DIGITAL FILM FESTIVAL ISTANBUL ()

Festival start: 15 February 2023      Festival end: 28 February 2023

Digital Film Festival Istanbul (DFFI) is an international short film festival powered by the Digital Film Academy Istanbul.
DFFI aims to honor and make visible the work of creative and talented independent filmmakers with an entrepreneurial spirit. The focus of the festival is digitally shot films with a strong story. DFII supports digital film production and viewing forms in the digitalizing cinema sector with an innovative perspective, and supports and encourages all short filmmakers who have succeeded in creating strong stories and original works shot with any equipment having a digital camera.

DFFI accepts short films of all kinds, whether small or large-scale productions, independent short films, made by students, professionals, individuals, collectives or institutions from all over the world, and is proud to celebrate the sustainability and authenticity of cinema.

The submissons will be evaluated on monthly basis and the monthly selections will be screened physically in Istanbul.
All monthly winners will automatically enter the annual contest and honored with a annual ceremony in Istanbul.

MAIN AWARDS
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Fiction
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Documentary
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Experimental
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Video Art
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Animation
Category Winner of the Month: The Best Fashion Film

SUB AWARDS
The Best Director of the Month
The Best Screenplay of the Month
The Best Cinematography of the Month
The Best Editing of the Month
The Best Actor of the Month
The Best Costume/Art Direction of the Month
The Best Music Soundtrack of the Month

SPECIAL PRIZES
The UN Goals Award of the Month
Istanbul Theme Award of the Month
DFA Award of the Month
Social Responsibility Award of the Month

ANNUAL AWARDS
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Fiction
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Documentary
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Experimental
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Video Art
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Animation
Category Winner of the Year: The Best Fashion Film
The Best Director of the Year
The Best Screenplay of the Year
The Best Cinematography of the Year
The Best Editing of the Year
The Best Actor of the Year
The Best Costume/Art Direction of the Year
The Best Music Soundtrack of the Year

SUBMISSION:
* DFFI accepts submissions on monthly basis.
* The submitted films automatically joins to the following month's contest.
* Submissions should be done via FilmFreeWay.
* You must own or have all the rights to the submitted film.
* Maximum length allowed is 15 minutes including credits.
* The Festival accepts films completed after the 1st of January of previous year. Please note, the films produced before this date will be automatically disqualified.
* We accept all short films shot with any equipment/device having a digital camera including mobile phones or tablets.
* We do not require premiere status.
* Entry fees are non-refundable.

COPYRIGHTS
* It is the sole responsibility of the Applicant to secure authorization and permission from copyright owner(s) of any and all copyrighted content or materials included within the submitted Project. The Company and Festival expressly disavows any responsibility for, and will not be held responsible for, any unauthorized inclusion of any copyrighted content or materials within or relating to submitted Project, including any content materials that are or may become the basis for any third party claims for copyright infringement. The Company reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees previously collected from the Applicant, any Project with any unauthorized inclusion of copyrighted content or materials. In the event that any claim, dispute, action or proceeding shall be brought or asserted by any person or entity that alleges the Project makes unauthorized or unlawful use of any copyrighted content or material, Applicant shall fully indemnify and hold harmless the Company, the Festival, and each of their representatives and affiliates from any liability in connection therewith and from any fees and expenses, including but not limited to attorneys’ fees, that any of them may incur in connection therewith.
* By submitting, the filmmaker allows the DFFI to use, distribute and share the film poster, trailer, synopsis and movie stills in our social media accounts and to create a web page for their film without infringing copyright of any kind of form.

SELECTION CRITERIA & WINNERS
* The DFFI seeks creativity and innovation in cinematic language.
* The preliminary jury evaluates all the films in terms of the festival rules and determines the festival selection for the contest and the screenings
* Not all the submissions are selected for the official competition.
* The main jury votes on all the selected films using the multiple scoring method.
* The winners of the previous month is announced until 20th day of the current month publicly on all social media accounts of the festival.
* The DFFI also informs the winning applicants individually by email.
* All Monthly winners automatically enter into the annual contest in their respective categories.
* All winners (monthly or annually) will receive the DFFI certificate (digital file ready to print) in their emails.
* All winners will be eligible to use the DFFI Laurel on their promotional materials.

RESTRICTIONS
* The DFFI can consider any film to be disqualified if the festival considers the content inappropriate. If you have any question regarding this decision you might contact us at our email address info@digitalfilmfestival.org
* Not acceptable: Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organisations.
* Not acceptable: Pornography of any kind.
* Not acceptable: Torture/Snuff/Mutilation material
* Not acceptable: Films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/captions for non-English films, video resolution less than 720p HD).
* Not acceptable: Any films submitted before.