CIFF49 (2025) Call for Entries is now CLOSED. CIFF50 (2026) Call for Entries will open in July 2025. Notifications for CIFF49 submissions will be sent by February 28, 2025.
*Requests for CIFF Screening Team written feedback will only be provided for submissions that pay in full, and must be made between the dates of May 1-June 1, 2025 to reviews@clevelandfilm.org. Any requests made outside of these dates do not qualify. Requested written feedback will be provided to those eligible between June 1-August 1, 2025.*
The 49th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) will take place March 27 - April 5, 2025 in person at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, OH, and online April 6-13, 2025 as part of CIFF49 Streams.
CIFF is excited to return to the beautiful and iconic Playhouse Square - the largest performing arts district in the U.S., outside of New York City. All Festival details (including dates, format, and venues) are subject to change.
CIFF49 will consist of hundreds of films, post-film conversations and Q&As with filmmakers, balloting, and over $135,000 in cash awards.
CIFF is committed to offering screening fees or travel assistance for all feature and short films accepted into the Festival. We are happy to report that CIFF continues to be one of the few Academy Award®-qualifying festivals in the world for all three categories of shorts films—live action, animated, and documentary. CIFF accepts films of any runtime, any genre, and from every country. CIFF is also happy to once again offer submission waivers to any CIFF alum (1 per person) whose current film meets the CIFF49 requirements.
The CIFF audience is a microcosm of the city of Cleveland, ranging from middle, high school, and college students, to young families, to seniors. As such, our Screening Team is a microcosm of our audience - a diverse volunteer committee of nearly 200 film enthusiasts, ranging from industry professionals to local film students. Each submitted film is screened in full by at least three Screening Team judges, who are also required to submit written constructive feedback for each film they watch. Any paid submission is eligible to receive this feedback post-festival, regardless of selection.
Those films that move on from our general Screening Team (typically about 1/3 of submissions) are then viewed and considered by our Features and Shorts Programming Teams. CIFF Programmers are selected based on lived experience, professional experience, and knowledge of CIFF audience. Combined with curated films from other festivals, the latest edition of CIFF (2024) programmed 138 feature films and 225 short films from 60 countries. 305 of those films came through our Screening Team!
For all questions related to submissions, please see our Terms and Conditions below, visit the Call for Entries FAQs on clevelandfilm.org, or email submissions@clevelandfilm.org.
We thank you for sharing your films with us!
IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:
*PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL THEATRICAL SCREENINGS AT CIFF49 WILL BE IN DCP (FEATURE AND SHORT FILMS).* Thus, all invited films will be required to send a DCP file for exhibition.
*Films whose productions were completed after June 1, 2023, are eligible for submission to CIFF49.
*Waivers or discount codes will only be excepted prior to the FINAL deadline and will not be accepted during the EXTENDED deadline.
*If your submission is INCOMPLETE (including missing, invalid, and expired uploads, links or passwords) our submissions team will email to notify you. You will then have one week to rectify the issue, after which your submission will be DISQUALIFIED and will not be considered for the next festival.
*In order to be eligible for participation in CIFF49, films must NOT have been exhibited in person within the Greater Cleveland area, as CIFF requires a CLEVELAND PREMIERE at the least. Films also must not be available publicly online prior to our next festival dates. Films that have been previously screened online in an official ticketed-festival capacity are eligible for CIFF49 submission, as long as they have not been made available to audiences in the Greater Cleveland area.
*Requests for CIFF Screening Team written feedback will only be provided for submissions that pay in full, and must be made between the dates of May 1-June 1, 2025 to reviews@clevelandfilm.org. Any requests made outside of these dates do not qualify. Requested written feedback will be provided to those eligible between June 1-August 1, 2025.
CIFF currently has 14 competitions for feature films and 20 competitions for short films, and we're always expanding our awards program. At CIFF48 we gave away over $135,000 in cash awards!