Festival start: 15 May 2025
Festival end: 25 May 2025
IPFF is on the path towards its fifth edition! Once again, we will celebrate short portrait cinema and art which explores, educates, and transforms.
PHILOSOPHY
A portrait is an image heavy with meaning. Layered and multifaceted, it has a visual, psychological, material, emotional and spiritual dimension. It can be political, conceptual, poetic. Or something else.
A portrait always undergoes a transformation. It imitates and repeats life, but becomes something or someone new along the way. It changes its original subject while capturing it. Then the portrait is transformed again through the mind of every brave interpreter.
A film portrait is a soul in the form of light encountering the canvas of the white screen while pairs of eyes are staring at its vastness. It is a trace. And a reverie. It is past, present, and future intertwined.
FOCUS
The portrait is the focus of the films that will be screened at the IPFF. We are looking for portrait films that have already been completed, as well as such that will be created with the concrete idea of 'portrait'. Of a person. A group of people. An object. Something invisible, but substantial. Of the self.
WELCOME
IPFF welcomes a wide range of films and filmmakers: students, professionals, from low budget to big-scale productions, alternative and independent films by individuals and by collectives or institutions.
AIM
IPFF aspires to bring together artists and viewers who sincerely long for enrichment with art, intellectual discussion, and an experience of cinema through a new prism - that of the portrait film.
CHARACTER
IPFF is a hybrid event. A symbiosis of intriguing live encounters and memorable virtual experiences. An interweaving of portrait cinema from around the world with debates, lectures, workshops.
DREAM
We dream and imagine that the IPFF is for those who profoundly need art and excitement. And for the ones who believe in cinema’s power to change us for the better. For the unafraid to search within the screen even when it offers a strange and experimental viewpoint, or difficult questions about human rights, war and the ecological crises of our shared present.
The awarded films in each category are determined by an international jury of professionals with impressive accomplishments in their respected fields: film practitioners, academics, film critics, culturologists, authors, journalists. Presenting their different points of view, they distinguish the best films among the Official Selection of the festival.
IPFF will award the best portrait creations with:
The grand prize IPFF 2025 - MAYA Award*
- An invitation to the IPFF festival days in Sofia within the following edition - IPFF 2026 - covered by the IPFF
- specially made statuette
- books and publications, specially selected by the festival team, dedicated to the portrait in various arts
- digital laurels ‘Maya Award IPFF 2025’
Award for the most wonderful portrait creation in each category
- specially made statuette
- books and publications, specially selected by the festival team, dedicated to the portrait in various arts
- digital laurels ‘International Portrait Film Festival - Most Wonderful Film Award’
IPFF also presents a special award for a Film Dedication about the contribution of a person or about a cause aiming towards a brighter and better world
- specially made statuette
- digital laurels ‘International Portrait Film Festival - Film Dedication Award’
Digital laurels ‘International Portrait Film Festival - Official Selection’ for all selected films
*The MAYA Award is named after a brilliant filmmaker, activist for avant-garde cinema, poet, true experimenter, film theorist, and dancer Maya Deren. Her magical short works, portraits of herself, or of dancers, or of strange phenomena, have been and will always be a source of inspiration for film artists and for everyone willing to experience cinema, dive into it, think and talk about it with passion.
1. Dates and locations
Main festival: screenings of the Official Selection and accompanying events: Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, and Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria), 15-25 May 2025.
Online edition of the festival, including the Official Selection + 2 additional selections "For the peculiar-eyed" and "Thrilling Impressions": 25-31 May 2025.
2. Conditions for participation
2.1. Deadlines for submission
- Earlybird deadline - 15.06 – 15.08.2024
- Regular deadline - 16.08 – 15.11.2024
- Extended deadline - 16.11.2024 – 15.01.2025
- Notifying and announcing the selected films - 15.02.2025
2.2. Film duration
Maximum accepted film duration is 30 minutes.
2.3. Time when the films were made
The festival accepts films made after 1.01.2010.
2.4. File formats
For selected films: H264, МР4. After a film is selected to be part of the official festival programme, the organiser will contact each author in order to determine the exact technical requirements regarding the screening of their film.
2.5. Language and subtitles
The festival’s working language is English. If an applying film is not in English, it is mandatory that it has English subtitles.
For all the films selected in the competition programme, the festival team will translate and produce subtitles in Bulgarian. In this case, the author must provide a CORRECT TIMECODE SRT file in English. This is absolutely OBLIGATORY!
