FILMAY international short film festival Kumanovo was established in 2019.

It was initiated following an idea for inspiring, supporting and enhancing short film production, as well as engaging and empowering viewing desires and aspirations for enjoyment of short films.

The festival had its first edition in year 2019, having received 50 film applications, with a festival screening held in the big hall of Zanaetciski dom - Kumanovo on May 29 2019 in front of audience of 200 people.

Festival’s second edition was in year 2020, receiving a total od 2.017 applications.
The public projection was supposed to happen in May, but was delayed due the world situation and health precautions. However, it was held on September 29 2020 in the Grand hall of Cultural centre “Trajko Prokopiev” – Kumanovo. For safety reasons, the 700-seat hall had a full attendance with the allowed 110 members of the audience, with complete compliance of physical distancing and in regards of all the rules for public events in closed space.

The festival is founded and being developed on the following principles:

- FILMAY engages itself as international short film festival, guided by the idea that big changes are achieved through sequence of small steps.
- FILMAY intends to inspire non-conformist thinking with ideas originating from outside-the-box.
- FILMAY claims that anything can be a part of the film story, no matter how aside it is from the visible and audible content of the film frame.

Awards & Prizes

FILMAY short film festival Kumanovo has 4 prizes for competing films:

- `Lazar Gjorgjevikј` award for best direction
- `Radislav Ristevski` award for best photography/cinematography
- `Kozjak` award for best screenplay
- Award for best macedonian (domestic) film

The awards will be decided by the festival jury consisting of odd-number of members.

The jury is intended to have new members each year: one member of the photo-cinema club `Kozjak` - Kumanovo and additional outside members from the film creed (film/theater professionals, writers, journalists, ...).

Rules & Terms

Applications accepted for:

- feature or documentary short film. Applications for experimental film (excluding animated ones) also accepted
- duration up to 20 minutes
- made after 01.01.2018
- films should have an opening/closing credits with production information (applications will be accepted for films that are without this intro/outro info, if the aesthetic and artistic presentation of the film demands exclusion of these elements)
- audio and video quality are prefered to be of high quality satisfactory for screening as cinema projections (applications will be accepted for films that follow the film-makers intent and vision to have a varying and different sound and visual presentation of the film work)
- english captions/subtitle must be included (hard-coded in the video of the film itself, or as a separate subtitle file)
- films that have been previously competing on other festivals can also apply

Films can enter the contest in 2 competition groups.

First is the international competition, where the awards for best direction, best photography/cinematography and best screenplay will be awarded. This is the main intended contest body of FILMAY international short film festival.

Second is the macedonian (domestic) competition, which is intended to engage and inspire production of macedonian short films. Macedonian films can also apply in the international competition, thus entering the contest for the 3 international awards.

A single applicant can submit up to 2 (two) entries in each of the groups.

The applicant submitting the film gives their permission for projecting the film free of charge (requesting no screening fee) during the main festival evening, if the film is chosen in the festival selection as an awarded or exceptional film by the jury.

The applicant agrees to allow the festival organizer to use elements (film poster, photo still, short video with 3-5 seconds duration) from the submitted film in materials intended for promoting the festival in the time period preceding the festival, during the festival and after the festival.

The applicant should have secured all rights for the submitted film, as well as elements contained within or associated with the film (music, literary work, intelectual property and similar).

The applicant will have to send a digital copy to the festival organizer, in case the jury decides to have the film awarded or officially selected for the festival. The digital copy is necessary for on-time preparations for the festival projections.

The awarded and selected films will be projected at least once during the festival event. Possible additional (repeated) projections will be additionally be discussed for mutual agreement between the applicants and the festival organizer.

All the awarded and selected films will include macedonian subtitles (besides the english ones) in the projections. The macedonian subtitles will be ensured by the organizer of the festival. These subtitles will be created on basis of english subtitles previously provided by the applicant.

The festival organizer keeps the right to include additional films in the festival selection programme, besides the films submitted here.

Detailed propositions, terms and rules in PDF format:
[EN] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jdz3fvp8v8mLJ_nfbVX3zBG3FBYWaQNj/view
[MK] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YTo3MTbTJVDixe84i8MAHE3igsOArXpN/view