Courtyard Independent Film Festival

With your submission you automatically accept our Rules and Terms!

To submit a film, you must have created the project yourself, own the rights or have permission from the owner of the content to submit the film to us, you are entitled of that responsibility and you as a filmmaker YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE RIGHTS OF YOUR FILM.

1. Only work created after 2019 is acceptable.
2. You agree to use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster/stills) for promotional purpose.
3. Multiple entries are allowed for each filmmaker and each entry may be entered in multiple categories.
4. Entry fees are non-refundable.
5. By submitting to the festival you confirm that you own the rights to the work submitted.
6. No short films longer than 40 minutes.
7. No Premiere status is required.
8. We do not accept extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations.
9. If your movie will be selected for a live screening session, we do not pay for accomodations or any other expenses. The festival WILL NOT cover any filmmaker expenses. You will be totally responsible for your airfare, accommodation and other travel expenses.
10. Films only be accepted with English subtitles. We will ask for Italian or English subtitles in case of screening selection (it is not a mandatory).
11. We accept scripts in languages ​​other than English, but they may be automatically translated before reading.
12. Only the movies notified before the live event via mail will be screened.
13. "Courtyard Independent Film Festival" DOES NOT PAY SCREENING FEES.
14. You confirm that you have all rights of your project.
15. If the movie is not in Italian, in case of screening selection we will ask you a SUB-ITA or at least a SUB-ENG version of your movie.
16. The Festival will give screening priority to films with representatives. The priority is for those who are at the Festival (Including Local Filmmakers). If you are not able to come but your project win something, we will sent your certificate via email.
17. If your film is selected by our festival, you automatically agree that we may use images from your project for marketing purposes for our festival. If you do not agreed, and do not consent to give us promotional rights to your material, please let us know via email; and then we will withdraw your film from the promotion of our festival. If we do not receive any notification from you within 48 hours after your film is selected, we will assume that you agree this policy.
18. Write us for a pdf of Rules & Terms at the date of your submission or copy them.
19. At our discretion, we may choose to transfer a film to the correct category, but only if the appropriate level of submission fee has been paid.
20. CIFF is not a "prize event" (it means that there are no cash prizes or similar), but an independent and self-financed artistic reality, with artistic purposes and moral recognition for the authors of the best works. All submissions represents a fee for organizing the event. 21.1 Based on the quality and feasibility of the projects, we reserve the opportunity for the author of the annual "best of the fest" to receive a production or distribution offer.

With your submission you also accept all the Rules, Terms & Policies of FilmFreeway.

Disclaimer and Privacy Policy:

- We do not represent or can be represented by any other organization.

- We do not disclose any kind of information with third parties.

- *Privacy Policy (for mailing list and for the newsletter): https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/65841260/legal

Finally, please be aware that we do not ask for or accept any kind of donations.

Judging Process

- All submissions will be viewed in their entirety. Submissions will be judged and scored based on criteria including: quality of screenplay, acting, production quality, originality, technical proficiency, cinematography, sound design, editing and set design. We support indie filmmaking and will award additional points to projects produced on a micro budget and/or minimal crew. The selected movies for live screening will be notified via mail also before the official notification date to optimize the organization (it depends from the date of your submission).

- If you do not receive a notification regarding the screening of your project it means that IT HAS NOT BEEN SELECTED FOR SCREENING.

- The eventual status of "Quarter Finalist" or "Semi-Finalist" means that the film HAS NOT REACHED THE NEXT ROUND AND WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR SCREENING, but that it has nevertheless passed the selection phase and can use our official laurel .

Notification
The directors of submitted films that are accepted will be notified via e-mail.

Venue & Event Date
The Festival venue or the event date could be change during the organization due to events, technical choices or circumstances.

Fee Waivers
We work hard to keep our submission fees as low as possible – consequently we cannot provide fee waivers.

WITH YOUR SUBMISSION, YOU AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CONTAINED HEREIN. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ANY OF SUCH TERMS, CONDITIONS, RULES, POLICIES OR PROCEDURES, DO NOT SUBMIT.