İstanbul International Spring Film Festival (IISFF) is an annual film festival & film competition with a public screening event held in İstanbul.

We invite submissions of films from all around the world which demonstrate excellence in cinematography and other aspects of filmmaking. We urge filmmakers from all over the world to join us: We are OPEN FOR OPEN MINDS!

All submitted projects are evaluated by a team of experts from the film industry. First, a preliminary jury of 25 people from the film industry will asses the works applying for the competition, after the preliminary assessment, the finalist will be subjected to a second and final assesment by a 7 people main jury.

The main jury includes prominent names from cinema, theater, and literature to different branches of art in Türkiye.

Each year, IISFF will award the best projects through public screenings in İstanbul.

Each candidate can compete in multiple categories in order to increase their chances to receive an award.

Awards & Prizes

Producers of all the ranked films will be invited to our closing ceremony and the winners will receive a trophy and a certificate of achievement in HQ format. They will also receive our official Laurel, will be listed on our website and will be able to upload their achievement on IMDb.

Our closing ceremony will be held in İstanbul with the participation of prominent names and domestic/international press.

​Names of all the ranked films will be included in our press releases.

Rules & Terms

İstanbul International Spring Film Festival is looking for short films as well as feature films, documentaries, student films, animations and trailers.

We accept films of any genres and language with a maximum length of 300 minutes for feature films and 40 minutes for short films and other types. Non-Turkish films must have English subtitles.

We do not accept:​

1. Amateur videos.
2. Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations.
3. Pornography.
4. Films with a poor production standard (poor sound, no subtitles/captions for non-Turkish films, video resolution less than 1080p HD).
5. We don’t accept scripts.
6. We don't accept excerpts/scenes from films: The entire film should be submitted.

By submitting your film, take note that:

İstanbul International Spring Film Festival (IISFF) is hereby granted the rights to utilize an excerpt (trailer/teaser/poster/stills) from any film submitted for promotional purposes. The films will not be available online.

If we think that the categories submitted are not to a standard of a IISFF, they will be removed.

The competition reserves the right to reject applications and the jury can remove the movie from the competition at any time.

Entry fees are non-refundable. The individuals or corporations submitting their film hereby warrants that their film is authorized for possible screening (private and/or public) and understands and accepts these requirements, rules and regulations.

35 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Pegah Salempour (Rainy Pictures)

    We were informed that our film had won the Best Cinematography Award, and we fully understood the festival's decision to postpone the event due to the situation in the region. However, despite several follow-up emails and messages regarding the official Laurel and certificate, we never received a response. Unfortunately, the communication from the festival was disappointing.

    June 2026
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  • Jennifer Booth

    So grateful and honored to have Istanbul International Spring Film Festival select On Glory Street as an Official Selection for Best Script!
    Warm regards,
    Jenn Booth

    May 2026
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  • Mateusz Golebiewski

    Honest festival ! Very good and nice 😊

    April 2026
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  • humead alamri

    Thank you very much and have a successful course.

    April 2026
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  • Sree Hari Varma Sagi

    Truly one of the BEST filmfestivals out there! The communication was impeccable! So proud and honored to be an award winner in the short film category. Such an incredible platform to bring together voices from all over the world. The Jury was world class, that also includes legends from the industry! Its an honor in itself to be a part of a festival with them as jury! Kudos to the programming team and the jury for the incredible festival!

    April 2026
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