The Indie Film Awards International Competition is an international short film awards competition, rather than a traditional film festival, which allows filmmakers at all levels from around the world to enter their films to be evaluated and judged by industry leaders.

The competition provides talented directors, producers, actors, creative teams and new media creators the positive exposure they deserve and honors the filmmakers who produce high quality short films, often on little or no budget.

Through an agreement with the Cobb International Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, films winning one of the "Best of" awards are guaranteed to be screened during the festival. Those films that do not receive a "Best of" award but are receive an "Award of Excellence" will receive a submission waiver allowing them to submit their film for the festival without charge.

Awards & Prizes

Best Action Short
Best Animated Short
Best Comedy Short
Best Drama Short
Best SciFi/Fantasy Short
Best Horror Short
Best Thriller Short
Best Documentary Short
Awards of Excellence

Rules & Terms

The Indie Shorts Awards International competition accepts short films (45 minutes or less) of all Genres - to include Narrative shorts, Documentaries, Experimental Media, Television Pilot programs, and Animation.

- Submitted Films must be 45 minutes or less in length, including opening and closing credits .

- Submissions in other than English must be subtitled. in English.

- Multiple entries are allowed for each filmmaker.

- The entry fee for each submitted film is $40.00.

- Please provide an online link to your submission and be sure to include the password on the attached online submission form.

•Written comments describing entries are beneficial.

Judging

Judging is done by in-house staff and a committee of industry professionals including members of the Producers Guild of America and the Director's Guild of America.

Entries are compared to each other but, rather, judged solely on their own merit using a ten-category rubric using the following criteria:

1) Originality and Creativity
2) Plot
3) Pacing
4) characters
5) Camera
6) Sound
7) Direction
8) Editing
9) Acting
10) Entertainment Value

Films scoring a minimum of 90 out of 100 Points on this rubric are recognized with an Award of Excellence.

The top scoring film in each "Best of" category receive the "Best of" Award

No fixed number of Awards of Excellence are granted but, rather, fluctuate based on the total number of entries received which meet the Award criteria.