We will thrill 1600 festival attendees with independently produced short science fiction and fantasy films from around the region and across the globe. BSSSFFF features live action and animated films in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror from some of the best independent filmmakers this side of the Crab Nebula.

Awards will be given in both the Live Action and Animation category based upon audience preferences.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 film festivals were virtual and online. For 2022 we were live and expect to remain live for 2025.

Awards & Prizes

Award certificates to the top 3 (or more) films in each area, based upon audience voting.

Rules & Terms

-Films submitted by March 15, 2026 are given top priority. After other films may be allowed based upon needs of the festival. Goal is to screen~ 20 films over a 4 hour period. We are a No Fee Festival, but Film Makers who wish to attend the 4 day convention should join Balticon https://www.balticon.org/ -Films should be between 5 and 15 minutes long, be either live action or animated, and in the science fiction, fantasy or horror genre. - Submit film electronically either by cloud-storage transfer, email, Vimeo or similar. See application form at: https://2024.balticon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Balticon-Short-Film-Festival-2024-Permission-to-Screen-Form.pdf

5 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Patrick Pizzolorusso

    LOVED being a part of this festival. The staff and team were so kind and responsive with any questions or concerns. They do an amazing job of hi-lighting fellow films that even from afar, it's easy to network. Thank you for welcome us in!

    June 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    We were pleased to have Battle of L.A. among the Twilight Zone Call Backs. We appreciated the captioning for our hard of hearing members. Our audience vote produced a score of 2.9782 out of 5.0.

  • Luca Caserta

    The Balticon Sunday Short Science Fiction Film Festival is a high-quality event and an exciting, welcoming convention with a long and storied history (59 editions!). I'm truly honored that my short film "The Reach", based upon a short story by Stephen King, was officially selected and awarded Best Live Action at this year's edition! Many thanks to the audience who attended the screenings and enjoyed my film, and a heartfelt thank you to Director Lance Oszko and his entire team — great organization and communication. I wholeheartedly recommend this festival to all filmmakers out there!

    May 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Audience Voting was 167 points in 41 votes cast = 4.0731 out of 5.0. * Best Live Action. Voting breakdown was posted to Balticon Facebook page.

  • DK Greenley

    Very grateful to BaltiCon for an official selection nod for my dark sci-fi project entitled: BLUR: A HuMech Story. It was a real blessing and an honor to be included amongst other talented filmmakers, including George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones creator) and his Vincent D'onofrio-directed animated short film and be named with the few that were able to screen in front of a live audience for this edition's Science-Fiction short film festival.

    June 2024
    Helpful
  • Yanara None

    This is an interesting festival!

    June 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Our parent SF organization Balticon turns 59 in 2025.
    The Festival turns 20. Spectrum audience voting 0 to 5,
    allows us to be nuanced in adjusting to audience preferences. Technical Feedback to Film Makers has improved contrast and captioning. We are unabashedly sentimental over our favorite story tellers.

  • Chuck & Megan Marra

    What a wonderful festival. We were so proud to have Where Do You Get Off screen with such a great group of short films.

    May 2021
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