01
WORKS ACCEPTED
“Leiria Film Fest” allows Portuguese and International films for competition with a maximum running time of 20 minutes, in digital format, produced in 2025 or 2026, in the genre of: Fiction, Animation and Documentary.
All Portuguese short films selected will be qualified for the Sophia Awards of the Portuguese Academy of Cinema.
Festival Sections:
- International Short Films Competition (Fiction, Animation, Documentary);
- Portuguese Short Films Competition (Fiction, Animation, Documentary);
- Short Films for Children Competition (films for kids without dialogues).
02
ADMISSION
Submissions must be made online exclusively on the FilmFreeway platform, through the following link: https://filmfreeway.com/LeiriaFilmFest
Submissions, must be received no later than January, the 10th, 2026.
In exceptional cases the organization may accept submissions after this date.
After a successful submission, the inscription cannot be canceled or withdrawn from the competition.
Each director may compete with, no more than, 3 (three) short films.
Short films that have been submitted in other editions of this festival will be excluded. Given the Festival's audience, short films for an age group of M18 may also be excluded for programming reasons. Entries that do not meet the requirements described above will also be excluded from the contest.
03
SELECTION
The authors will be informed of their work’s selection on March 15th, 2026. The remaining ones will receive the information that they were not selected.
All selected directors will be offered accommodation and meals to attend the festival dates.
The festival does not pay screening fees for selected films and will not be able to help with travel.
After the selection, the Festival organization may use one minute of the film and also some advertising material for promotion.
04
JURY AND PROGRAM
Five professionals in the cinema area compose the jury of this competition. (You can see more information about the judges at www.leiriafilmfest.com). The jury has the power to evaluate and award the awards/distinctions.
For purposes of official selection, the organization will select about 40 short films. The numbers of this selection may vary according to participation and work quality, if the organization so decides.
No member of the jury can sign up for the contest. For the Jury’s deliberations, there will be no appeal.
05
AWARDS/DISTINCTIONS
The festival features eight awards/distinctions:
- Besta Short Film of the Festival;
- Best International Fiction Short Film;
- Best International Animation Short Film;
- Best International Documentary Short Film;
- Best Portuguese Fiction Short Film;
- Best Portuguese Animation Short Film;
- Best Portuguese Documentary Short Film;
- Best Children Short Film;
- Audience Award.
The jury reserves the right to award Honorable Mentions, or not to award any awards/distinctions, if it so decides.
The Festival is also a Qualifier for the Sophia Awards by the Portuguese Academy of Cinema.
06
SELECTION CRITERIA
The programmer will select the films, taking into account the originality, technical quality (image, sound and animation), screenplay, acting and/or voice-over and directing.
Apart from these parameters, it may exist a space for personal comments regarding the work.
07
IMPORTANT PROVISIONS
This Festival is organized by Leiria Film Fest- Cultural Association and it will take place between May 5th and 10th, 2026, in Teatro Miguel Franco, Leiria, Portugal, with the screening of the selected works, special sessions and an award ceremony.
The organization assumes that the author images (intellectual creations expressed by a set of combinations of words, music, sounds, written texts and moving images, fixed in any medium) are able, from the point of view of copyright law, to be used for public viewing, either during the festival or for any promotional activity related to the event, such as diffusing throughout the Internet and other media.
By submitting the registration, the film responsible allows its public exhibition at the Festival and other exhibits related to it, if they exist.
Any civil or criminal liability relating to the content of the work is entirely attributed to the authors.
The organization of the competition reserves the right to consider and decide any matter omitted in this Regulation and, in exceptional circumstances, decide to include a movie that does not fully comply with the regulation.
