OVERVIEW:

Avalonia Festival of Short Films etc. is an international competition with a variety of genres for every filmmaker. We are an IMDB Qualified Short Film Festival.

Our genres have three "run time" divisions for Shorts (21 minutes & under), "180" (3 minutes & under), and 1-minute movies. The shorter your film and the earlier you enter, the lower your entry fee! You may enter your project into more than one category and you may enter as many projects as you wish (each project must be entered separately, of course!)

HONOR. CELEBRATE. PROMOTE. This is the mantra of Avalonia Festival, a film festival you can trust! Modest entry fees and a website that HONORS, CELEBRATES, and PROMOTES you and your work as a filmmaker, photographer, and actor!

Avalonia Festival 9 Live Event

We return to Atlantic Theaters aka Beaches Vineyard on 751 Atlantic Blvd, Atlantic Beach, FL, United States, 32233. Date: Saturday, November 2, 2024, 1 pm – 5 pm.

A free Live Event for filmmakers, their friends & families, and film lovers about a ten-minute walk to Atlantic Beach.
"Informal Avalonia After-Party" at Cantina Louie next door!

See the Award Winners of Avalonia Festival 8 and Live Event photos & clips here:
https://avaloniafestival.com/8-2/
Our Live Event was Saturday, November 2, 2023, 1 pm – 5 pm at Atlantic Theaters with the "Informal Avalonia After-Party at Cantina Louie.

RECENT HISTORY:

On November 5, 2022, we returned to Jacksonville's LionShare CoWork Auditorium for our Avalonia Festival VII Live Event. You can see the Award Winners here and photos and videos from the event here:
https://avaloniafestival.com/vii/

On November 6, 2021, LionShare CoWork Auditorium hosted Avalonia Festival VI. You can see photos and videos from the event here:
https://avaloniafestival.com/vi/

Photos & videos from Avalonia Festival V in Ormond Beach, Florida on November 7, 2020 are here:
https://avaloniafestival.com/film-fest-v/

For Avalonia Festival V, we were very pleased to go "on with the show" and have a safe and fun Live Event despite the worldwide circumstances that caused many events to be canceled worldwide!

MISSION:

We aim to help our Award Winners add resume-building Award credentials that are shared and celebrated through our website, social media outlets, and our annual Live Events. For those with projects accepted, we encourage you to share the word that you are part of the Avalonia Festival community.

We believe in Avalonia.

We believe in Excellence in Artistry.

We believe in YOU; the Independent Filmmaker and Artist.

AVALONIA FESTIVAL ORIGINS AND LEGACY:

Go to the home page on our website (hyperlinked on the left side-bar) or copy and paste the below URLs to experience Avalonia Festival I, II, III, IV & V to see how we HONOR, CELEBRATE & PROMOTE our Winning Avalonia Filmmakers Etc (and how we've since added separate festivals for Theater and Photography!)

Avalonia Festival IV, December 8, 2019, from All Beaches Experimental Theatre in Neptune Beach, Florida, USA
https://avaloniafestival.com/avalonia-festival-iv/

Avalonia Festival III, December 7, 2018, from Courthouse Center for the Arts in West Kingston, Rhode Island, USA (near the University of Rhode Island)
https://avaloniafestival.com/avalonia-festival-iii/

Avalonia Festival II April 20, 2018 from Rhodywood Studios, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
https://avaloniafestival.com/avalonia-festival-ii/

**We had two Avalonia Festivals in 2018 before landing on our annual format.

Avalonia Festival (our first event) December 7, 2017, from Rhodywood Studios, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
https://avaloniafestival.com/avalonia-festival/

Our Circle of Champions (a collection of graphics from some of our Award Winners)
https://avaloniafestival.com/avalonia-festival/avalonia-awards/

Our new "APC" - Avalonia Photography Competition
https://avaloniafestival.com/afp/

FURTHER INFO:

HONOR. CELEBRATE. PROMOTE. This is the mantra of Avalonia Festival, a film festival you can trust! Low entry fees and a website that actually HONORS, CELEBRATES, and PROMOTES you and your work as a filmmaker, photographer, and Actor!

Our web pages aim to promote our festival's winners! We know that most filmmakers cannot travel to make all the festivals they are accepted into; so we make our jam-packed website an INTERACTIVE experience for the filmmaker and their fans! When every Avalonia Filmmaker sends their fans to our website, they expose EVERY OTHER WINNING FILMMAKER to new film fans and connections! Compare our website to any other festival and see that we earn your entry fees!

Many films (or their teasers or stills) are right on our website!

Our concentration is on short films 21 minutes and under!

Films 3 minutes or 1 minute or less in duration get additional savings on entry fees!

Some categories like our Podcast and Web-Series have longer run time cut-offs.

In addition to many traditional and unique genres to enter your film in; including Drama, Comedy, Doc, and Animation.

