Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) will be held from 15 – 26 October 2025 and is now calling for entries in feature films, feature documentary, series (single or multiple episodes), and short films made in Australia and internationally. These can be any genre or length, films under 40 minutes are considered short films.
SUBMISSION DATES
Submissions Open: Monday 16 December 2024
Early Bird Deadline: Monday 21 April 2025
Submissions Close: Monday 19 May 2025
Last Chance Deadline: Monday 26 May 2025
All submissions must be in by Monday 26 May
Notification date: Tuesday 9 September 2025
FEES
Entry fees (excluding FilmFreeway fees):
Early bird (deadline 21 April 2025)
Final deadline - General (deadline 19 May 2025)
Last chance deadline 26 May 2025
Features: $80 (early) $110 (general) $130 (last chance)
Shorts: $40 (early) $65 (general) $75 (last chance)
Series: $40 (early) $65 (general) $75 (last chance)
All entries must be submitted via FilmFreeway.
Fees are not refunded if the film is not selected or is ineligible to screen at the festival.
ABOUT AFF
Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) is South Australia’s premier screen event and one of Australia’s leading film festivals. It’s a celebration of courageous cinema where filmmakers and audiences come together for two weeks of local and international film premieres, art, talks and parties in October and November.
AFF is renowned for its warmth and inclusivity, welcoming new audience members and industry guests alike to South Australia and its eclectic cinema theatres. The festival allows all of us to surrender to the screen and be swallowed up by the story.
AFF was the first Australian film festival to establish an Investment Fund, which has seeded and premiered over 150 projects, including some of the most significant Australian films of the last two decades. You can see the full slate of Investment Fund films here: https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/investment-fund
Alongside the spring festival period, AFF hosts a film club, an educational AFF Youth program, Expand Lab, (a filmmaker and artist development lab), and other experiences that help people see the world in a totally new light.
You can read more about the film festival at: https://www.adelaidefilmfestival.org/about
Adelaide Film Festival is proud to recognise excellence in screen storytelling with a host of juried awards and $30k in cash prizes. In previous years these awards have included International Feature Fiction, International Feature Documentary, and The Change Award for a feature, as well as audience awards. AFF is proud that films submitted to the festival have gone onto be competition winners.
In addition, AFF presents Australian only awards for distinguished contributions by practitioners and thinkers, most notably the Don Dunstan Award and the Bettison and James Award.
In 2025 AFF has will have the following awards:
-Best Fiction Feature – for films with idiosyncratic voices, bold storytelling and creative risk taking
-Best Documentary Feature – for distinctive factual storytelling
-The Change Award for Feature Films – for films encouraging positive social and environmental impact and expressing new directions for humanity.
-Short Film Award – for outstanding shorts in any genre
-Feature Fiction Audience Award
-Feature Documentary Audience Award
-Short Film Audience Award
*While AFF was one of the first festivals in the world to award VR work, from 2024 we are no longer accepting VR entries.
To find out more about awards and past winners visit: adelaidefilmfestival.org/awards