For films in Bulgarian: if a film is selected in the competition programme, it is mandatory to provide a copy with embedded subtitles in English or a correct timecode srt file in English.
2.6. Materials from the authors of selected films
The authors of films selected in the competition programme must send video and photo material (trailer, poster, film stills, other appropriate material, photos of the creators - director, cast, others if applicable), short bio(s) of the filmmaker(s) and a full list of the production team (credits). IPFF is allowed to use this information for publicity and advertising purposes.
2.7. Copyright
The applicant party must have full authority to submit their film to the IPFF and to own the copyright of the work, including all rights to the music used. IPFF is not responsible for any claims made by a third party regarding copyright and related rights.
The applicant party agrees that the films selected in the competition programme will be screened within the framework of the festival programme in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, as well as in the online edition of the festival and IPFF’s accompanying events.
The applicant party agrees that their film could also be potentially screened in various cities of Bulgaria as part of IPFF's accompanying programme throughout the following year (2026). Should an opportunity for that occur, the festival team will contact the applicant party for confirmation. In case of a lack of response by the latter, IPFF can still showcase the film if the event is free of charge and doesn't bring any financial profit to the festival's team or any other physical or legal entity.
2.9. Application procedure / platforms and notification
The application will be considered accepted upon the cumulative fulfilment of the following conditions:
- the applicant has completed all the fields required by the relevant platform (Festhome);
- the applicant has paid the relevant participation fee.
3. Categories
The categories in 2024/25 are 6:
- Film portrait
- Collective portrait
- Alternative portrait
- Film self-portrait
- Portrait in motion (screendance/dance film)
- Portrait in a magic lantern (animated film)
4. Awards
The awarded films in each category are determined by an international jury. IPFF will award the best portrait creations with:
The grand prize IPFF 2025 – the MAYA Award
Award for the most wonderful portrait creation in each category
Film Dedication Award (a film about a cause aiming towards a brighter and better world)
5. Festival organiser
Portret Films Ltd.
6. Funding
IPFF is а film festival that is funded and financed by Portret Films Ltd. and by submission fees from applicants, as well as by support in the form of public grants.
By submitting an application through the Festhome platform the applicant agrees to all the conditions in this RULES AND TERMS section regarding participation in IPFF.
Film portrait
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
ONE human being is at the center of the film portrait. A film portrait can be documentary, fictional, or radically experimental. About a popular personage (historical figure, athlete, artist...), or about the person you meet at the park every day.
Film self-portrait
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
A portrait of the ‘me, myself and I’. A film self-portrait. About the world of personal achievements, failures, fears, manias, adventures.
Collective portrait
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
A portrait of a group of people. The heart of the films in this category is the collective. This is a film about a society, a band, a community, a nation.
Alternative portrait
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
A non-human portrait. Of a stray dog or of a pet. Of every living being whose language people have difficulty understanding. An alternative portrait can also be that of inanimate objects that cinema breathes life into. The plant in the corner. The umbrella on the hanger. Or it can even be the portrait of an abstract idea or a philosophical puzzle.
Portrait in motion (screendance/dance film)
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
A portrait in a specific form - that of the intersection of cinema and dance, the exciting art and practice known as screendance. The portrait is obligatory but undefined. It can be of a person, of the self, of a collective or an alternative portrait. The condition here is that the means of expression within the work is through the symbiosis of dance and film, or screendance.
Portrait in a magic lantern (animated film)
Short Films 30'<
Fee-8%
PRO 23%
Early12$11.04$
9.24$
15 Aug 24
Standard16$14.72$
12.32$
15 Nov 24
Late20$18.4$
15.4$
15 Jan 25
Get an Annual Pass and get the maximum discount on festival and submission fees
Submissions deadline
15 Jan 25
Save up
4.6$
Submit
A portrait belonging to the art of animation, where creative thought transforms into the movement of lines, shapes and colours, springing deep from the director's imagination. Here too, the portrait can be of a person, of the self, of a collective or of anything that is part of IPFF’s alternative portrait category (check Alternative portrait).
Festhome holds accountable fees festivals by holding the payment of the fees of most newer festivals until they have viewed the submissions, held their festivals and other methods.
-8%
Festhome holds accountable fees festivals by holding the payment of the fees of most newer festivals until they have viewed the submissions, held their festivals and other methods. 