📝 OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival (🇺🇦: Міжнародний етнографічний кінофестиваль “ОКО”; 🇧🇬: Международен фестивал на етнографското кино “ОКО”; as an alternative to the official title of the Film Festival, it is allowed to use "OKO International Ukrainian-Bulgarian Ethnographic Film Festival" or OKO IEFF) is an annual international film festival since 2020. OKO has been a Ukrainian-Bulgarian festival since 2023. It conducts the main events on the territory of Ukraine and Bulgaria.

• Ethnography, folkloristic, anthropology, history, everyday life, problems and hopes, culture, national traditions and habits, notable events and personalities, post-ethnography etc. are the main focus of the Film Festival."OKO" is a symbiosis of honoring traditions, learning new things and searching for current forms and trends, both in the national cultures of Ukraine and Bulgaria, and in the cultures of the whole world.

• OKO IEFF accepts for participation in all sections and programs not only non-fiction films, but also feature-length and short films of all genres and made in any technique (live-action, documentary, animated, experimental etc) corresponding to the main topic of the Film Festival.

🇬🇧 Statute of the VI OKO IEFF: https://en.okofilmfest.com.ua/filmfestival-concept-2025
🇺🇦 Положення про VI МЕКФ «ОКО»: https://www.okofilmfest.com.ua/filmfestival-concept-2025
🇧🇬 Разпоредба за VI МФЕК „ОКО“: https://bg.okofilmfest.com.ua/filmfestival-concept-2025

📎 You can visit our official HQ-Letterboxd page:
💾 https://letterboxd.com/okoieff/
📎 Competitive selections and winners of past editions can be viewed in the festival tab in IMDb:
💾 https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0047128/

⁉️ If you have any additional questions, you may contact us by sending an email to:
👤 the festival team (in the subject line of the letter, do not forget to indicate the specifics of the question): okofilmfestival@gmail.com
👤 programme director (exclusively on the issue of submitting and selecting films): oscar75@ua.fm

🏆 Jury Grand Prize
🗒 Prize package includes 500 EUR, festival trophy, jury festival diploma. Awarded in each of the competitive program sections: OKO GLOBAL FICTION, OKO GLOBAL NON-FICTION, NASHE OKO, OKO SHORT

🏆 Special Jury Prize for Ethnographic Representation
🗒 Prize package includes 200 EUR, festival trophy, jury festival diploma. Awarded in each of the competitive program sections: OKO GLOBAL FICTION, OKO GLOBAL – NON-FICTION, NASHE OKO, OKO SHORT

🏆 Special Jury Prize for Best Ukrainian-Bulgarian Short Film
🗒 Prize package includes 200 EUR, festival trophy, jury festival diploma. Awarded in OKO SHORT program

🏆 Jury Special Mention
🗒 Prize package includes jury festival diploma. By decision of the jury, any film, person, team member, ensemble, creative team, protagonist, etc. in a film of any competition section may be given a special mention.

🏆 Bolhrad City Council Audience Prize
🗒 Prize package includes 150 EUR, festival trophy, festival diploma. A special audience prize on behalf of the community of the city of Bolhrad for the most favorite Bulgarian film from the festival line-up (for films shown for the first time at the festival)

🏆 OKO Ukraine & OKO Bulgaria Audience Grand Prizes
🗒 Prize package includes 150 EUR, festival trophy, festival diploma, each. Competition films of all sections participate, the winner is determined by audience voting.

🏆 OKO Ukraine On-line & OKO Bulgaria On-line Audience Grand Prizes
🗒 Prize package includes 150 EUR, festival trophy, festival diploma, each. Competition films of all sections, demonstrated in the online edition, are participating, the winner is determined by the number of views by the audience.

🏆 Festival Team Special Prizes for: Feature Film / Short Film / Creative Ethnographic Representation / Cinematic Innovation & Craft
🗒 Prize package includes festival trophy & festival diploma, each. The festival team and the program department independently determine the winner in each prize category. Films from across the lineup that were screened at the festival for the first time are being considered.

🏆 OKO Achievement Awards Contribution to: Development of Ethnography and Culture / Development of Cinema
🗒 Prize package includes special festival trophy & festival diploma, each. The festival determines recipients and their number independently.

🏆 COLLATERAL JURY & FESTIVAL PARTNERS PRIZES
🗒 The organizer may, upon agreement, involve parallel independent collateral juries that determine their prizes and awards independently. The prizes of the involved independent parallel juries are equated to the festival award, in accordance with the generally accepted practice of holding similar events, namely international film festivals.

