Ealing Film Festival

1. Entrants must be 16 years old or over, at the time of submission.

2. Films must be no longer than twenty minutes, including credits. They must have been produced after 1 January 2022.

3. Ealing Film Festival does not accept films promoting a product or company.

4. The film must be your own work. You may submit on behalf of somebody else, but this must be clearly stated in your submission.

5. Whilst we do accept work-in-progress films, your film should be picture-locked or only require non-editorial changes such as grading, on-lining and mixing. We will base our decision for selection solely on the version submitted.

6. Entrants must obtain prior clearance for all music used in your film. Namely, you must have permission from the owner of the rights to use their music. You may be required to submit their written permission, if requested by us.

7. Entrants must obtain prior clearance for any other copyrighted material (for example, archive film used in your film).

8. Entrants are responsible for any intellectual property rights contained within your film. Ealing Film Festival and associated parties cannot accept any responsibility for any misuse of intellectual property rights.

9. Written permission must have been obtained from all the people actively appearing in the film by way of a ‘Release Form’. We may request you supply us with these signed and completed forms.

10. Any filmmakers using AI should be transparent and this should be fully declared and added to film credits where possible.

11. Entries must be received via FilmFreeway by the final deadline for consideration for the 2025 competition.

12. Filmmakers can submit more than one film, and each film can be entered in more than one category. At the discretion of the judges, a film may be considered for an additional category or award at no extra cost to the entrant.
One of the aims of the Ealing Film Festival is to celebrate the rich diversity of local film-making talent, as well as draw on Ealing’s world-renowned movie-making tradition.
This year, we are expanding our ‘Homegrown’ category to include Ealing and its neighbours.

13. If you live, study or have made your short film in Ealing, Harrow, Brent, Hillingdon, Hammersmith and Fulham, or Hounslow boroughs, then your film, if selected, will be eligible for the Homegrown competition. *

We deliberately keep our entry fees low, but we are aware that some filmmakers do not always have the necessary financial means to get their films seen. So, especially if you live in the Borough of Ealing, we have a small number of waivers available, and these will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

*If you live in one of these boroughs bordering Ealing, but have already submitted your film, we will automatically add your entry to the Homegrown category, at no extra cost to yourself.

14. Your status on FilmFreeway will acknowledge the receipt of your submission, and your status will change if your film is selected for the festival. Details of the Official Selections will also be posted on the EFF website: www.ealingfilmfestival.com

15. Entry is made at the filmmaker's own expense and Ealing Film Festival shall not be liable for any reimbursement of expenses incurred in making an entry.

16. Ealing Film Festival has the right to use still images and up to a maximum of 45 seconds from selected films for promotional purposes or festival screenings, for the Ealing Film Festival website, for press or media purposes, as well as on social media. Occasionally EFF may wish to screen a film outside of the festival, but permission will be sought in advance from the filmmaker.

17. Ealing Film Festival has the right to use the film for its archive film library for viewing by other film festivals and organisations.

18. Official Selections must be made available for screening at our in-person festival, and for streaming online via our website as part of our People's Choice award.

19. Ealing Film Festival reserves the right to refuse entry for any reason at its absolute discretion.

20. Please note that submission fees will not be refunded if your film does not meet these conditions.

21. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

A DCP (Digital Cinema Package) of your film for screening in one of our cinemas during festival week. Ideally, this DCP should be uploaded via FilmFreeway. We do not accept digital files greater than 10gb.

We recommend a resolution of at least 1980 x 1080 (HD in 16:9 aspect ratio). Ideally 2560 × 1440 (2K in 16:9 aspect ratio).

A bit rate of between 10-30 Mbps.

Audio: Sample rate of 48kHz AAC-LC (Low Complexity AAC) code. We accept 5.1 and stereo mixes.

If you unable to supply a DCP, then we can offer the services of our technical department. Email hello@ealingfilmfestival.com for details. The cost of converting to a DCP is £30 per film, up to 20 minutes in duration. Please send your film in the following video codecs: DNxHD/ProRes422 (as long as less than 10gb), H264 or H265 .mov or MP4 files.