Individuals above the age of 18 or legal entities of any nationality may participate in the festival.
The number of short films that each participant can submit to the contest is limited to two (2).
Only short films that meet the following conditions will be considered for the Competitive Section:
Short films that are ‘by’, ‘about’, or ‘for’ the Gulf cultural community.
Short films that do not exceed 20 minutes in length, including credits.
There is no limitation regarding the year of production.
There is no limitation regarding the country of origin.
Short films can have been previously presented at an international section of a festival.
Short films can have been previously shown on the Internet.
Participants must upload a review copy of the short film completing the registration form during the registration period following the technical specifications.
Finalists in any of the Competitive Sections will be contacted by the Festival Committee to upload a high-resolution copy of their film to be considered for one of the awards. The Festival Committee will send all the needed information to successfully submit your short film.
Step 1: All participants must read the above mentioned rules and agree to the legal disclosure
Regulations For Short Film Submissions
Step 2: You can make your submission via FilmFreeway. Click the below link to navigate to the submission page.
The accepted film formats are: .mpg .avi .mov .mp4
The recommended codecs are: H264, ProRes, Mpeg
Resolution: from 720x400 to 1920x1080
Audio format: PCM, MP3, AAC
Submissions cannot exceed 900 MB.
Films in English don’t require to be subtitled. Films in any other language must have English Subtitles.
A Selection Committee convened by the Festival will be in charge of reviewing the short films admitted to the competition to choose the finalists.
The Festival reserves the right not to admit to the competition the pieces that, according to its criteria, do not meet the desired technical, artistic, and/or legal conditions. It also reserves the right to disqualify or exclude works that the organization considers that may hurt sensitivities. The Festival reserves the right to invite producers and directors to submit their work.
The Film Festival will contact the finalists and ask them to submit a high-resolution copy of their short film for screening purposes.
The winners will be announced during the Award’s Ceremony.
AIU Film Festival will be celebrating the best short films in the Gulf region in the following categories:
Watch our AIU Fim Festival Ad
This is an area for an embedded YouTube video. You can change this video anytime using the editing tools.