📄 NOTE: As a general rule, the winner in all sections is the film and director, with the exception of special mentions. The cash prize can be received by the producer, the copyright holder or other person, without acquiring the status of "film festival winner".

📁 2025 OKO IEFF SUBMISSION TERMS AND CONDITIONS

📝 The 6th OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival is scheduled to be held in Ukraine and Bulgaria. The Film Festival will be held in mixed formats: in-person (aka offline) and on-line.

📆 🇺🇦 Ukraine in-person: September 5-14, 2025 - Kyiv & Bolhrad
📆 🇺🇦 Ukraine on-line: September 5-14, 2025* + happy audience weeks September 15-30, 2025* - MEGOGO

📆 🇧🇬 Bulgaria in-person: October 3-11, 2025 - Sofia
📆 🇧🇬 Bulgaria on-line: October 3-31, 2025* - Neterra TV

*The decision to show films in online format on the territory of Ukraine and Bulgaria (geo-limited to Bulgaria and Ukraine) is agreed by the Organizer with the authors & rights holders of the films, submitted to the Film Festival, separately.

• The films selected for the competition programs will be identical both for screenings in Ukraine and Bulgaria. Films from out-of-competition programs and from the online section may differ and are shown depending on the conditions either in Ukraine or in Bulgaria. All films selected for screening both in Ukraine and Bulgaria in any section, both offline and online, receive the status of the OKO IEFF 2025 Official Selection.

📌 The program of the Film Festival in 2025 includes main sections:

⭐️ OKO GLOBAL FICTION - competition program of international (including Ukrainian and Bulgarian) full-length fiction and narrative feature films (a running time of more than 41 minutes)
⭐️ OKO GLOBAL NON-FICTION - competition program of international (may include as an exception Ukrainian and Bulgarian) full-length non-fiction & documentary feature films (a running time of more than 41 minutes)
⭐️ NASHE OKO - competition program of Ukrainian and Bulgarian full-length non-fiction & documentary feature films (a running time of more than 41 minutes)
⭐️ OKO SHORT - competition program of short films (a running time of 40 minutes or less)
⭐️ OKO RETROSPECTIVE – thematic retrospective of personalities, studios, etc. & Best of OKO – a selection of films from past editions of the film festival
⭐️ ОКО FOCUS - out-of-competition thematic selection of films
⭐️ OKO HITS - out-of-competition section for the main jury; consists of films that have been distributed or have been successful at other film festivals
⭐️ OKO SPECIAL - out-of-competition section of special screenings and events

📎 The Festival reserves the right to create additional program competitive and non-competitive sections based on considerations of program completion and the volume of films received by the Festival. As well as to organize other festival activities and events. The opening and closing films of the Film Festival may be included in any section.

• As general rule, by submitting a film to the Film Festival and agreeing to all the terms of the Regulations, the authorized person (author/rightholder) automatically consents to at least four general public screenings of the film within the Film Festival: two in Ukraine and two in Bulgaria. In some cases, the parties decide on the number of additional screenings. The Film Festival has the right to use short fragments of selected films (no longer than three minutes) and other materials for promotional purposes. The Organizer has the right to organize charity meetings for any needs, without the goal of making a profit during all film festival events.

📌 Online screenings:

• All films included in the list of official selection will be offered the option of screening in online format on the territory of Ukraine and Bulgaria during the dates specified for this purpose. Online screenings will take place with the support and using the technical capabilities and resources of the Film Festival's partners VOD and OTT services MEGOGO (Ukraine) and Neterra.TV (Bulgaria). Also, films that will not be shown in the offline format may be selected for the online section. Online screenings are an official part of the Film Festival program with the status of a festival screening and festival official selection status.

📌 Submission, selection and review terms:

• The general term for accepting films through the FilmFreeway platform runs from February 03, 2025 to June 30, 2025 (until March 01, the submission of the films is fee free). As a general rule the program department reviews the submitted applications until July 01 and informs the applicants through the status on the FilmFreeway platform (or by alternative means) about the results of the review by this date. Applicants must submit all materials*, film copies and subtitles (or dialogue/editing sheets) to the Film Festival by July 15. In case of failure to provide the necessary materials and a film copy, the film will be deprived of the status of an official participant of the Film Festival and will be excluded from the competitive or non-competitive program.

