PROGRAMME
The festival programme consists of competition and specially curated, non-competitive programmes.
The competition programme presents 15 short creative documentaries, up to 40 minutes in length.
We are accepting applications only for the competition programme. The Artistic Director of the festival, supported by programme advisors, will make the final decision on which films will be selected for the 2024 competition programme.
SUBMISSIONS
Before submitting a film, please read the Rules and Regulations.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Submissions are open to short creative documentaries, up to 40 minutes in duration, completed after January 1st, 2023
- The festival does not require premiere status, but advantage will be given to the films that haven’t had a Serbian premiere
- Films that have been submitted for consideration in previous years are not eligible, even if the film has changed significantly since its previous submission
- Only fully completed films will be considered
- Films promoting racism, any form of intolerance, or pornography, shall not be taken into consideration.
Submission Deadlines and Fees
The deadline for submitting to the festival is April 15, 2024 / Submission Fee: €10.
How to Submit
Films can be submitted exclusively through FilmFreeway. Submissions or links sent to the festival via email will not be accepted.
Selection Screener
To complete the submission, the festival requires a selection screener of the film.
The selection screener should be:
- Uploaded to a secured streaming platform (Vimeo or similar)
- Private and downloadable
- Available at least until the end of July 2024, but preferably until the beginning of the festival
The URL and password should be submitted through the online entry form.
All selection screeners should be in the original language with English subtitles.
SELECTION
The Artistic Director of the festival, assisted by the program advisors, selects the films for the official programme.
If the film does not comply with the eligibility criteria, it will not be taken into consideration for selection.
Notification of final selection (with an indication of the section) will be sent to the submitters by the end of May 2024.
The official selection will be announced on the festival website (www.interaction.rs) at the end of July 2024. We kindly ask producers and filmmakers to refrain from announcing the selection before that date.
SELECTED FILMS
Invitation
After the selection, the Artistic Director will send an official invitation to the submitters. This invitation includes:
- Information on the section the film is selected for (competition or non-competitive programmes)
- The hospitality protocol
- Request for acceptance of the invitation
To participate in the festival, the submitter must confirm the film’s attendance by the given deadline. Failure to confirm attendance by the deadline may result in the annulment of the invitation.
Once your film has been selected, you may use the festival laurel for publicity purposes. These will be shared with you after accepting the official invitation.
Requested Materials
After accepting the invitation to participate in the festival, the information given during the film submission process (credits etc.) must be confirmed or supplemented and sent to the festival.
Acceptance of the invitation obliges the participant to provide press and promotional material and to authorise its release.
The participant should provide the following materials:
- 3 Horizontal stills from the film – minimal resolution 1920:1200 pixels, as JPG/TIFF/PGN
- A portrait of the director(s) – minimal resolution 1200:1920 pixels, as JPG/TIFF/PGN
- Downloadable video file or link to the film trailer (or film excerpt of maximum 3 min) with and without English subtitles for promotional purposes (ProRes 422 or H.264 file)
The requested materials should be submitted no later than one week after the acceptance of the official invitation.
The participant must check all the information concerning their film based on a pre-publication “Film Information Check”. The festival accepts no liability in the event that its publications reproduce inaccuracies in the submitted materials.
Screening Copy
All films selected for the festival must be delivered:
- in DCP format, unencrypted
- ProRes 422 or H.264 file
- English subtitles (.srt file) as a separate file – not burned into the copy
The requested materials should be delivered no later than two weeks after the acceptance of the official invitation.
Screening Schedule
Each film selected for the competition programme will be screened several times during the festival. Film directors and other relevant team members will be invited by the festival to attend in person, or otherwise online, for the scheduled film screenings for an introduction and/or a Q&A session.
Hospitality Protocol
The festival invites directors whose films have been selected for the competition programme to attend the festival in person and present their films. If the director can’t attend, the festival will consider accepting other team members who are able to take their place. This will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
The festival will provide boarding for one person per film and for a maximum of 3 days.
The dates of in-person attendance at the festival shall be defined by the festival management in accordance with the screening schedule and cannot be modified once finalised. The festival management will try to accommodate the festival guests, adjusting their film screening times to their availability where possible. Any modification, addition, or removal of overnight stays after the final booking confirmation shall be at the guest's expense.
The festival does not cover travel expenses. However, the festival can offer support in the search for funding through national institutions likely to financially contribute to travel costs. The requests to these institutions will have to be made by the filmmakers directly.
USAGE RIGHTS
Agreement
By accepting the Artistic Director’s invitation to the festival, participants agree:
- To the Rules and Regulations as stated in this document
- Making the films available to the festival free of charge and without compensation to the rights holders
- That the films cannot be withdrawn from the festival after the festival invitation was formally accepted
By accepting the invitation, the participants guarantees:
- To have secured clearance of any copyrighted materials included in the film (picture, sound, music, archival material etc.) and materials submitted related to the film (stills from the film, photo of the director, trailer/film excerpt etc.) for all purposes for which the material will be used, including screening and promotion prior to, during and after the festival
- That by using the film, no rights of third parties, including persons depicted in the film, are infringed
The festival expects to be indemnified against any future claims pertaining to copyright, personality rights, music rights, archive licensing, photography licensing, as well as ancillary rights or the like, all in accordance with the common industry standards.
The festival's Artistic Director reserves the right to rule on any cases not defined by Rules and Regulations individually.
Authorisations
Upon the participant accepting the invitation, the festival has the right to:
- Use the information (the film title, credits etc.), stills from the film and a photo of the director(s) provided at the time of registration for the festival’s publicly accessible print and online media;
- Use film excerpt (a maximum of 3 minutes) and/or trailer as well as all others publicity materials for promoting the festival;
- That photographs, videos or interviews may be taken and recorded during the event for promotion purposes. Participants consent to the use of these images, video or sound recordings for promotional purposes by the festival;
- Screen the selected documentaries multiple times during the festival;
- Screen the award-winning films during the Awards Ceremony in Uzice and after the festival in the Echo of Interaction program. This selection of award-winning festival films will be screened in a limited number of theatres after the festival. In this case, the participant will be contacted separately to provide the additional rights;
- Keep the high-res video files of selected documentaries in its archive for non-circulating use.
Summary
Participation in the festival implies the unconditional acceptance of all articles set out in these Rules and Regulations.
Please address all additional enquiries to nadja@film-art.org.
