IMDb qualifier IndieX Film Fest is an LA-based international film festival with bimonthly live screenings and Q&A with cast & crews at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California.

IndieX is looking for independent projects, especially low or no-budget ones plus student films.

IMPORTANT: All genres are accepted (such as Best Drama Short, Best Romantic Short, etc.), but must contain some fantastic elements or challenge the boundaries somehow.

Each category has the main award and the award for best student film.

Each round, all submitted projects are featured in IndieX site and social media (with the publication of synopsis, stills and a trailer/teaser) as part of a general promotional action of indie production. The submitter has the option of decline any public highlight, as long as notify IndieX, keeping however the project(s) under consideration. These projects are judged by a random team of invited experts from academia and film industry from Los Angeles area, against a high standard of merit.

From the pool of official selection, which has a very competitive acceptance rate, IndieX chose the nominees and award winners of the season. Some of the award-winning projects, selected by the programmers of IndieX, are publicly screened in Los Angeles at the end of each round.

Before submitting, please read carefully the following:

Every submission can add numerous additional judging categories increasing the chance to become a multi-award-winning. In these cases, the name(s) to be credited should be included in the cover letter or sent to IndieX by email.

Notice that any entry is judged only according to the nature of the submitted category or categories. After the preliminary evaluation, IndieX can email the submitter with recommendations to other categories in which the entry can be more suitable to and have more chances to be a good competitor. Still, the decision to submit to other categories, and the payment of the associated fees, belong exclusively to the submitter and does not guarantee any award or the official selection.

Awards & Prizes

All entries are promoted for free through our social media and website, with a featured page of each project, unless submitter prefers not to. For this purpose, we recommend that projects must be fully entered on FilmFreeway, including synopsis, and downloadable poster and trailer.

All projects officially selected in each round receive the IndieX official laurel and the customized certificate of achievement according to their final status in the competition. As underlined above, some of them are publicly screened in Hollywood.

Some of the award winners are invited for an interview or to provide the festival with a BTS or award acceptance video statement to be published in the IndieX website.

At least 3 different judges score the quality and creativity of each entry on a performance scale defined in 9 parameters (from originality to technical aspects as pace, structure, lighting and sound design). The highest rated entries are nominated for the awards of the respective categories and finally are choose the winners.

Besides the Major Award and the Best Student Award for each category, it can be given also Outstanding Achievement Awards (for the runner-ups) and Honorable Mentions.

Also, for each round, IndieX decides and award two overall winners (chosen from all categories) as Best Short (spoken in English) and Best Foreign-Language Short.

The awards by category:
Best Short Script
Best Indie Short
Best Drama Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Romantic Short
Best Comedy Short
Best Dark Comedy Short
Best Adventure Short
Best Action Short
Best Mystery Short
Best Crime Short
Best Thriller Short
Best Horror Short
Best Gore Short
Best Sci-Fi Short
Best Fantasy Short
Best Animation Short
Best Childen Short
Best Women Short
Best Parody Short
Best Mockumentary/Docucomedy
Best Experimental Short
Best Web Series/TV Pilot
Best Web and New Media
Best Mobile Short
Best Microfilm
Best Music Video
Best Producer
Best Director (Female)
Best Director (Male)
Best First Time Director (Female)
Best First Time Director (Male)
Best Student Director (Female)
Best Student Director (Male)
Best Young Filmmaker (Female)
Best Young Filmmaker (Male)
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Child/Young Actress
Best Child/Young Actor
Best Acting Duo
Best Acting Ensemble
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Sound Design
Best Sound Mixing
Best Sound Editing
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Visual FX
Best Special FX
Best Costume Design
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Special Makeup
Best Set Design
Best Production Design
Best Trailer/Teaser

Rules & Terms

All films should have a maximum length of 55 minutes.
All short scripts should have a maximum of 25 pages.

The films must include English subtitles (unless the spoken language is English).
The scripts must be written in English.

By submitting the film or script, the submitter agrees that:
1. IndieX can use trailer/teaser/film poster/stills or BTS and script excerpt for promotional purpose (but do not release, under any form or circumstances, the full film or script)
2. Entry fees are non-refundable unless they are covered by the submission protection option, according to the Filmfreeway terms.
3. The submitter owns all the rights to the film or script.
4. The information about the entries can be disclosed to IndieX associated film festivals.

IndieX does not accept the following:
1. Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations.
2. Films which are made before 2016.
3. Films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/captions for non-English films, or video resolution less than 720p HD).

For student fee, it is mandatory the student status evidence (e.g. copy of student card included in the project).

For the live screenings, submitter must provide IndieX with a HD digital file, minimum 1920×1080 (preferably ProRes MP4).

The projects that do not follow the rules & terms above can be automatically disqualified at the sole discretion of IndieX.

IndieX Fest 2019 © All Rights Reserved
64 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Alfonso Moreno

    Timely communication. Great experience. We're very proud of the nominations and jury recommendations.

    September 2019
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  • Molotov Mitchell

    Great festival, the staff responded to our inquiries, fun aesthetic. We were extremely honored to have our action film WASTERS nominated and win awards in several categories. IndieX is great! We can’t wait to see the annual results!

    September 2019
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  • Mack Lewis

    A great festival put on my awesome people.

    September 2019
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  • Mili Rosales

    Excellent Festival!! Our short film was nominated and their communication about all the processes, selections, etc was one of the best I've encountered with a Festival. Highly Recommended!

    September 2019
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  • Gavin Harwell

    Enjoyed the communication I received from IndieX and would recommend them to all filmmakers!

    September 2019
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