• List of the promomaterials (not exhaustive): written consent to participate; filled out festival questionnaire; vertical poster (if available) or poster-equivalent image in hi-res JPEG format; 4 frames from the film in digital form of polygraphic quality in hi-res JPEG format; photo of the director in digital print quality in hi-res JPEG format. Other promotional materials - upon separate request. In some cases, the Organizer may offer other terms and alternative methods of submission/acceptance, receipt of materials, film copies, etc. with the mutual consent of all interested parties, which is agreed in each case individually. The person submitting the film for consideration (selection) is responsible for the film's compliance with copyright/related rights and assumes the authority to conduct further negotiations with the Film Festival.

📌 General film requirements & technical requirements for all screener film copies

• Audiovisual works of any type (fiction and non-fiction) and genres, created in any technique, and which correspond to the main focus and theme of the Film Festival, are accepted for participation.

• Availability (or production in case of official selection for the Film Festival) of a copy with the technical parameters: codec (mostly) H.264, container – MP4, MPEG. Video extension - 1920 × 1080 (Full HD, 1080p), but not less than 720 × 576. Sound frequency from 24 kHz and higher. If there is no copy of the film online, the participant has to send it to the Organizer on a flash drive by mail or in another way.

• Accurate, legible English-language subtitles are required. Subtitles must be provided with timing as a separate file (srt format), and not embedded into the video image as a hardsub.

📌 General requirements for the films in the competition sections:

• The first public showing and/or production of competing films must be no earlier than January 1, 2023. The Film Festival reserves the right to determine whether the film corresponds to the section, chosen by the applicant and, in such a case, to change the competition section/category, as well as to offer a screening in the out-of-competition section, if the film was not selected for the competition program. The Organizer determines the number of the films in the competition section independently, based on the number of the received applications. Also, the Organizer has the right not to select a film for either the competitive or non-competitive program for any reason.

• Prior to screening at the Film Festival, the film may have any festival and/or theatrical distribution and public exhibition, including being placed on VOD and OTT services and publicly available on the streaming platforms and video streaming websites. However, preference will be given to the applicant films for which the screening within the Film Festival will be the premiere in Ukraine and/or Bulgaria, and/or which have not had a theatrical or other form of distribution or public screenings, other than film festivals, or a limited number of public screenings. The Organizer and the program department of the Film Festival have the right to determine whether an audiovisual work corresponds to the selection criteria for the competition sections or not independently.

• The Film Festival does not allow the films whose production is incomplete before the date of the event, parts of films, series episodes (unless a part of the series is a separate film and has distribution as a separate audiovisual work), audiovisual content intended for social networks to participate in the competition sections, music and video clips. The Organizer and program department of the Film Festival can make an exception to this rule in extraordinary cases.

• The Organizer has the right to exclude the film from the Film Festival program in case of receiving evidence of violation of copyright/related rights of third people by the person who submitted the film for participation in the Film Festival. A film may also be removed from the festival and deprived of its official selection status if inconsistencies and gross violations of regulations are identified, as well as for other reasons, including reputational risks.

‼️ IMPORTANT NOTE: Full official rules, terms & regulations for holding the Film Festival in 2025 are contained on the official website. Please read them carefully. The rules are posted in English, Ukrainian and Bulgarian. Only an excerpt from the rules and guidelines has been provided here. Submitting a film through this platform means that the applicant has read the rules and accepted their terms. The organizers may change some rules based on the current situation, publishing such changes on their official website or making announcements on their official social media accounts.

🇬🇧 Regulations of the VI OKO IEFF: https://en.okofilmfest.com.ua/regulations-2025
🇺🇦 Регламент VI МЕКФ «ОКО»: https://www.okofilmfest.com.ua/regulations-2025
🇧🇬 Регламент на VI МФЕК „ОКО“: https://bg.okofilmfest.com.ua/regulations-2025

=== Note-bonus from festival team: thank you if you have carefully read our rules & terms; as a reward, the festival offers you entry fee waiver code: selifonik ===

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • A wonderful, hospitable, very emotional, vibrant festival.. A lot of films could be seen - for this special thanks to the program director of the festival. A professional jury and an excellent atmosphere permeated with national flavor.

    January 2025
  • Johannes Förster

    Thanks for all and keep on with the great work !

    December 2024
  • Whilst this is a niche festival, it knows how to curate so effectively which is fantastic! We had four clients screen in 2024:

    🎬 Blood
    🎬 Meet Daniel
    🎬 Mountain Boy
    🎬 The Cigarette Surfboard

    November 2024
  • Artyom Golubev

    The OKO Film Festival is a vibrant celebration of cinematic art, an atmosphere that inspires and unites creators and viewers!

    November 2024
  • Gisela Chicolino

    A festival like it is a necessary one. Please keep working on generating this exquisite programming for the audiences and thanks a lot for selecting our Latin American film! @films.to.festivals

    November 2024