With respect to our geographical history, we offer the following four categories: Florida Drama, Florida Comedy, New England Drama, and New England Comedy.

When deemed appropriate, Special Recognition Awards to entering artists have been given out, such as our Avalonia Christiana Carteaux Bannister Award for Civil Service in the Arts.

Recently, we added the Pandemic, Holiday, Family/Children, and Environmental Documentary categories.

This year, we have added PROOF OF CONCEPT, ACTION/ADVENTURE, TRUE CRIME, and DANCE & MOVEMENT categories.

Here is our New AVALONIA FESTIVAL YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvEFyzJ49jdBBrKiV4Ogq1A

Here's a local news video report on Avalonia Festival IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP2BTeJqHmI

Here is an interview about Avalonia Festival, conducted shortly before Avalonia Festival II :
https://festivalreviews.org/2018/03/03/interview-with-festival-director-mike-messier-avalonia-film-festival/

How we got our name AVALONIA:

Avalonia Festival is named in honor of a continent lost is the mists of time, as if dissipated by magic; thus we are here to celebrate the unique Art of our own world of creation, led by our host Jean La Croix Distance. More from Jean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oesMX5QrEJ4&t=11s

How did our Festival Creator come to the point in life where Avalonia was so important? Discover by watching the informative and fun video "Disregard the Vampire - A Mike Messier Documentary" about indie filmmaking here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8jsxKoQwTQ&t=1541s

Only FILMS that actually win an Award are put on our website and promoted! We've had many great films submitted that have NOT won an accolade, because, quite simply there are MANY awesome filmmakers and artists who have entered our festival. We appreciate all our entering filmmakers and your support keeps us going strong!

If your film is accepted into Avalonia Festival that means you are an OFFICIAL AVALONIA FESTIVAL WINNING FILMMAKER and/or PHOTOGRAPHER/ ARTIST or ACTOR!

At times, special recognition Awards are created for Avalonia Filmmakers whose works may prove to be excellent yet fall outside our genres. Film is a subjective and always-changing medium and our festival Awards aim to represent both tradition AND progress.

Twice, at Avalonia Festival I and Avalonia Festival V, we have recognized a recipient of our Avalonia Christiana Carteaux Bannister Award for Civil Service in the Arts.

Check out our web pages and see that Avalonia Festival is a festival FOR filmmakers BY filmmakers; we are looking to support your work and GROW your audience.

Meet our Judge Kazuya Ashizawa, who went from being an Avalonia Award-Winning filmmaker to a respected member of our team and judging committee: https://avaloniafestival.com/kazuya/

STUDENTS: Use promo code " AvaloniaStudent " for 20% off your entry fees!
Any Student currently enrolled or recently graduated in high school, college, university, film school, or trade school qualifies as having "student status". Please make a note about your status in your submission cover letter.

Filmmakers retain all rights to their films of course and may have their films removed from our site at any time, either by emailing us or taking down the link yourself.

Films with dialogue spoken in English or subtitled in English are preferred. However, films that are more visually based and do not rely very much on dialogue may be submitted in their native language WITHOUT English subtitles.

Yes, non-English films CAN and DO win Awards in the Avalonia Festival; in fact, our Avalonia Festival V Best One Actress Monologue or Movie came to us in its native language from Spain!

ABOUT OUR "CUSTOM" Entry Question you'll see upon entering:

Our CUSTOM FORM entry question explained: Let us know if you DO or DO NOT want us to share your actual project on our webpage IF you win an Award. We will use a YouTube or Vimeo link that YOU provide! If your answer is "NO", that's OK, we can share a still, teaser, or poster instead!

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Christopher Di Nunzio

    A festival run by great people! Keep up the good work.

    November 2023
  • Lucas Vossoughi

    Clear and fast communication, super nice people and just a great festival. Really proud winning "Best Proof of Concept" here... absolutely recommended!

    November 2023
  • I am very honored to be awarded the Best Performance Actor Award and proud to be a part of this festival. It's an honor to know that this festival is here in Jacksonville, Florida, recognizing all the local filmmakers and actors/actresses. Thank you for what you do, and bringing the film industry to a higher level, with recognizing that North Florida has true filmmakers and talent. Keep up what you are doing!
    Great Festival! All the Best!

    November 2023
  • Russell Emanuel

    Great film festival that treated us well! Thank you so much!

    November 2023
  • steve chappell

    Participating in this festival was a lot of fun, even though I wasn’t able to attend in person. My film ED GEIN RARE RESTORED FOOTAGE FOUND IN 2019 won the award in the BEST TRUE CRIME ONE MINUTE category. I am impressed with the excellent communication. The festival maintained through event. It’s well organized and filmmakers get a lot of great support. I would definitely recommend this festival for other filmmakers out there. 🤘

    November 2023