Caorle Film Festival

𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗼 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸: https://www.caorlefilmfestival.com/regolamento/

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗥𝗨𝗟𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗥𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗖𝗜𝗙𝗙𝟮𝟬𝟮6

𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗭𝗘𝗥𝗦
The Caorle Independent Film Festival is run by the Cultural Association CAORLE FILM under the patronage of the City of Caorle and by the Veneto County.
The 9th edition will take place from 15 to 19 September 2026 in Caorle, Venice.

𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦
The competition is open to feature films, short films, web series, documentaries, pilots and animation films/shorts.

All feature films, short films, web series and pilot episodes selected compete indiscriminately for the technical awards.

1- Submissions for Caorle Film Festival 2026 will open on November 16, 2025 and will close on June 1, 2026.

1.2- The charge will differ according to the submissions period as follows:

November 16, 2025 – Submissions Opening
Early Deadline | till January 31, 2026 – 20€
Official Deadline | till May 10, 2026 – 30€
Extended Deadline | till June 1st, 2026 – 40€

2- Submissions are accepted exclusively online from the following website: www.filmfreeway.com/CaorleFilmFestival;

3- The competition is open to feature films, short films, documentaries, animation movies and pilots produced since January 1st 2024 until the present day. Works carried out before this date will not be considered. Only independent productions are eligible.

3.1 Works that have participated in past editions of the Caorle Film Festival are not allowed;
3.2 School works are not admitted;
3.3- Works made and/or in which CIFF collaborators and staff members took part are not allowed;
3.4- Works of political propaganda, religious, incitement to violence and hatred towards any ethnic group, culture or religion are not allowed. Also, works against the laws in force in Italy and against human rights are not allowed.
3.5- No amateur works will be considered.

4- Works from all over the world are admitted. Foreign works must be subtitled in English or Italian at the time of registration; works in Italian must be subtitled in English;

5- To be eligible to register for the Festival, attendees must be at least 18 and must provide all rights to economic and visual use of their own work. They also have to declare that the work is original and that does not infringe or violate the rights of any third part;

In case of a false declaration, and in case of recourse by the real copyright holders, the authors relieve the Festival and the organizers from any legal and economic responsibility, and undertake to respond entirely for the consequences connected with the fraud;

6- Every author can subscribe more than one work, provided that the respective registration fee is paid;

7- To be eligible for the Festival, pilot episodes must not exceed 40m and feature films must non exceed 90m.

8- The following files must be uploaded on FilmFreeway at the time of submission, with download enabled. Otherwise, they will not be considered.

STRICTLY COMPLYING WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS LISTED BELOW:*

– Digital copy of your work in .mp4 h264 format
– A4 vertical Film poster, minimum 300dpi (29.7 x 21 cm / 3508 x 2480 px) in JPG or PDF format; the file must be uploaded to FilmFreeway in the attachments section.
– Work synopsis of minimum 200 / maximum 350 characters.**

Important: when submitting please remember to carefully fill in the technical form of the work, indicating all the names and roles of the main artistic cast and the complete list and roles of the crew: Director, Screenplay and Plot writer, DOP, Lead Actor and Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress, Editor, Sound Designer, VFX Supervisor, Production Designer, Make-up Artist, Composer & Costume Designer.

It is your only responsability to ensure that you have properly filled in the required data and that the necessary files are not malfunctioning.

* If these conditions are not met, the Festival reserves the right to exclude the work from the competition, or to re-encode the video to make it conform to the parameters indicated. In the latter case, the authors will have no right to make any complaint, even in case of loss of audio/video quality or alterations of color palette, color spectrum, etc..

** The Festival reserves the right to edit synopses if they are written in incomprehensible and/or grammatically incorrect vocabulary.

9- By entering the contest, you grant the Festival permission to use your work and the material that will be requested for advertising, media and promotional purposes, as well as permission to screen your work during the days of the event;

9.1- The Festival does not pay any sort of compensation to authors for the selected works that will be screened at the event.

10- The author agrees to provide a valid and working email address, to which all communications will be sent. In the case of works entered by festival distribution companies, the author’s direct email contact must be provided at the time of entry.
It is his responsibility to contact the organizers at info@caorlefilmfestival.com for any questions before submitting his work to the 9th edition.

𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

11- The works submitted will be initially evaluated by a technical committee to certify that they meet the requirements of the regulations;

11.1- The official selections will be announced on July 6, 2026. A total of 75 works are selected.
11.2- Afterwards, the works will be evaluated by an external jury made up of professionals of the movie field who will decide the winners of the various categories according to their unquestionable judgement.
11.3- The Festival will not cover or reimburse travel and accommodation expenses for selected participants, but will offer conventions with partner hotels and restaurants.

The awards will be presented during the final evening of the Festival on September 19, 2026.

𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

Caorle Film Festival reserves the right to decline submissions for any of the following reasons:

– where failing to meet contest requirements;
– where required files are not received by expiration date, or contain wrong or missing information;
– where works violate the existing laws, incite racial and cultural hatred or violate human rights. In addition, political propaganda will not be allowed.
– where the minimum number of participants (3) is not reached in any of the following categories: Animation and Documentary. In this case, the registration fee will be reimbursed.

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

- Any attempt to obtain information on the final results of the competition before the grand prizegiving evening's final announcement and/or the spreading of misinformation about your participation, will be punished with disqualification and the entry fee will not be refunded.

- Indecent, violent, and/or disrespectful behavior manifested within the context of and during the Festival, including damage to and/or use of any materials and equipment owned by and under the responsibility of the Caorle Film Association and its collaborators.

- Untrue statements about the entered work.

If your work will not be selected for the competition, the entry fee will not be refunded.

If the Festival decides, at its sole discretion, to screen works out of competition, the authors of such works must fully accept the clauses indicated in these Regulations.

By entering the Competition, you confirm that you understand and agree to accept all Terms, Rules and Regulations.

𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦

The winners will be awarded with an original trophy created specifically for the festival during the awards ceremony that will be held in Caorle, Ve (Italy), on September 19, 2026.

Best Work – Caorle Film Award –
Best Feature Film
Best Shortfilm
Best Comedy
Best Drama
Best Thriller
Best Sci-fi / Fantasy
Best Pilot
Best Documentary
Best Animation
Best Actor in a leading role
Best Actress in a leading role
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Directing
Best Cinematography
Best Feature Film Screenplay
Best Shortfilm Screenplay
Best Story
Best Production Design
Best Editing
Best Sound Design
Best Original Soundtrack
Best Make-up
Best Visual Effects
People’s Jury Award

Additional Special Mentions may be awarded to the most deserving works.

If a winner is not present at the awards ceremony to collect the prize, it will be possible to receive it by express courier service at the expense of the recipient within 6 months after the conclusion of the same edition.