SA Indie Film Fest returns for its second year, bigger and better than ever! We have expanded for our 2019 season to feature more award categories, a bigger jury and even more fantastic independent cinema.

The South African Independent Film Festival aims to support both emerging and experienced filmmakers, by creating a breeding place for their work to be reviewed and judged and providing access to a larger audience through media artistic events.

Our filmmakers will share their best works in the most dynamic city in the world. Our film screenings will take place once a year.

Where both filmmakers and film enthusiasts gather to discover new forms of expressiveness and to exchange thoughts and ideas.

The festival is taking place in May 2019, which will feature the winners of each category . The SAIFF will announce the Official Selection, the Nominees for every award one month before the festival.

Our jury formed of film professionals will review all submitted films from an independent point of view, seeking creativity, vision, innovative ideas, powerful messages and attention to details, with the aim of discovering projects with the potential to define the direction of contemporary cinema.

2019 JURY TO BE ANNOUNCED

Awards & Prizes

Awards

BEST SHORT FILM

AUDIENCE AWARD

BEST DIRECTOR
Award Certificate

BEST SCREENWRITER
Award Certificate

BEST ACTOR
Award Certificate

BEST ACTRESS
Award Certificate

BEST EDITOR
Award Certificate

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Award Certificate

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Award Certificate

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Award Certificate

BEST EXPERIMENTAL
Award Certificate

BEST ANIMATION
Award Certificate

BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Award Certificate

BEST VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
Award Certificate

Rules & Terms

Rules & Terms
- Submissions -

You are entitled to any amount of entries for the festival

- Films -

We accept Short Films, Music Videos , Documentaries
Short films submitted to SAIFF should be under 20 minutes, with a minimum length of 1 minute. Music Videos should not be longer than 10 minutes. There are no restrictions on how old your movie is or when it was made.

All films must come with English subtitles if not in english (with an exception for music videos and movies where English is the main language spoken). Any genre and format is accepted.

- Disclaimer and Rights -

By entering or submitting to South African independent film festival , the participant acknowledges understanding and agreeing to all festival Rules, Terms, Conditions and Guidelines associated with the Festival.

The filmmaker/institution that is submitting the film must own the rights to do so and is responsible for the content they are providing. By submitting, the filmmaker allows SAIFF to create a page for their film without infringing copyright of any kind of form.
If your film won't get an Official Selection, the entry fee won't be refunded.
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- The Process -

Winning films will be highlighted and promoted within the platform. Also, being selected for our Screening Event doesn’t prevent you from submitting your film to other festivals as well.

- Rules & Process -

All genres and formats are considered to be eligible for a nomination or to win one or more of these categories.

Great quality is a standard. Films with a poor production standard (lack of sound quality, absence of subtitles/captions for non-English films, video resolution less than 720p HD) will not be accepted.

The winners of each category will get our official printable Award Certificate.

The ‘Best Picture’ Winner will be awarded with our SAIFF Trophy.

The Best Film will consist in 3 Nominations, while the ’Individual’ awards will have at least 3 nominations per category.

The AUDIENCE AWARD will be decided entirely by the public during the Screening Event. The film with the highest amount of votes will be announced at the end of the event, after all the votes will have been counted.
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We WILL NOT publish your film on our platform, so we do not require the film to be embedded on our online website, if your film will be accepted in the Official Selection/Competition.

- Announcements -

SAIFF will announce the Official Selection, the Nominees one month before the event date.
5 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Marlisa Doubell

    High standard of excellence upheld regarding film finalists, general organization & communication was excellent. Incredible vibe on the day despite the weather, individual attention given and all filmmakers were encouraged to break the ice and socialize. A great experience all round!
    Massive congratulations to Ryan Kruger & James C. Williamson on this initiative. Highly recommend this festival!

    August 2018
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  • Peter Regan

    My short "Once Upon a Planet" screened here. Although I could not personally attend, I will say that the communication was great. I was able to confer with the festival directors, they responded to my tweets, promoted my films online, all that jazz. Hope I can submit again and hopefully attend next year with another film!

    June 2018
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  • Christopher Harvey

    Fantastic! Looking forward to being a part of future endeavours with the festival. A special thanks to Ryan Kruger, James C. Williamson and Ruaan Van Rooyen. My short Tears In The Rain was well received by the local crowd.

    June 2018
    Helpful
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    Response from festival:

    Great piece of work Christopher, much Respect!

  • Ian Morgan

    Awesome festival! A successful first year! ooking forward to see how it grows. Will definitely be entering my next project.

    June 2018
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  • Michael Rodrigues

    It was a good experience to have my short film part of the SA Indie Film Fest in it's first year. The standard of short films was really high and I'm looking forward to seeing how the festival grows.

    May 2018
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