Cardiff Independent Film Festival (0)

Festival start: 05 May 2017      Festival end: 07 May 2017

The Cardiff Independent Film Festival will be held over the 5th to 7th May 2017 in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. This will be our third festival, following highly successful events beginning in 2014. We're a fun, friendly and open festival run by film-lovers that celebrates the best in independent cinema and adheres to the highest ethical standards.

We're non-profit, which means ALL of the submission fees go into the running of the festival. And we are truly independent - we don't take public or corporate money so the films we pick are our favourites.

We also attract big-name guests: CIFF2015 saw talks by Stephen Frears and Paul Andrew Williams and the great John Boorman present the Welsh premiere of his final feature Queen and Country. We may be small but we punch above our weight.

We will be screening five feature films, ten short films and five short animations in competition and there will be out-of-competition screenings for other films of significant merit.

Prizes will be awarded for Best Feature, Best Short, Best Student Short Best Animation, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress and the Brian Hibbard Prize for Best Welsh Short.

The judging panel is entirely separate from the festival committee and will consist of a panel of industry professionals to be announced soon.

1. Films are submitted in three categories only – Shorts, Animations and Features.


2. Minimum running length (including credits) for features is 60 minutes, maximum running length for animations and shorts is 20 minutes.


3. Films must have been completed no earlier than 2015.


4. We cannot accept films made by anyone connected with the festival committee.


5. Films must not have had a cinema or home DVD release in the UK. We accept films that have been shown at other festivals.


6. Films must be in English, or have English subtitles.


7. The decision of the selection panel shall be final. We cannot enter into correspondence about the selection. The selection panel is on our website.


8. The judging panel for awards is entirely independent of the festival committee and their decision is final. The judging panel can be found on our website.


9. We cannot provide fee waivers for competition entries.


10. Filmmakers may submit more than one film, but must fill out a separate submission form and pay each fee separately.


11. Filmmakers whose film has been selected will be contacted no later than the end of January 2017.


12. Our required screening format is DCP. Features must provide this, we will provide this service for shorts who require it.


13. Successful entrants will receive two free tickets to attend the screening of their film.


14. The final selection shall comprise five features, ten shorts and five animations. These are the films eligible for awards and passed to the judging panel.


15. The festival reserves the right to use brief clips from all selected films to promote the festival in perpetuity.


16. Entrants shall inform the festival of any change to contact details. Failure to respond to acceptance emails in reasonable time will result in the film being withdrawn.