In this edition of our monthly column you will find interesting festival- and funding options with submission deadlines in January. Have a look!

Finding your way

As a filmmaker, two things are very important: making films, obtaining funding and showing the film to the rest of the world! Around the globe there are so many great festivals and events that it is easy to lose track of what is happening. It can be difficult to realistically assess which festival is the right one for your film.

That's why CineSud Magazine started publishing monthly articles with the most interesting and promising international film festivals that you can submit to the following months. Next to that, we give an overview of interesting funding options in the heart of the Netherlands, Belgium as well as Germany.

Film Festivals

Odense International Film Festival

Submission deadline: January 1 (earlybird)
Festival dates: August 29 - September 4

OFF is Denmark's most courageous and most adventurous short film festival. We always offer a varied and experimenting film programme garnered with thought-provoking off-screen experiences, debates, workshops, concerts and much more.

Every year in August, film enthusiasts from all over the world have the opportunity of catching an exceptional selection of Danish and international short films in Odense that would otherwise never reach the big screen.[Read more]

Tribeca Film Festival

Submission deadline: January 5 (Shorts / X Award deadline)
Festival dates: June 8 - June 19

A platform for independent filmmaking, creative expression and immersive entertainment, Tribeca Film Festival supports emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning filmmakers, curates innovative and interactive experiences, and introduces new technology and ideas through panels, premieres, exhibitions, and live performance.[Read more]

Seattle International Film Festival

Submission deadline: January 7 (regular)
Festival dates: April 14 - April 24

In 2022, the Seattle International Film Festival will be a hybrid Festival experience, with Festival films screened at SIFF Theaters and venues throughout the city as well as virtually on the SIFF Channel, making the Festival available to its wide variety of avid film lovers. Running April 14–24, 2022, the Festival will present the best in international and independent films from around the globe.

Historically, the Seattle International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the United States, presenting more than 400 features, documentaries, and short films to an audience of over 138,000 each year. SIFF is consistently ranked as one of the top festivals in North America, and is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films.

[Read more]

New Orleans Film Festival

Submission deadline: January 21 (earlybird)
Festival dates: November 4 - November 20

The Oscar-qualifying New Orleans Film Festival is one of the largest film festivals in the American Southeast, serving audiences numbering upwards of 30,000, hosting as many as 500 filmmakers, and providing cash awards and prizes valued at over $150,000. In 2022, the festival plans to take place in-person across venues in New Orleans + films will be available to stream via a virtual cinema.

We believe in paying artists for their work, and beginning in 2020, all filmmakers in our lineup--shorts and features alike--receive a screening fee. In 2021 screening fees ranged from $100 to $250. We also use the submissions process to make up the large majority of the lineup--90-95% of films in our lineup come directly from submissions through FilmFreeway. [Read more]