1. Participation
Any animated short film may be submitted for participation in the competition regardless of the genre, theme or country of origin, provided it was made after 1st January 2025.
The films must not have been previously presented at this competition.
The films must be submitted by the person holding the legitimate rights over them, or somebody who holds due power of representation.
2. Requirements
A digital projection format will be used:
.MOV – Apple ProRes 422 ( HQ )
MPEG-4. H264
Audio AAC
The duration of the films must not exceed 20 minutes, including credits.
It is essential to submit the subtitles of the short film in SRT format. For short films that are not in Spanish, in addition to the subtitles in the original version, it will be mandatory to submit the subtitles in that language.
The person who submits the short film to the contest will be responsible for paying the royalties that arise from showing the films.
3. Online registration
Short films can only be submitted to the contest via the following platform: www.filmfreeway.com
There are no charges for registering films in the festival.
The deadline for submitting films is 1st of April 2026.
The organization will contact all the selected competitors to request the projection file. The final day for sending in the projection files, in compliance with the aforementioned technical specifications, will be 17th May 2026.
4. Screening
Selected films will be shown during the times and at the places defined in the catalogue and on the official website www.animadeba.com
During the festival, the organization reserves the right to screen the selected films in as many public sessions as it deems appropriate. In this regard, the rights holder of the selected films shall grant the organizers the right to publicly screen the films for the entire duration of the festival, without any screening fees.
The University of the Basque Country and the San Telmo Museum, in collaboration with the festival, will offer a free screening of the selected short films at one of their venues during the academic year, in an event named Animadeba Off.
5. Selection Committee and Official Panel of Judges
The selection committee, comprising professionals from the audiovisual arts industry and the organization, will be in charge of selecting the films that will be included in the Official Section of the competition.
The official panel of judges, comprising professionals from the film, culture and communications fields will be in charge of granting prizes, and their decision will be final.
6. Catalogue and Documentation
The documents requested by the festival for the official catalogue, programming guide and website: synopsis, biography and filmography, artistic and technical sheet, photographs of the director and film, trailers and other audiovisual material. All the material must be uploaded to Filmfreeway platform before the 1st of April 2026. If any additional material is required, the festival will request it for delivery before the 17th of May.
7. About copyright
Work containing pre-existing images and/or sound will be accepted.
The organization is not responsible for any original third party rights, which will be the full liability of the participants.
8. Acceptance of the rules
If the contest is not withdrawn before June 1st, the commission will understand that the rules and participation will be accepted and will schedule the short film in the corresponding section. After the 1st of June, the short film cannot be removed from the Animadeba Short Film Festival.
Registering a film for the 19th Deba International Animation Film Festival - Animadeba - entails full acceptance of and compliance with these participation rules.
In the event of any situations arising not considered by these rules, the organizers of the Animadeba Festival will resolve the matter.
