This file must also be hosted on a private YouTube or Vimeo channel and remain hidden and unavailable until after the awards ceremony. The upload date must be before the deadline and the work cannot be replaced during the process.

- Two photographs of the work in .jpg format and 300 dpi with the title that will be used for its presentation during the awards ceremony.

- A document with the technical specifications, artistic details, and synopsis (doc, odt, rtf, or txt).

The short films submitted must meet the following characteristics:

1. The minimum duration must be 1 minute and the maximum 20 minutes (including credits).

2. The submission must be in .mp4 file format; size: 1920 x 1080.

3. Short films may be made in any official language of the Valencian Community (Spanish or Valencian), with original and unpublished scripts. If the original script of the work is in a different language, it must be subtitled in one of the aforementioned languages. If the soundtrack contains music, it must be original or free of copyright issues, and the author is responsible for ensuring that this is the case.

4. The predominant and clear theme must be horror in any of its variants.

5. Short films made entirely or partially with Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be accepted. If it is detected that a short film has made use of this field of science, it will be disqualified.


5. Award criteria

Prizes will be awarded according to the following criteria and respective weighting

AWARD CRITERIA WEIGHTING

Relevance to the theme 15 points
Screenplay 20 points
Direction 20 points
Lead performance 15 points
Supporting performance 10 points
Cinematography 5 points
Sound and soundtrack 5 points
Editing and visual effects 5 points
Makeup 5 points

In the case of evaluation criteria subject to value judgments, it is necessary to include in the grant file the documents containing the information used by the members of the evaluation committee to form their judgment, as well as a brief explanation of this judgment, signed by the evaluator, in order to obtain evidence of the technical discretion applied by the evaluation staff.

With regard to direction, the use of the resources available to make the short film, the ability of the short film to convey the desired idea, and the coordination between all its elements will be evaluated.

With regard to sound and soundtrack, the quality of the sound recording will not be evaluated as much (although it will also be taken into account) as the use made of the sound (how the music has been introduced, when it appears or does not appear, the sound effects, and their editing).

If the short film features only one person on screen and there are no other interpretive elements (such as voiceovers with acting intent, puppets, animated creatures, or animals participating in the action), the score for “secondary performance” will be added to the “lead performance” category.

1. In the event of a tie in the jury's vote regarding the final score awarded, priority will be established according to the following order of assessment:

· The short film that has obtained the highest score in the “suitability to the theme” section.

· If the tie persists, priority will be given to the highest score in “direction.”

· If the above situation continues, the highest score in “script” will be taken into account.

2. In the event of a tie in the public vote, the prize will be awarded to the short film that has received the highest total score from the jury.

2.1. If the tie persists, the above criteria will be applied again in this order:

- Highest score from the jury for suitability to the theme.
- In the event of a tie, highest score for direction.
- If the tie persists, highest score for screenplay.


6. Managing Body and Evaluation Committee

6.1. Managing Body

The managing body for the call for entries is the Vice-Rector for Culture, Sports, and University Extension at the University of Alicante, which is responsible for organizing and instructing the procedure and agreeing on all necessary actions for determining, understanding, and verifying the data on which the decision must be based.

The administrative unit is the Torrevieja University Campus, contact s.seus@ua.es.

When the application does not meet the requirements or is not accompanied by the required documentation, the applicant will be notified of the reason preventing the continuation of the procedure, and they will be required, in accordance with common administrative procedure legislation, to rectify the deficiency or provide the required documents, with an indication that if this is not done, their request will be considered withdrawn, subject to a decision that must be issued in accordance with the terms provided for by law.

6.2. Assessment Committee

The Assessment Committee will examine and evaluate the accepted applications and prepare the assessment report.

This technical collegiate body will be composed of the following members or, where applicable, their substitutes:

- Chair: Audiovisual Communication Researcher.

- Secretary: Member of the Torrevieja Alternative Leisure Association;

- Members:

Film professional.
Audiovisual professional.
Member of the Torrevieja Alternative Leisure Association.

The members of the evaluation committee will sign a document of absence of conflict of interest (DACI), which must be signed digitally.

7. Resolution, notification, and publication of results

In accordance with the principle of transparency set forth in Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the legal regime of the public sector, and the provisions of Article 45.1 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the common administrative procedure of public administrations, the publications detailed in these rules will be made on the website https://web.ua.es/es/seus/torrevieja/, replacing the notification to the interested parties and producing the same effects.

