TEHRAN International Short Film Festival (41)

Festival start: 19 October 2024      Festival end: 24 October 2024

In the name of the most supreme artist, the loving God.

TISFF, known as one of the world's most significant, renowned, and prestigious short film events and also an OSCARS® Qualifying short film festival, has been held for 40 consecutive years by IYCS.

IYCS is probably the world’s biggest and most comprehensive center for short film production and filmmaking training, with over 80 branches and a family of 250 thousand filmmakers and film graduates! Many of its graduates, rank among the top celebrated filmmakers in the world.

IYCS supports the production of more than 1,000 short films annually and trains more than 7,000 young filmmakers annually.

It has been winning numerous awards at prestigious international film festivals over the past four decades.

After holding and celebrating 40 glorious years, TISFF is introducing two new categories to the previous categories of Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental for its 41st edition.
With the rise of cutting-edge and emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR/ XR/ MR/ AR), we are witnessing fundamental, profound, and significant changes in the creative production process and the presentation of visual and audio works. These advancements are shaping a future where short film production and distribution will evolve rapidly and precisely.

To understand, recognize, utilize, reflect, advance, and enhance these technological transformations and advancements in service of the art and industry of short films, the festival introduces two new categories in its international competition sections to accept, judges and screens creatively produced short films made using these technologies:

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality).

The festival also introduces these two categories to fulfill and advance its global mission of fostering, encouraging, enhancing, and promoting excellence in short filmmaking, inviting up-and-coming talents and emerging filmmakers to delve into the realms of emerging, creativity, immersion, and low-budget production, as well as acknowledging and supporting those who excel in this innovative landscape.


New categories added to the 41st TISFF:
XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality) ($500 Cash Prize)
AI (Artificial Intelligence) ($500 Cash Prize)


Additionally, In the upcoming 41st TISFF, like the previous period, two awards will be given based on themes and topics:

1. The Truth-seekers Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
This thematic award honors:
• Spreading hope and promoting peace and reconciliation instead of war and violence.
• Reviving the ideals of fraternity, justice, and fairness among nations.
• Elevating the status of women and the family.

2. The Silk Road Award ($1,000 Cash Prize)
The Silk Road has long been a major platform for promoting cultural and human interactions that have manifested into a sort of common heritage among the residents of 300 cities and 73 countries. In consideration of its illustrious historical role of establishing rich and stable connections, be it cultural, political, economic, or religious, among the many civilizations, nations, and governments that have come and gone throughout the region over time, as well as recent considerations for the revival of this road, it is quite evident that the Silk Road is strategically imperative for the success of international cooperation in various areas of activity. Accordingly, the Tehran International Short Film Festival, on the brink of its 41st anniversary and with new courses of action undertaken, has put on its agenda a new outlook on the cultural and economic opportunities of this facilitative road, as a sign of a long-enduring relationship between the two civilizations of the east and the west.

The Silk Road Award honors outstanding merits in the film industry that seek to represent the evident and hidden capacities and heritage of the Silk Road as a prosperous motif of:

Sustainable and comprehensive development, peaceful coexistence, ethnical cohesion, consolidation of civilian relations, national integrity, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, promulgator of peace and fraternity among individuals, ethnicities, and nations, retainer of individual and group rights and properties, compliance with neighborly rights, fair trade, generative economy and collective production of wealth, cultural diplomacy, and mutual respect for other cultures and native or national values.

Cash Prizes: 9,000€

The Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) is a festival approved by the Academy Awards® and the winner of the Grand Prize becomes eligible for the OSCARS®.

Grand Prize: Trophy + Diploma + $2000

Best Fiction: Trophy + Diploma + $1000

Best Documentary: Trophy + Diploma + $1000

Best Animation: Trophy + Diploma + $1000

Best Experimental: Trophy + Diploma $1000

XR (Extended Reality) (VR: Virtual Reality, MR: Mixed Reality, AR: Augmented Reality) ($500 Cash Prize)

AI (Artificial Intelligence) ($500 Cash Prize)

The Truth-seekers Award: Trophy + Diploma + $1000

The Silk Road Award: Trophy + Diploma + $1000

- To qualify for the competition, films must be completed after January 1st, 2023.

- Films completed prior to this date risk disqualification.

-Films containing nudity or violence are inadmissible.

- Despite no limitations on the subject and categories, due to the approach of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society in supporting innovation and diversity in cinema, short films that use a genre in an innovative way would have a higher priority.

- Films must not exceed 40 min running time.

- Selected participants will be formally listed by September 25th, and notified via email.

- Films should not have been screened in the previous editions of the TISFF.

- A pre-selection committee, appointed by the festival for each category, will watch all submissions and make the final selection.

- In case your work is accepted for display in the festival, the original video (un-subtitled) is required along with subtitles and transcripts in both the original language as well as in English.

- Once the film has been selected and confirmed, the film cannot be withdrawn from the festival program.

- Films that have already been publicly broadcast or distributed in any form or screened in Iran are not accepted.

-Iranian short films should be submitted in the national section, and they must use the following platform:
(https://festival.iycs.ir/fa/)

- Iranian short films for the international section will be selected through interaction between the National and International Selection teams.
NOTE: The criteria for Iranian entries are that the film's main producer is an Iranian citizen or permanent resident. If in doubt, please contact us through: tehranfilmfest@gmail.com

- Submitting a film to the Tehran International Short Film Festival is equivalent to accepting the provisions of all the mentioned Rules and Regulations.