Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival

“Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival” is an annual thematic Film Festival that takes place in a different Balkan city each year. It celebrates Balkan diversity and engages audience and creators to reflect on pressing contemporary issues through the medium of short film. The festival is framed by other cultural events like photo exhibitions, visual art events, master classes, live bands, networking events.

The 11th edition of Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival gets and gives inspiration from the topic: contrUst: It is U who makes the difference. BBB urges young directors to dig deep in social, economic, religious, environmental and everyday contrasts in order to surpass the troubling surface and find trust: trust to make the difference!

We invite young filmmakers to get inspired by this year’s topic and send their film until the 1st of June. We accept all film genres (fiction, animation, experimental and documentary shorts, as well as digital arts) with duration up to 30 minutes. Eligible submissions are a) those from filmmakers up to 35 years old or older than 35 under the condition that their submitted film is their debut b) with their origin from a Balkan country or/and their film to be a Balkan production and c) connected to the festival’s topic. All submissions will go through our Preselection Committee which consists of young professionals from the film industry ensuring that finalists meet all eligibility criteria. The final Jury Team consisted of well known professionals from the film industry in the Balkans will select the BBB BEST FILM which will get the first prize and 1000 euros. The other Prizes are BBB FIRST ENTRY, Special Mentions and the BBB AUDIENCE AWARD.

BBB gives the opportunity to the next generation of film makers to create, share and present their films, meet and collaborate. The main objective of BBB is to motivate young people to make use of their creativity in order to reflect on issues of concern in their region.

2020 Destination
Since 2010 the Festival has taken place in 10 cities (Belgrade, Tirana, Athens, Bucharest, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Brussels, Novi Sad and again Athens), featuring over 380 Balkan and over 200 non-Balkan short films. In every Festival we invite participating directors, guest speakers, BBB Ambassadors and local partners in order to create a hub for productive networking and cooperation among the region’s stakeholders. It is all about a growing community of artists, researchers, journalists, and partners. Next Festival destination is Izmir, Turkey, hosting a great history and culture, a vibrant sea-front city that became the center of dynamic life, free thought, and art.

Best Film Prize
Audience Prize
New Entry Prize

Participation Terms
1. Period for admission of films: 20th of March until 1st of June 2020
2. The theme: contrUst: It is U who makes the difference (Check our website for more
information about the theme. It is very broad and we are very open)
3. Age: Eligible to participate with their film are filmmakers under 35 years old or older than 35
under the condition that their submitted film is their debut
4. Origin: The origin of the filmmakers should be from a Balkan country or/and their
film should be a Balkan production or co-production.
5. Films’ duration: Maximum 30’ minutes
6. Film categories: fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, video art
7. Film makers should apply through FilmFreeway platform
8. The files of the films should be in one of this format: AVI, MP4 or MOV and high
quality (frame size 1080*1920)
9. The film should be uploaded in its original format with English subtitles and srt file
10. The online application in our website should be filled when sending the film to the
festival.
11. Each participant has the right to participate with one film only
12. Optional: Participants can send all relevant information about the film as well as
photos of their film for promotional reasons for the festival.

Film Festival Terms
1. Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) is a non-profit organization based in Athens with
purpose to promote intercultural dialogue and an innovative way of learning through
the Art of Film- making and Image. For this reason, it organizes a film festival that every year has
a different theme and travels to a different Balkan city.
2. Film Festival will take place in Izmir, Turkey in October 2020. The exact date will be
arranged by the organizers of the festival
3. The main title of the festival is: Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival
4. The number of the films that will be projected during the festival in Izmir depends on the number of participants and the final decision of the organizing team
5. The final films will be selected by the Preselection Committee of the Film Festival until the end of August 2020.
5.The jury consists of 3 well known film experts from three Balkan countries.
6. The selection of the projected films, the order of projection and the programme are
decided by the organisers, based on the technical specifications, the duration and the
grouping of the films.
7. The finalists will be informed in August-September about the progress of their film in
the contest
8. BBB Film Festival organizing team reserves the right to project part of the final films
whenever it is needed for reasons of promotion of the Festival and under no
circumstances for commercial causes.
9. The finalists must inform the organizers whether they are going to attend the
festival in Izmir so that the organizing team to organize their trip and staying in Brussels.
10. There will be a prize from the Jury and a prize from the audience that will attend the
Festival. The organizers will decide about the possibility of giving special prizes regarding
the amount and the characteristics of the finalist films.
11. The award ceremony will take place in Izmir in a special ceremony right after the end
of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival.
12. BBB BEST FILM AWARD will get the first prize and 1000 euros. The other Prizes are
BBB FIRST ENTRY, Special Mentions and the BBB AUDIENCE AWARD.
13. Participants agree to give interviews to the communication sponsors and to be
photographed if asked.
14. Parts of the Festival will be filmed for the BBB archive and for its promotion to the public.
Members of the audience and participants that may appear in these parts cannot
claim anything from the organising company.
15. During the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival parallel events will take
place.
16. BBB Film Festival organizing team reserves the right to cancel the Festival if it is
Necessary
17. The sending out of the signed participation form entails the complete and
unconditional acceptance of the above terms of participation.

Overall Rating

Quality

Value

Communication

Hospitality

Networking

Pandeli Ceco

I was very pleased that my short documentary film could find an audience at festival online screening despite the circumstances. Thanks for your good communication and digital hospitality.

October 2020

Helpful
Stergios Dinopoulos

Wasn't able to attend but all of the people who went said it was fantastic.

October 2019

Helpful
Vukasin Zivaljevic

Great people, nice festival. It's great thing you can meet and talk to all this fine and artsy people. We had a great time. Thank you BBB, hope to see you soon. :)

December 2018

Helpful
Stefan Zaharia

It was Fantastic... I mean.. I won.. Everithing is PERFECT!:)

November 2018

Helpful
Iva Kostić

Communication was great before and throughout the festival, I felt very welcome and appreciated. Also, the selection was very, very good which made networking easy and interesting. Looking forward to submitting again!

November 2018

Helpful

Response from festival:

It is Balkans Beyond Borders aim to support new creators and promote their work and it is our pleasure to receive and screen innovative and of great quality short films.