After receiving the applications, a provisional list of accepted and rejected applications will be drawn up, and a period of five working days will be established for corrections to be made, starting from the day after its publication. Once this period has elapsed, the final list of accepted and rejected applications will be drawn up and sent to the assessment committee for evaluation.

To this end, the Rector of the University of Alicante will issue the final decision on the award.

8. Legal and budgetary framework

This call, with code 2025SBV065, serves as the regulatory basis and is included in subsidy line 2026LS018 of the University of Alicante's Strategic Subsidy Plan 2025-27 (financial year 2026).

The subsidy allocated will comply with the provisions of Law 38/2003, of November 17, on general subsidies; Royal Decree 887/2006, of July 21, which approves the regulations of Law 38/2003; Law 1/2015, of February 6, on public finance, the instrumental public sector, and subsidies; the internal regulations of the University of Alicante; and this call for applications.

The maximum amount of €1,700 for this call will be covered by Chapter IV, code 71.20.4P.00.02 of the University Extension Secretariat budget. The awarding of this grant is subject to the budgetary availability of the University of Alicante. Current tax regulations will apply.


9. Obligations, justification of beneficiaries, and payment

9.1. Obligations of beneficiaries

In addition to those established in Law 38/2003, the general law on subsidies, beneficiaries have the following obligations:

a) The subsidized activity must take place in 2026.

b) Film Classroom at the University of Alicante. The University reserves the right to use the works submitted for non-commercial and non-profit exhibition purposes, respecting, in all cases, the legislation in force in this area.

c) Authors may make use of the award-winning works provided that they mention the award granted by the University of Alicante in the credits.

d) Participation in this call for entries implies acceptance of these rules, which may be interpreted by the evaluation committee and the organizing entity in aspects not initially foreseen.

9.2. Justification of beneficiaries and payment

The beneficiary must be justified prior to the award being granted, by verifying that the requirements have been met. The University of Alicante will proceed to pay the award granted, by means of a single payment via bank transfer.

The screening of the shortlisted films and the awards ceremony will take place on the date, at the time, and in the place to be announced well in advance through the communication channels of the UA Headquarters in Torrevieja and Torrerífico, as well as to the persons responsible for the shortlisted films.

Failure by the beneficiary to comply with any of the requirements and obligations established in this call for applications and the rules, as well as in the award decision, may result in the total or partial revocation of the prize and the reimbursement, where applicable, of any amounts unduly received.


10. Protection of personal data

In accordance with current legislation on data protection, we inform you that the University of Alicante will process the data provided for the purpose of managing and processing applications for participation in this call for entries.

The legal basis for this processing is compliance with a mission carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of public powers conferred on the University of Alicante, and the consent expressed in your application to participate.

Within the framework of the aforementioned processing, your data may not be transferred, except where legally required, and will be kept for the time strictly necessary to fulfill the aforementioned purpose.

We inform you that the interested party may exercise their rights in relation to the processing of their personal data, including access, rectification, and deletion, by sending a request to the University Management at the General Registry of the University of Alicante, or through the electronic headquarters. You can also contact the Data Protection Officer at dpd@ua.es.

Additional and detailed information on data protection, your rights, and the University of Alicante's privacy policy can be found at

https://seuelectronica.ua.es/es/privacidad.html.


11. Appeals

Appeals against the call for applications, the terms and conditions, and any administrative acts arising therefrom, which exhaust the administrative process, may be lodged with the competent administrative court in Alicante within two months from the day following its publication, in accordance with the provisions of Article 114 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the common administrative procedure of public administrations, Article 38.4 of Organic Law 2/2023, of March 22, on Universities, and Article 46 of Law 29/1998, of July 13, regulating contentious-administrative jurisdiction, and may, at their discretion, lodge an appeal for reconsideration within one month from the day following the publication of this notice, before the rector, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 123 and 124 of Law 39/2015. All of this is without prejudice to the use of any other means deemed appropriate.

In accordance with Article 112 of Law 39/2015, no appeal may be lodged against procedural acts, unless they directly or indirectly decide on the merits of the case or determine the impossibility of continuing the proceedings, or cause defenselessness or irreparable damage to legitimate rights and interests.

In Alicante, on February 27, 2026

The Rector

P.S. Signed by the Vice-Rector for Culture, Sports, and University Extension (Resolution of 19th December 2024)

Catalina Anca Iliescu Gheorghiu