FILMAY International Short Film Festival Kumanovo (8)

Festival start: 27 May 2026      Festival end: 28 May 2026

FILMAY 2026 will be the 8th edition of the short film festival held in Kumanovo.

The festival started in 2019, following the idea for inspiring, supporting and enhancing short film production.

It also intends to engage and empower viewing desire and aspirations for enjoyment of short films.

FILMAY awards 5 prizes for competing films:

- `Lazar Gjorgjevikј` award for best direction
- `Radislav Ristevski` award for best photography/cinematography
- `Kozjak` award for best screenplay
- Award for best Macedonian (domestic) film
- 'FILMAY' award for best festival short

Applications for FILMAY 2026 are accepted for following films:

- live action short film (animated and documentary films not accepted)

- duration up to 20 minutes

- made after January 1, 2024

- films should have an opening/closing credits with production information (applications will be accepted for films that are without this
intro/outro info, if the aesthetic and artistic presentation of the film demands exclusion of these elements)

- audio and video quality are prefered to be of high quality satisfactory for screening as cinema projections (applications will be accepted for films that follow the film-makers intent and vision to have a varying and different sound and visual presentation of the film work)

- english captions/subtitle must be included (hard-coded in the video of the film itself, or as a separate subtitle file)

- films that have been previously competing on other festivals can also apply

Films can enter the contest in 2 competition groups.

First is the international competition, where the awards for best direction, best photography/cinematography, best screenplay and best short will be awarded. FILMAY short film festival is looking forward to attract as varied as possible applications from all countries and continents.

Second is the macedonian (domestic) competition, which is intended to engage and inspire production of macedonian short films. Macedonian films can also apply in the international competition, thus entering the contest for the 4 international awards.

A single author can submit up to 2 (two) entries in each of the groups.

The applicant submitting the film gives their permission for projecting the film free of charge (requesting no screening fee) during the main festival evening, if the film is chosen in the festival selection as an awarded or exceptional film by the jury.

IMPORTANT:
All applicants submitting their films to the festival, agree that their films can be shown at FILMAY 2025 without requesting financial payment from the festival organizers.

The applicants should be able to provide certain elements (film poster, photo still, short video, teaser, trailer) for the submitted film, intended for promoting the festival and the film itself.

The applicant should have secured all rights for the submitted film, as well as elements contained within or associated with the film (music, literary work, intelectual property and similar).

The applicant will have to send a digital copy to the festival organizer, in case the film is awarded or officially selected for the festival.

The digital copy is necessary for on-time preparations for the festival projections.

The awarded and selected films will be projected at least once during the festival event. Possible additional (repeated) projections will be additionally discussed for mutual agreement between the applicants and the festival organizer.

All the awarded and selected films will include macedonian subtitles (besides the english ones) in the projections. The macedonian subtitles will be ensured by the organizer of the festival. These subtitles will be created on basis of english subtitles previously provided by the applicant.

The festival organizer keeps the right to include additional films in the festival selection programme, besides the films submitted via Festhome.

The festival may decide not to give a certain award if submitted films do not fulfill certain quality and storytelling criteria. This will be decided among the jury members in coordination with the organiser.