“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 14th BBB Short Film Festival draws inspiration from the theme-title Edgetales. Edges have always been part of the picture, but society, stereotypes and norms kept on turning their back on them, rendering them obsolete, invisible. It is about time to collect and celebrate the stories of people that live on edges, and give them voice and shed light on them. Through a collection of ‘edgetales’, the 14th BBB Short Film Festival it will create a shared collective experience that builds and promotes tolerance, inclusivity and creativity, to think on: if and how we could all live, with each other, happily ever after.

We invite young filmmakers to get inspired by this year’s topic and send their film until the 15th of May.

Eligible short film submissions:
Age: short films by filmmakers up to 35 years old, or older than 35 under the condition that their submitted film is their debut
Origin: filmmakers with their origin from a Balkan country or/and their film to be a Balkan production
Duration: up to 30 minutes.
Genre: fiction, animation, experimental and documentary shorts, as well as video art
Subject: short films connected to the festival’s topic Edgetales

ll 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.

2023 Destination: Nikšić, Montenegro
Since 2010 the Festival has taken place in 10 cities (Belgrade, Tirana, Athens, Bucharest, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Brussels, Novi Sad and again Athens), Izmir, Pristina and Bitola featuring over 420 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 destination will be Bitola, North Macedonia where we are going to expand the BBB growing community of artists, researchers, journalists, and partners in the region.

Awards & Prizes

Best Film Prize (1000€)
Audience Prize (300€)
New Entry Prize (400€)

Rules & Terms

Participation Terms
1. Period for admission of films: 15th of March to 15th of May 2022

2. The theme: Untiling the Mosaic (Check our website for more information about the theme. It is broad and includes different perceptions)

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. Filmmakers should apply through the FilmFreeway platform

8. The files of the films should be in one of these formats: 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 STR file.

10. In case the filmmaker has the subtitles captioned for deaf and hard of hearing people, they must attach the file in their application

11. Regardless of the number of submitted films only one film per filmmaker will take part in the competition programme

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 the purpose to promote intercultural dialogue and an innovative way of learning through the Art of Filmmaking and Image. To this extent, BBB organizes a film festival every year, with a different theme which travels to a different Balkan city.

2. Τhe 13th Edition of Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival will take place in Bitola, North Macedonia in fall 2022. The exact date will be announced in due time.

3. The main title of the festival is: Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival

4. The number of films that will be projected during the festival in North Macedonia depends on the number of participants and the final decision of the organizing team

5. The final films will be selected by the International Jury of the Film Festival until the end of August 2022.

6. The jury consists of 3 well-known film experts from three Balkan countries.

7. 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.

8. The finalists will be informed in August-September about the progress of their film in the contest

9. 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.

10. The finalists must inform the organizers whether they are going to attend the festival in North Macedonia so that the organizing team can organize their trip and accommodation.

11. 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.

12. The award ceremony will take place in Bitola, in a special ceremony right after the end of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival.

13. BBB BEST FILM AWARD will get the first prize and 1000€. The BBB FIRST ENTRY award gets 500€ and the BBB AUDIENCE AWARD 300€. The Festival gives also three Special Mentions.

14. Participants agree to give interviews to the communication sponsors and to be photographed if asked.

15. 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.

16. During the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival parallel events will take place.

17. BBB Film Festival organizing team reserves the right to cancel the Festival if it is necessary.

18. The sending out of the signed participation form entails the complete and unconditional acceptance of the above terms of participation.

19. Due to the pandemic circumstances, if the Festival turns the implementation in digital form we will need the consent of the filmmakers to screen the films online through the selected platform. The Festival will take into consideration the protection of the films’ copyrights.

9 Reviews
Overall Rating
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  • Merve Bozcu

    We had such a great time in Kosova this year. Such a great festival, such a great people! Thank you for everything. After the pandemic, it was kind of a luxury to attend a festival physically but Balkans Beyond Borders made it possible. And this year's theme is connecting, you're sure we connected :) Thank you again!

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • NewBorn Short Film Agency

    We were glad to be part of BBB Short Film Festival for another year!
    Continue the great work!

    November 2021
    Helpful
  • Fivos Imellos

    One of the best Festival ❤

    October 2021
    Helpful
    Bbb logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you!

  • 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
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