One Short for a Nation ()

Festival start: 23 March 2026      Festival end: 23 March 2026

ONE SHORT - ONE COUNTRY

The ONE SHORT FOR A NATION Film Festival Berlin is an annual short film festival held in our legendary venue "Lichtblick Kino", a traditional, independant cinema in the heart of Berlin.

Every year we want to give ambitious, international filmmakers the possibility to showcase their work in an artistic, atmospheric surrounding. Whether it is a fictional short film, an animation, a documentary or an experimental film, we treasure all shorts, that are made with great passion.

On Tuesday the 23rd of March 2026 we will present our audience in Berlin selected narrative short films and short documentaries from all over the world.

After the screening there will be a Q&A with the filmmakers of the selected films from our "Berlin Shorts" section.

Our submission opens on the 26th of April. Official Deadline for submissions is the 3rd of March 2026, our extended an final deadline is on the 17th of March.

CATEGORIES:

International Short Films:

Filmmakers from all over the world can submit their films in this category. Films must be under a duration time of 17 minutes. There are no limits in terms of Genre.

Berlin Shorts:

German or international Filmmakers that live in Berlin can submit their films (any genre) in this category. We prefer submissions of filmmakers, that attend the festival and be up for a short Q&A after your film.

Eastern View:

This section focuses on shorts from the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

All films must be submitted with (burned-in) English subtitles (if in a different language than English).

Short films must not exceed 17 minutes.

Filmmakers are responsible for sorting out the copyright on their own materials.

By submitting to us, you give us consent and the right to screen your film in front of a live audience, and, under special circumstances, online screening.

We may promote clips from your film on social media, based on the press kits you provide us with.

We retain the right to change the date and venue of the festival under special circumstances. All filmmakers will be informed about any changes through email and our online platforms.

We place no restrictions on your work in terms of premiere status or whether your work has been made
available online.

We do not accept partial screeners, trailers, or screener links that require access other than password-protected links.

Any technical issues with the submitted films are 100% the responsibility of the filmmakers. If, at the time of judging, your video file doesn’t work or doesn’t have English subtitles (if in a language other than English), it will be automatically rejected, without a refund. Please contact the festival team ASAP if there are any issues with the submission process, and a solution will be found.

We cannot provide refunds.

By submitting to us, you agree to our terms and conditions and to receiving marketing newsletters and discounts about film festivals in the form of emails.

We will never sell your information to third parties.

We reserve the right to update our terms and conditions.

If you plan to attend the festival, unfortunately we cannot host you or pay for your traveling costs.

For each film that has been selected for our Berlin Shorts section, one free seat will be reserved.

Please let us know immediately if you plan to attend after you have been selected.