The Cardiff International Film Festival is an international event which is supported by the Welsh Assembly and Cardiff Council.

This year the 2022 Cardiff International Film Festival will once again be an online digital festival due to the Pandemic and world travel restrictions.

In 2020 and 2021 we held a digital festival and 2019 saw Dame Judi Dench awarded the lifetime achievement award and Nawazuddin Siddiqui was conferred with the prestigious Golden Dragon.

The festival patrons are Michael Sheen (Welsh Actor - Frost/Nixon, Underworld, The Queen), Matthew Rhys (Hollywood Actor - The Post, The Americans), Marc Zicree, (Writer/Producer - Star Trek- TNG, Babylon 5, Space Command), Emraan Hashmi (Bollywood Actor - Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, The Dirty Picture,) and Jaqueline Fernandez (Bollywood Actress - Race 3, Drive, A Gentleman)

Our festival jury and supporters include Anurag Kashyap, Professor Florence Aiyisi, John Altman, Bethan Sayed (Former Welsh AM), Joe Ferrera, Keith Williams, Kimberley Nixon, Jonny Owen, Maria Pride, Kai Owen and Matthew Rhys.

In 2018 Dame Sian Philips received the Lifetime achievement award and Marc Zicree was presented with the Golden Dragon Award for individual excellence from Sir Dafydd Elis Thomas, Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism.

Cardiff International Film Festival continues to offer a warm welcome to filmmakers and invites submissions from across the Globe.

Awards & Prizes

All winners will receive an Award Certificate.

Rules & Terms

Please read our rules and terms before you make a submission!

We accept submissions of all genres providing they match the appropriate criteria for the category in which they are submitted.

All foreign language films must have English subtitles.

A digital screener is required (Password protected Vimeo is preferred).
The submitter is responsible for ensuring that their screener link and password is active through before the deadline. In the event of a password or URL change after submitting, email us immediately. If we discover an error with the screener, we will attempt to email the submitter for an update. Failure to respond by the final submission deadline will result in disqualification without refund of submission fees. Online screeners must be available to stream, we do not accept any films that will have to be downloaded.

If your film is submitted to an incorrect category we reserve the right to move the category or disqualify entries without notification.

Physical copies of films will not be accepted unless prior arrangement has been made with the submissions team. If we do accept a physical copy please be aware that it will not be returned and the content will be securely destroyed.

If you wish to be eligible for multiple awards you have to submit to several categories.

All films made and produced during 2021 and later will be accepted. If you are selected and invited to screen, we will only accept films which do not exceed 5GB in file size.

We are not responsible for any copyright infringement of your material and you give us the permission to publish your images, poster and trailer on our website and/or social media pages.

Promotional films are not eligible (e.g. films promoting tourism, charitable appeals, etc.).

If your film includes sexually explicit content, graphic material or expletives please highlight this in your submission notes. If your film is selected for public screening it may be that you will be required to make sure that it is suitably certified according to BBFC guidelines www.bbfc.co.uk or an equivalent recognised standard.

PLEASE NOTE - your fee is non-refundable if your film does not match the criteria listed on this page so please make sure your read the details thoroughly.

During unexpected circumstances, we can at our discretion change venues and date of event.

Terms and conditions updated 2022