Welcome to Indie Shorts Awards NEW YORK

Indie Shorts Awards New York is an international independent short film competition. Our goal is to find talented filmmakers and help them promote their work.

As a recognition for creativity we will award once a year the “Best Short of the Year” with a cash prize of USD 3500.

New York, the city that never sleeps, is a hotbed for filmmakers who want to skirt the big motion picture studios—after all, it's the birthplace of independent film.
Being a thriving film hub, the city plays host to hundreds of filmmakers, industry professionals and movie lovers annually.
As it's said, if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere.

Your film will be reviewed by our screener team and the highest scored ones will be selected as Official Selection receiving corresponding Laurels. Then, winners will be chosen by our international jury and receive Official Laurels and Certificates.

All award-winning films will be screened in our public and complementary Events where you will have the opportunity to network with filmmakers and people from the industry.

Awards & Prizes

CATEGORIES

We proudly announce all our Categories.

Your project might become a multi award winning film!.

MAIN CATEGORIES

Best Short
Best Foreign short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animation Short
Best Experimental Short
Best Student Short
Best First Time Filmmaker Short
Best Music Video
Best Web Series

ADDITIONAL CATEGORIES

Best Producer
Best Female Director
Best Male Director
Best Female Student Director
Best Male Student Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best New Artist
Best Acting Ensemble
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Production Design
Best Sound Design
Best Original Score
Best Screenwriting

Rules & Terms

RULES

1- In order to submit a film, you must own the rights or have permission from the owner.
2- The Festival relationship will exclusively be related to the film submitter.
3- Any Foreign film that is not in English must have English subtitles.
4- All fees are non-refundable.
5- INDIE SHORTS AWARDS NEW YORK will not be responsible for damaged copies.
6- A DCP copy of the film is required for the annual gala screening.
7- Students must present a valid Student ID in order to receive our student discount.
8- Not all the submissions are selected for the official competition. Our Judges are free to make their own choices and no answers will be given about not selected films.
9- INDIE SHORTS AWARDS NEW YORK can consider any film to be disqualified if the festival considers the content inappropriate. If you have any question regarding this decision you might contact us at our email address nyc@indieshortsawards.com
10- Filmmakers can submit the film in multiple categories in order to become a multi-award film. Our Team may suggest the categories that are more suitable for the film to apply. Still, the decision about the selection is strictly determined by our judges' team and no selection is guaranteed.
11- A fee is required for the main category submission and also fees for additional categories. For payment structure visit (FilmFreeway website).
12- The applicants (submitters) must accept INDIE SHORTS AWARDS NEW YORK Rules and Terms.
13- All submissions in personal categories required the name of the person and the category. You can easily send us this information in the cover letter at FilmFreeway website.
14- Submitting your movie, you authorize INDIE SHORTS AWARDS NEW YORK to use, distribute and share the film poster, trailer, synopsis and movie stills in our social media.
15- Maximum length allowed is 40 minutes.
16- The annual prize of usd 3500 will be given once a year to the Best Short of the Year.

13 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Drew MacPowell


    Indie Shorts Awards New York is a wonderful film festival. We were honored to have our short film, Terraforma chosen in this years festival. Thank you for such a great experience and for still keeping festival alive during a global pandemic.

    January 2021
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  • Michael Chereau

    Thanks a lot to have chosen my film Sandier for the best short of the year!!! Really great festival, good communication too!

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Congratulations again on your wonderful film Michael !!!. We really loved it. Thank you for your feedback!!

  • Margina Sisson

    I am extremely honored that my Web Series Pilot, “Table Read Cinema: Death Stone”, has been selected and is now recognized as the Best Web Series in the Indie Shorts Awards NY first quarter competition! Their communication has been great. They promptly reached out to me via email on the notification date and since then, have reached out to me regarding the Award and the upcoming Q&A session which takes place first of the year. I am currently awaiting questions they may have for me in preparation of that Q&A session. As far as networking, I haven't really experienced any through this festival yet however I'm confident networking opportunities will come into play during the virtual festival. Overall, Indie Shorts Awards has been great and I appreciate their heartfelt encouragement and professionalism. Thank you Indie Shorts Awards NY!

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Margina, your review is so good for us, to make us improve and we are glad with all your comments!

  • Leeron Revah

    All in all a great festival that gives short films an opportunity to be watched, judged and granted an award, in hopes of helping the filmmaker make some connections and succeed with their film overall. This festival was a blessing during the corona pandemic!

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks for your feedback Leeron, we have loved your movie!

  • Jules de Broize

    Great experience with Indie Shorts Awards New York. I like the fact that they always respected the schedule, and appreciated how clear their communication was. Their website and Instagram page look great, and it felt great to have access to the list of nominees before the announcement of the wins. I ve had nothing but good experiences with the Indie Shorts Awards so far. Thanks again for making it such a great experience for us ❤️

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Jules!Thanks a lot for your meaningful comments!!! 😊And congrats to you and all the team!!!