International Mobile Film Festival

2026 Rules: Deadlines are listed in each category for short and feature films. 

FEATURE FILM COMPETITION: We are looking for exceptional quality films with higher production quality and story driven narrative. We will select two feature films to compete and screen during the in-person film festival. *Check our website for rules and criteria in detail.

All contests and competitions must abide by these rules: Vulgar, porn, or demeaning and offensive films will be disqualified.

Respect other artists by not using media of any kind without proper licenses, permissions and clearance. Proof may be required to qualify. All films and projects should be original works created by the submitting filmmaker(s). Plagiarism or unauthorized use of others’ work is prohibited.

We have extended deadlines and beyond those deadlines we offer no exceptions. It takes a lot of work to process and prepare films for screening in an event. We reserve the right to refuse all films beyond the deadlines set by our festival. We will not extend deadlines for anyone. There is no preferential treatment in our festival.

After the deadline has passed, and your film is selected, you will receive official selection laurels and a letter welcoming you to the current edition you submitted to. We urge you to keep checking for emails from us so you don’t miss requests from us.

All Films must be shot with smartphone cameras only. Horizontal films only, with high resolution. Must be formatted to play on large wide screens and look good.

Not more than 10% aerial footage from drones is acceptable. See RULES and CRITERIA pages on our website for specifics on these requirements.

Short Films must be exceptional quality films. If you are not experienced as a filmmaker, you can enter films that fall within the categories listed below into "The Rookie Award" category for new or non experienced filmmakers.

We still require a level of quality with video and audio to be selected. Please find details about this special category on our website and in the category before you submit.

All Short Films must be between 3 & 10 minutes and Not One Second Shorter or Longer, including intro and end credits and/or video black at beginning or end.

Feature Film Competition: all films must be high quality production narrative story based films between 60 and 120 minutes total length. Only two films will be selected to screen and compete in the festival and online.

Rookie Award Films must be between 1 & 5 minutes.

REQUIRED FOR ALL COMPETITIONS: English embedded captions/subtitles for all foreign, non-English spoken, or hard to understand or hard to hear dialogue and narration/voiceovers in all films is required. All films may be subject to embedded closed captioning in English.

For All Film Competitions: We require filmmakers to communicate with us directly during the selection and film screening process. Please note, we do not pay or offer screening fees. We will contact all filmmakers whose films are selected prior to their film’s official selection to ensure all qualifications have been met and verified.

Our correspondence includes signing a release agreement form that gives us permission to include your film in our festival with a statement that we have the right to distribute the film in our film festival and that all information and licenses required are genuine. Without returning the signed form we cannot screen your film in our festival.

The form protects filmmakers and our festival. If you are submitting a film and are not the owner and filmmaker, you’ll need to contact us for further communication, only if the film is selected.

You will only be required to sign the separate form if your film is selected, in order to complete the selection process. You may also be required to submit licenses, proofs and other items such as talent release forms; upon request.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

We have a detailed easy to read page on our website with all the rules and criteria. We urge you to read them before you submit your project. There are no refunds.

https://internationalmobilefilmfestival.com/criteria/