Founded in 2018, Melbourne Short Film Festival aims to bring independent short films from around the globe to Australia. Supporting independent filmmakers and artists as well as local movie theatres and cultural venues has always been our Festival’s core philosophy.

Loyal to our vision, our film screening programs consist of various film genres, styles, aesthetics and themes. Year by year our Festival expands further attracting more and more cinephiles, industry professionals and filmmakers.

HFP

Melbourne Short Film Festival is organised by HFP, a pioneer organisation that runs Film Festivals and other events showcasing and championing ideas of diversity. Through our global series of film Festivals that spread over 13 countries, we open the path to voices with a compelling story to share. Our main mission is to honour independent cinema and establish a network of artists eager to join forces and spread their work across all nations. HFP runs 25 film Festivals worldwide.

The official selection will be carefully picked by our panel of expert judges, and will consist of the films nominated for an award. The films screened at the event will be selected from the official selection and promoted on our social media platforms and website, and the best ones will receive awards at the film festival in a wide range of categories. Both the nominees and the winners will get our official laurels and will be featured on our Facebook page and website.

✓ All films must be submitted in English or with English subtitles (if in a different language).

✓ All films must have been made in or after 2023.

✓ Short films must not exceed 45 minutes.

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

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

✓ Nominations: These are all the films that have been nominated for an award in a category. Not all nominated films will be screened.

Official Selection: These are all the nominated films selected for screening, which will be notified via email. If you received a Nomination email, but no Official Selection email, it means your film will not be screened, but is still a contender for an award in its category.

Award Winners: Chosen from the Nominations (which includes the Official Selection).

✓ Film Critique: With this service, an experienced film professional will review your project and write a 1 to 2 pages critique (depending on the length of the film) of the submitted film. Both films and screenplays can be submitted into this category. Film critiques are sent to filmmakers within 1 to 3 months after the Film Festival event. This service cannot be combined with discount codes and is offered as an add-on option. In order to combine the Add-on Film Critique with a category, write down the Category of your choice on your Cover Letter or Director's Statement.

✓ 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.

✓ If you have submitted your project in the previous year, please do not resubmit the same project to the current edition.

✓ 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.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Thrilled to be selected to Melbourne with "For the Skeptical" and to have won the BEST MUSIC VIDEO award! This festival has wonderful communication and does an excellent job of updating social platforms and promoting the selected films.

    February 2024
  • Star Bazancir

    Great and rewarding experience, coupled with excellent communication. I regret not being able to attend in person, but I am grateful for the opportunity to showcase my work at such a welcoming event.

    February 2024
  • Gregory Kelly

    A joy to be part of MSFF and win best comedy. Excellent communication, good promo and the online program was well curated. Looking forward to submitting in the future.

    March 2022
  • A lovely experience working with this festival. Couldn't have asked for anything more!

    February 2021
  • Judith and Sarah

    Melbourne Short Film Festival was well organised, friendly and screened at the beautiful Sun Theatre. We flew over for it, from New Zealand to see our our film Walk a Mile have it's Australian Premiere, and we were thrilled to receive the award for The Best Short Film.

    March 2020