The ROIFA "Rome Outcast Independent Film Award" was created with the purpose of giving space to the authors of independent feature and short films around the world and to offer them a direct and concrete way to communicate with the professionals of the industry, which is why the winners of the annual edition will receive, among other prizes, a review written by an important member of the Accademia del Cinema Italiano, and a direct meeting with the producer of Kimera Film, production company that counts among its titles also "Don't be bad", film by Claudio Calligari that launched the career of Alessandro Borhi.
We believe that the most interesting future for cinema has to be discovered in today's independent cinema, from which the strongest and most incisive ideas and the most personal and courageous authors often emerge. For this reason, our festival accepts all kinds of short and feature films, of any length and with any theme. We want every author to have the possibility to express himself in the way he prefers, without restrictions.
Unlike many independent festivals, every year we will hold a live screening event at a film school in Rome, the "CineTv Roberto Rossellini". The winning films will hence be screened in an environment composed of students, teachers, professionals, critics and simple amateurs.

Awards & Prizes

Finalists will be announced each month.
- All finalists will receive a special laurel and will be published on our social pages:

Among the finalists will be chosen the winners for the following categories:

- Best Short Film
- Best Feature Film
- Best Director
- Best Screenplay
- Best Editing
- Best Original Score
- Best Cinematography
- Best Acting

All winners will be published on our social pages.
- All winners will receive a certificate.
- The winners of the "Best Feature Film" and "Best Short Film" awards will join the nominees of the annual edition.

The winners of the annual edition will be announced during the live ceremony that will be held at the official screening room of the film institute "Cine Tv Roberto Rossellini" in Rome (The ceremony will be simultaneously followable on both Twich and Youtube).
- All the nominees of the "Best Short Film" award will be screened during the ceremony.
- The winner of the "Best Feature Film" award will be screened at the end of the ceremony.
- The winners of all categories will receive the trophy.
- Between the winner of the "Best Feature Film" award and the winner of the "Best Short Film" award will be chosen the most valid product, which will also receive a direct meeting with the producer of "Kimera Films", production company that counts among its titles also "Don't be bad", film by Claudio Calligari that launched the career of Alessandro Borghi.
- Between the winner of the "Best Feature Film" award and the winner of the "Best Short Film" award will be chosen the most valid product, which will also receive a review written by an important journalist and film critic.

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Ogni edizione bimensile saranno annunciati i selezionati.
Tra i selezionati verranno annunciati i finalisti.
- Tutti i finalisti riceveranno un alloro speciale e saranno pubblicati sulle nostre pagine social.

Tra i finalisti saranno scelti i vincitori per le seguenti categorie:

- Miglior Corto
- Miglior Film
- Miglior Regia
- Miglior Sceneggiatura
- Miglior Montaggio
- Miglior Colonna Sonora
- Miglior Fotografia
- Miglior Attore/Attrice

Tutti i vincitori saranno pubblicati sulle nostre pagine social.
- Tutti i vincitori riceveranno il certificato di vittoria.
- I vincitori dei premi “Miglior Film” e “Miglior Corto” entreranno a far parte dei nominati dell’edizione annuale.

I vincitori dell’edizione annuale saranno annunciati durante la cerimonia dal vivo che si terrà presso la sala proiezioni ufficiale dell’istituto di cinematografia “Cine Tv Roberto Rossellini” (La cerimonia sarà contemporaneamente seguibile sia su Twich che su Youtube).
- Tutti i nominati della sezione “Miglior Corto” saranno proiettati durante la cerimonia
- Il vincitore della sezione “Miglior Film” sarà proiettato al termine della cerimonia
- I vincitori di tutte le categorie riceveranno il trofeo.
- Tra il vincitore della categoria “Miglior Film” e il vincitore della categoria “Miglior Corto” verrà scelto il prodotto più valido, il quale riceverà anche un colloquio diretto con il produttore di “Kimera Films”, società di produzione che conta tra i suoi titoli anche “Non essere cattivo”, film di Claudio Calligari che ha lanciato la carriera di Alessandro Borhi.
- Tra il vincitore della categoria “Miglior Film” e il vincitore della categoria “Miglior Corto” verrà scelto il prodotto più valido, il quale riceverà anche una recensione approfondita scritta da un importante saggista, giornalista e critico cinematografico.

Rules & Terms

We accept all types of short, mid-length and feature films.
Free theme.
Any film that is not in English or Italian must have English subtitles.
Each filmmaker, by entering his film in this festival, declares to own all rights to the work.

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Accettiamo ogni tipo di cortometraggi, mediometraggi e lungometraggi.
Il tema è libero.
Ogni film che non sia né in lingua inglese né in lingua italiana deve avere i sottotitoli in inglese.
Ogni filmaker iscrivendo il suo film a questo concorso dichiara di possedere tutti i diritti sull’opera.
80 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Candy Beard

    BEWARE!!! THIS FESTIVAL IS A JOKE!
    Do not waste your hard earned money.

