The eights edition of the Festival of Animation Berlin (short: FAB), takes place from September 26 – 28, 2025 offering film screenings and a colorful framework programme. The fifth edition of “FAB Dimensional” exhibition starts September 25, 2025.
PARTICIPATION TERMS
Any animated film including combinations of live action and animation completed after May 1st 2023 may participate. Only completed films qualify for the selection. For participation in the short film competition categories, productions up to a running length of 15 minutes are admitted.
The following competition categories are open for submission:
• International Animation Film: Animated shorts by international artists
• German Animation Film: Animated shorts made by animators based in Germany
• New Talents: Animated shorts made by students
• Commissioned Animation: Animated shorts with commercial background
• Pink Panda: Animated shorts suitable for children and teens. TV series for children can be submitted to the children’s film competition. Please do not submit more than two episodes per series.
• Animated feature film: Animated films over 45 min made by international animation artists.
Any borderline questions or the assignment to other categories that may arise shall be decided by festival management. Submission deadline is May 15th 2025 (date of receipt, CET).
SUBMISSION
Film entries can be submitted exclusively through the online platform FilmFreeway: www.filmfreeway.com. A registration with FilmFreeway is required in order to submit to our festival. There is a small entry fee to be paid via the platform service. For the preselection we need a password protected link to your film, provided through the
online entry form. With the submission of the film the submitter commits himself to allocate a screening copy in case of selection. No film may be withdrawn. In principle, if with dialogues, films must be subtitled in English.
PRESELECTION
All film applicants having submitted a film for preselection shall be notified in mid July via email, whether their entry has been selected for the festival programme. In case of selection, the following additional materials will be required: CV, filmography, and portrait (300dpi, jpeg) of the director, a dialogue list with time codes in original language and English, a list of subtitles in English, film stills (300 dpi, jpg), available press material.
All materials should be available with the submission on FilmFreeway. Alternately they can be sent to the following e-mail address: submission@fa-berlin.com
SCREENING COPY
The required format for the festival screening is DCP (SMPTE/DCI). Other file formats like .MOV and .MP4 may be accepted in exceptional cases and after consultation with the programme management. Other film formats are not admitted for the festival screening. If the film contains dialogue, the screening copy must have English subtitles.
DCP screening files are requested and to be delivered via online file transfer.
Upon agreement, a delivery of the DCP screening files is also possible by postal mail. All shipping costs to FAB as well as any charges peripheral to shipping, i.e. customs duty and/or clearance etc., shall be borne by the sender. Preview copies as well as screening copies from non-EU countries must be labeled with the following note: “for cultural purposes only, no commercial value” and be accompanied by a proforma invoice. Please state an amount of less than 10 EUR when declaring the shipment value. Festival entries do not represent a commercial value. Film prints from countries of the European Union can be dispatched without any customs declaration. Upon request, the screening copies shall be sent to the following address:
Animation Network Berlin e.V.
c/o Dyrdee Media GmbH
Rykestrasse 2
10405 BERLIN
Germany
JURY
The festival management will decide on the composition of the jury. The jury will decide the awarding of the prize of the following competitions: International Animation Film, German Animation Film, New Talents, Commissioned Animation, Pink Panda, Animated Feature.
None of the jury members shall be involved in the production or distribution of any of the films they will have to judge. If available, the winning films of the audience award will be chosen by the general audience attending the festival.
PROMOTION
Excerpts of participating films (up to 10%) may be used by the festival organizers to publicly promote, evaluate and display the festival’s objectives on the internet, broadcasting, and TV (irrespective of the means of transmission), cinema, press, video as well as all types of currently known storage media. The films will be provided free of
charge for screening during the festival.
RIGHTS OF USE
By submitting the entry form, entrants confirm that they are the originators - in case of teams: co-originators - of the submitted work and that they are free to dispose of the submitted work and the rights to use them. The entrants ensure that the persons shown in the works as well as the originators of the works have given them permission for its reproduction and distribution within the festival competition and journalistic review. The
entrants ensure that the work is free of third-party rights and that they release the festival organizers from any future claims that may be enforced by third parties relating to copyrights and rights to use the work. In case of teams, the digital signature of its representative is binding for all team members. Teams are jointly and severally liable.
Upon submission, entrants grant FAB the right to screen the submitted film unlimited times in the context of the festival during the duration of the festival (September 26 - 28, 2025) in cinema screenings on site in Berlin and in password-protected live streams on the Internet. The transfer of this right of use is free of charge.
ARCHIVING
All submitted materials, like film stills and press materials, will remain in the archive of the Festival of Animation Berlin. The submitted materials will not be forwarded to other festivals.
DISCLAIMER
The organizers of the Festival of Animation Berlin do not take any responsibility in case of damage or non-delivery of the submitted films, missing entries or other technical problems for any reasons whatsoever. Further they do not take any responsibility in case of disruption of the festival by third parties or by force majeure. Entry and inclusion of films or videos implies acceptance of the rules and regulations.
The festival management shall decide on all questions of doubt and special cases not covered by the provisions of these regulations. If there is any discrepancy in the interpretation of these regulations, the German version prevails.
