The New Zealand Independent Film Festival is a bimonthly film competition for filmmakers from all over the world and films of all genres. Our jury of international judges evaluates all submitted films and awards the best films bimonthly with a finalist award.
The bimonthly finalists will compete for the final event in July and receive an annual award for each category that they have won. A selection of the annual winners will then be screened in three cities throughout New Zealand.
The awards will be presented in Nelson at our annual ceremony.
Our mission is to promote films, rewarding filmmaker for their work and to be the next step in their career.
All submitter are invited to participate in interviews for our podcast series which will be published on social media.

Awards & Prizes

Best Narrative
Best Drama
Best Documentary
Best Sports Documentary
Best Adventure
Best Thriller
Best Action
Best Comedy
Best Sci-Fi
Best Fantasy Film
Best Mystery Film
Best Parody
Best Film Noir
Best Animation
Best Indie Film
Best Music Video
Best Experimental Film (submit under Indie Film with note)
Best Inspirational Film
Best New Zealand Film
Best Microfilm
Best Trailer

Rules & Terms

- In order to submit a film, you must own the rights or have permission from the owner, which needs to be clearly indicated.
– Multiple submissions and multiple category submissions are accepted.
– Any foreign film that is not in English must have English subtitles.
– Films can be submitted in multiple categories in order to become a multi-award film.
– By submitting your movie, you authorize us to use, distribute and share the film, poster, trailer, synopsis and movie stills in our social media, online and during the festival.
- All feature films must be less than 100 minutes
- All short films must be less than 25 minutes.
- All micro short films must be less than 5 minutes.
- Not all the submissions are selected for the official competition and it is up to the discretion of our Judges to make the decisions.
- All fees are non-refundable.
– A submission can be disqualified when there is a copyright breach or if some content is considered inappropriate, for example pornography or depiction of abuse of people or animals.
- The festival reserves the right to change the event’s date and the date of the deadline for submissions.
- Submissions cannot be withdrawn after the official selection announcement of each round.
- The filmmaker has unlimited liability for any claims that may occur in result of screening the film either live or online.