1. Eligibility
Films that have premiered after the 1st January 2021 are eligible. We accept films of any genre (fiction, animation, documentary, experimental, etc) with a maximum duration of 30 minutes.
Films that are freely available online for viewers in The Netherlands are not eligible. Films that have had a limited online festival screening are still eligible. Leiden Shorts may make an exception in specific cases.
Films that have previously been submitted and rejected are not eligible to be considered for the festival again.
Works in progress are accepted, as long as they are submitted before the deadline, and the expectation is to have a finished film by approximately March 2022.
2. Submission
You can submit your film via https://www.filmfreeway.com/LeidenShorts. No other form of submission will be accepted. Please provide us with complete credits and promotional material (stills, trailer) via the platform.
3. Competitions & Prizes
Leiden Shorts awards four prizes: three competition prizes chosen by professional juries, and one Audience Award. In our three competitions, International, National and Student, films from all genres are eligible. Student films only can be selected for our Student Competition. Dutch-majority productions can only be selected for our National Competition. All other films can be selected for our International Competition. All selected films automatically run for the Audience Award in addition to any other competition they might be selected for.
The awards come with a money prize:
International Competition (€1000)
Student Competition (€500)
National Competition (€500)
Audience Award (€500)
4. Deadlines and fees
Early bird deadline: 8th of October 2021 (€9,50 submission fee)
Regular deadline: 5th of December 2021 (€12,50 submission fee)
Last chance deadline: 31st of December 2021 (€20 submission fee)
The above mentioned fees are our regular submissions fees. We offer a student discount, with fees of respectively €6, €9 and €16,50. Please upload your student card as attachment on FilmFreeway when using this discount.
5. Screening files & promotional material
Leiden Shorts requires a digital file (ProRes or H264) with embedded English subtitles or with subtitles in a separate .srt file. The festival will make the DCP of the films on location. All films need to be available for an English-speaking audience (either spoken language or subtitles need to be in English). Films with strong dialects may require English subtitles, even though the film is English spoken. The selected films will be stored in the archive of the festival but will not be screened again unless agreed upon with the rightsholder of the film.
The data and pictures provided during the registration on filmfreeway.com will be used for diverse publications (programme, trailers, website, social media). By submitting your data you agree to their usage by Leiden Shorts for the promotional purposes only. In case no promotional material is provided, we can use excerpts from the film for promotional purposes.
6. Pledge of Solidarity
For the past few years we have been providing waivers to directors from all over the world who cannot afford our submission fee. This has been done in order to support short filmmakers around the world as well as trying to have a diverse and inclusive programme. We frequently grant waivers or discounts to filmmakers from underrepresented countries who cannot afford our submission fee due to the lack of funding opportunities. For this, send an email directly at submissions@leidenshorts.nl providing as much information about your project as possible.
7. Agreement Terms & Conditions
By submitting a film to Leiden Shorts the submitter accepts the terms and conditions. Leiden Shorts has the right to cancel the submission if the film does not conform to the rules. Once the film is submitted, there will be no refund of the submission fee.
If you have any questions regarding submissions, you can send an email to: submissions@leidenshorts.nl.
