Rome Prisma Film Awards (7)

Festival start: 01 January 2025      Festival end: 31 December 2025

Rome Prisma Film Awards was founded in 2018 by Stefano Perletta and the production company Il Varco. Hosted by Cinema Azzurro Scipioni, in its first year it saw Silvano Agosti as the president of the jury, a legendary Italian director that has worked alongside the greatest Italian professionals like Ennio Morricone, Vittorio Storaro, Nicola Piovani and many others. Over the course of its second year it moved to Cinema dei Piccoli, one of the oldest movie theaters of Rome, in the heart of Villa Borghese park since 1934.



In September 2020 we embarked on a new path under the curatorship of a new artistic director, Marcello Di Trocchio. During the Covid-19 pandemic that shut down festivals all over the world, we created a monthly streaming on Twitch with a teeming community following us from every corner of the Earth. In July 2021, after the re-opening of cinemas in Italy, we moved to one of the city’s most prestigious and characteristic movie theaters, located in the historic Campo de’ Fiori square: Cinema Farnese, where we started having screenings every two months.



From January 2022 we started a little big revolution: we opened the invitation to the events not only to the Rome-based film audience, but also to all filmmakers who had submitted their own project to our festival in the months preceding the event. In this way, one edition after the other, we contributed to making the Prisma events not only film evenings different from the others, but also a real opportunity to come together for hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world, who all too often feel lost in front of the endless quantity of audiovisual products that every day, at an unstoppable speed, are made, shared and forgotten – and who also feel equally lost in front of the thousands of film festivals that all too often, rather than opportunities to meet, seem to offer laurels to be exhibited on movie posters and social media.



That’s how the Prisma Awards have organically grown into one of the most community driven festivals, gathering over the last three years alone more than 300 artists between directors, producers, actors and movie professionals, coming from all parts of Italy, Europe and the world.



From September 2022, in order to raise the quality of the events, we have started reducing their number: from six a year to three, one every four months, always at Cinema Farnese – each time showcasing short films capable of making the audience laugh, cry, in any case be moved, together in the embracing darkness of the movie hall.



During the course of six years we have received more than 17.000 film projects from 150+ countries and we’ve been reviewed more than 900 times, thus becoming the #1 most reviewed film festival in Europe and one of the best reviewed in general.



Many of the films we’ve screened have passed through first-class festivals, like the short films August Sky by Jasmin Tenucci or Fár by Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter, both winners of the Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival (2021 and 2023 editions), or Censor of Dreams by Leo Berne and Raphaël Rodriguez and Ice Merchants by João Gonzalez, both shortlisted in the Academy Awards (2022 and 2023 editions), or Nate Milton’s Eli from the official selection of Sundance Film Festival. At the same time, we are always proud to bring to the big screen also unpublished gems that we fortunately intercept and that almost nobody else shows.



We never stop collecting the best of emerging cinema, from all kinds of budgets, genres and cultural origins, and we can’t wait to see, day after day, year after year, more stimulating authors and more interested viewers to join us in this beautiful, challenging, creative journey.



These are the Rome Prisma Film Awards. We unite people, through films, in the very heart of Rome.

Cash Prizes: 500€

OFFICIAL SELECTION AND FINALISTS

᛫ All selected films get the Official Selection laurel.

᛫ All selected films are also sent to partner festivals for evaluation and receive $40 worth of discount codes.

᛫ Finalists and Nominees get a special laurel.

᛫ All the Nominees for each category that don't get to the victory get a 3-month submission account with iPitch.tv for a value of $117.

WINNERS

We believe that a single submission fee is enough. By submitting in any category you are eligible for all the 24 monthly awards and every month we give away $9056 in services from our partners.

᛫ - Best of Fest (Certificate + 12 month coupon for iPitch.tv worth $189.00 + ???? months free Studiobinder software worth $297.00)

᛫ - Best Original Score (Certificate + 12 month iPitch.tv worth $189.00 + Filmstro Pro account worth $299)

᛫ - All Other Categories Winners (Certificate + 12 month iPitch.tv worth $189.00)

ANNUAL CASH PRIZE FOR FILM OF THE YEAR
Every month we give away $9056 in services from our partners. That’s more than $105.000 in value every year. Winner of the year also wins a cash prize of $500,00$


WIN THE BEST PRODUCTION SOFTWARE IN THE WORLD
The "Best of Fest" winners win a coupon code for a free download of StudioBinder for three months, the leading software in the world for film and video production.

NOMINATED FILMS AND WINNERS GET A CHANCE TO PITCH TO BIG PRODUCERS
All the nominated films (3 per category) win a 3 months coupon with iPitch.tv, a platform where you can submit your ideas all around the world to the best producers. If you manage to win a category award, you will win a 12 months coupon.

THE BEST SOUNDTRACK FOR YOUR NEXT FILM
Thanks to our partnership with Filmstro, the winner of best original score gets a Pro Account to gain access to thousands of music pieces for his next project.

This is a green festival: only online submissions through Festhome are accepted. There are some easy, simple rules.

RULES

᛫ There are no restrictions on theme, genre or techniques.
᛫ Films must have been produced after 1/1/2020.
᛫ Submissions in languages other than English must be subtitled in English.
᛫ Submitters must own the rights of the submitted projects.
᛫ The festival has the rights to utilize excerpts of it (trailer/teaser/poster/stills) for promotional purposes only. We will not in any circumstances make your movie available online.
᛫ Distributor may ask for special discounts.

PARTNER FESTIVALS


This film festival is partnered with:

᛫ Il Varco International Short Film Festival
᛫ Castrovillari Film Fest
᛫ Short Days
᛫ Desenzano Film Fest
᛫ Mondi Lontani FIlm Fest
᛫ Pollino Film Fest

By submitting you agree to share your submission information with partnerfestivals for promotional purposes.