Montreal Independent Film Festival is an annual and a monthly online IMDb verified festival dedicated to international and Canadian shorts and features of all genres.

The award winning films and the official selections of each edition will have the option to be promoted and screened through Toronto Film Channel which has screened more than 340 films for our festival throughout the last year.

Cannes award winners, Oscar nominees and stars have competed alongside emerging independent fillm projects from all over the world in our festival. The members of our jury have been selected from fillmmakers, actors, producers and distributors from Canada, U.S. and France.

When the pandemic closed down the cinemas in Canada, we decided to have a monthly virtual festival with online screening options for all official selections and award winners. Some of our films in our virtual monthly festival have thousands of views since Toronto Film Channel promotes the films to thousands of film industry members.

However, online promotion and screening is not mandatory for entering the monthly competition and is totally optional. The films are screened privately to jury members assigned to various categories in our monthly festival. We also do not screen any films online in our monthly edition unless it is requested. Our annual event will continue either as an online screening award event or with live screenings in cinema for a week in late August.

Our festival also has a publicity department which has been very popular and beneficial to independent film projects and artists from all over the globe. The festival has promoted and featured hundreds of independent films and indie artists in various film magazines every year.

All the monthly award winners and the nominees will be credited on IMDb and can be promoted and featured through various film magazines. The monthly winners are further nominated for our annual festival and awards with cash prizes and bonuses.

Montreal Independent Film Festival truly cares about the language of cinema, independent filmmaking, filmmakers, arts and all the artists involved in each film project.

We are an organization committed to selecting, awarding, promoting, featuring and screening international and Canadian films.

Awards & Prizes

Annual Festival:
$10,000 in cash prizes, promotions, bonuses and services are shared with the winners in the annual competition.
$1,000  is awarded to Best Narrative Feature of the year
$1,000 is awarded to Best Narrative Short of the year
$1,000 is awarded to Best Documentary of the year
$1,000 is awarded to Best Canadian Film of the year
$500 is awarded in promotions, features and services in other categories of the festival.
Awards are sponsored by Toronto Film Magazine & Baraheni Films 

Monthly Festival:
All the winners are credited on IMDb, promoted on social media, various magazines and can be further nominated and selected for our annual festival.

Categories:
Best Narrative Feature
Best Narrative short
Best Feature Documentary
Best Short Documentary
Best Canadian Film
Best Horror
Best Comedy
Best Animation
Best Science Fiction
Best Web Series/TV Pilot
Best Experimental
Best Human Rights
Best Environmental
Best Female Director
Best First Time Filmmaker
Best Independent Film
Best Student Film
Best LGBTQ
Best Music Video
Best Unproduced Script
Best Thriller
Best Trailer
Best Director
Best Script
Best Producer
Best Cinematographer
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Editor
Best Composer

Rules & Terms

Films can be from anywhere in the world since the festival is an international competition.
The festival has the right to use a trailer, stills and a poster from the films for promotional purposes.
Entry fees are non refundable.
There is no premier status requirement for films that would like to enter the monthly competition.
English or French subtitles are required for non English and non French films.
Films can also be available online and in other platforms and still enter the competition.
Shorts must be less than 40 minutes. All projects over 40 minutes should submit to the feature category.
Completion date of films should be in the past 4 years in order to enter the competition.

275 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Edward Hicklin

    Well organized, friendly and with the perfect amount of facial hair.

    April 2021
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  • kristen case

    Great communication and amazing festival

    April 2021
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  • Job Ethan Christenson

    Thank you, thank you, MIFF. Your attention and support meant everything. We appreciate the exposure.

    April 2021
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  • JERZY KOWYNIA

    Thank you for your painful job of reading my script. I appreciate it a lot

    April 2021
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  • Melissa L. Aspeitia

    What an honor for the screenplay "The Forgotten " to be selected. It is a beautiful work of art and it is very clear to me that all the judges are very dedicated to acknowledging a good work of art either in written form or film...

    April 2021
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