    So I hope to warn you enthusiastic filmmakers before you throw your money away on this joke of a festival.

    According to their Film Freeway page, their festival was supposed to make notifications on May 11th and their event was to be held on May 13th. Well, they did not even send out notifications until May 15th and when I got the notification that my film was SELECTED I responded with a “Thank you for seeing something special in my film and thank you for selecting it. When will we be told of final results?”

    Almost immediately I received a response with a “CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NOMINATION!” so naturally I was very excited. I replied again and asked “What are we nominated for?” and I received (almost immediately another e-mail) saying that they could not tell me until they made all announcements on May 24th. So I waited patiently for May 24th to roll around. May 24th came and it went…. No news.

    Tonight, the night of June 02, I decided to go check their Instagram page and was extremely disappointed to see that my film was only an “Official Selection” and NOT a NOMINEE as promised according to the 3 images they posted to Instagram.

    So not only do these guys not keep with their schedule as promised, but they also lie! But it gets worse.

    I’d also like to point out there are several folks who left reviews that are similar to mine: DISAPPOINTED to find out there is NO COMMUNICATION from these guys, and some even go as far as to say this is a “ghost festival”, a SCAM and “Does not really exist.” And I have taken screenshots of all these and will share them with Film Freeway.

    Also, and probably worst of all, they say on their Film Freeway page that winners are selected for all of these categories: Short film, feature film, directing, screenwriter, editor, score, cinematography and acting. That’s a total of *8* awards that should be given. This is false if you look at their Instagram page you will see that they ONLY CHOOSE ONE WINNER: SHORT FILM. This is despicable!

    And finally I want to ask this question…. WHY do they claim to be in their FIRST year and yet film “reviews” go all the way back to 2021?? This whole situation stinks and I for one am disappointed in myself that I did not more carefully look over reviews before submitting. But, when I saw that they were in their FIRST YEAR (supposedly), I wanted to give them a shot, as I used to run a film festival myself and I know how hard it is to get filmmakers to give you a shot when you have not been around for a decade or more. So I like to support the little guys. Little did I know these “newcomers” would take my hard earned money and run (and lie).

    BEWARE!!!! BEWARE!!!
    BTW, I do plan to report them to Film Freeway. These guys should be shut down!!

    June 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Good evening, we were very impressed by your review. We apologise if there were any communication problems or if we were not clear enough, but we will try to explain again:
    - as it is written on our filmfreeway page, our festival works like this: instead of doing one big annual edition, we do 5 bi-monthly editions per year, in each of which we choose the selected, finalists and winners of the various prizes listed on filmfreeway. We do not have nominees, it is not written anywhere, so surely your thinking that you were chosen as a nominee stemmed from a misunderstanding and miscommunication on our part, for which we apologise.
    - all the prizes we give in each bi-monthly edition (direction, screenplay, photography, sound, etc.) are to be considered as encouragement for the filmmakers, a small recognition of their work that we are keen to give, instead of doing one big annual edition and that's it.
    - Instead, in each bi-monthly edition, only the winners in the ‘best short film’ and ‘best feature film’ sections enter the annual selection. The annual selection ends with an in-person event, within the host school, where only the winners of the annual selection are screened, and the various prizes written on the filmfreeway page are awarded.
    - This year's annual event took place on 24 May, as we had written privately to you, and there was also a live instagram broadcast. We will post photos of the event in the coming days.
    - As you say, there are other, few, reviews saying that this festival does not respect what is written on the filmfreeway page, but looking closely it is clear that these few reviews all stem from a lack of understanding of the rules written on the filmfreeway page. All these people in fact think that the monthly event is the annual event, and do not understand that there is only one annual event in attendance each year, and that the event each month is only the day we post and announce the monthly winners. Unfortunately, given these few negative reviews, we are also considering to stop doing monthly editions and just do a big annual edition, but this would prevent many young filmmakers from having their work recognised with a monthly award and feedback from us, which is exactly the intention behind our festival.
    - Finally, we find it quite out of place to write in the review about saving one's money, because this festival, being a small independent festival, was created precisely with the aim of facilitating young filmmakers who want to enter their films, and we have always maintained very low prices, which basically only serve us to re-enter the costs for the annual event and for the promotion.
    Have a nice day

  • perla maria gutierrez

    Great opportunity for films with no traditional narrative :)

    May 2024
    Helpful
  • alessio falbo

    Bellissima opportunità per noi produzioni indipendente. Consiglio!!

    April 2024
    Helpful
  • Seerkatchi Packil Pandian Bhaskaran

    Everything is great! Many thanks to the organizers of the festival.

    March 2024
    Helpful
  • Jyoti Kapur Das

    Quite an honour being in Competition here.
    Keep it up, ROIFA.

    March 2024
    Helpful