Submissions for the 70th Cork International Film Festival are now open.
Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) is Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, celebrating its 70th edition in 2025. Our mission is to present Ireland’s most exciting, diverse, and ambitious annual film festival, connecting and stimulating audiences and artists through a carefully curated selection of the best films, to create a unique shared cultural experience, rooted in Cork, open to the world.
CIFF welcomes submissions of features and shorts, and all forms of film production – fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, etc. We champion new voices and celebrate excellence in filmmaking throughout our programme. We also recognise filmmakers’ achievements through our 14 Awards, three of which are Academy Award® qualifying.
If selected, applicants to the 2025 edition will be notified by September 2025.
The Festival requires Irish premieres for most of its strands, please contact us at info@corkfilmfest.org if your film receives another invitation for Irish or Cork city premiere and you need guidance to ensure that your film remains eligible for CIFF.
Cork International Film Festival is accredited by the following Awards Academies:
- Academy Awards®: winners of the Grand Prix Irish Short, Grand Prix International Short and Grand Prix Documentary Short categories qualify for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film/Live Action Short Film and Documentary Short categories.
- BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television): filmmakers whose British shorts are selected for competition in the Festival’s Grand Prix International Short competition may enter their films for BAFTA consideration
- BIFA (British Independent Film Awards): filmmakers whose British shorts are selected for competition in the Festival’s Grand Prix International Short competition may enter their films for BIFA consideration.
- European Academy Awards: Cork International Film Festival submits a short film nomination to the European Short Film Awards.
Awards & Prizes:
In competition, Cork International Film Festival makes the following awards:
- Grand Prix Irish Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film / Live Action Short Film category.
- Grand Prix International Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film / Live Action Short Film category.
- Grand Prix Documentary Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Documentary Short category.
- Best New Irish Feature Award, celebrating the best of new Irish fiction and documentary feature works, supported by the Irish Examiner.
- Gradam Spiorad na Féile / Spirit of the Festival Award - Best Film and Best Screenplay (two awards) - championing feature filmmakers (European first- and second-time directors) and scriptwriters.
- Gradam na Féile do Scannáin Faisnéise / Best Documentary Award, recognising documentary filmmakers who push cinematic boundaries.
- Best Director Irish Short, supported by Screen Directors Guild Ireland.
- Best Cork Short Award (Cork Shorts may also be eligible to compete for the Grand Prix Irish Short Award if they are Irish premieres).
- European Film Awards, Cork’s nomination for Short Film Candidate for European Short Film Award, European Film Awards 2025.
Out of competition, the Festival makes the following awards:
- Audience Award (Features) - chosen by the audience from all feature films shown in Irish premiere at CIFF2025.
- Audience Award (Shorts) - chosen by the audience from all short films shown in Irish premiere at CIFF2025.
- Cork International Film Festival Lookout Award (formerly Youth Jury Award), with jury representation from University College Cork, MTU: Munster Technological University, and Cork College of FET Douglas Street Campus, supported by the Arc Cinema.
