Established in 2004, the Seoul International Eco Film Festival (SIEFF) is an annual event held in time with World Environment Day – June 5. Through cinema, one of the most popular forms of culture, we seek to approach and acknowledge environmental issues that everyone considers important but still feel difficult, and to put into practice in our daily lives. The SIEFF has been an active member of the Green Film Network (GFN), an international association of environmental film festivals.

Making strides toward a sustainable world through cinema, the SIEFF seeks to hold discourse on the coexistence of humanity and nature and foster the younger generation, who would play major roles in the future, to become green leaders.

As Asia’s biggest and one of the world’s three most prestigious environmental film festivals, the 21st SIEFF will be held from 5 to 9 June 2024 in Seoul.

Seoul International Eco Film Festival awards the best international and domestic environmental films with 3 prizes of international competition and 3 prizes of Korean Competition. The following are the details of the awards which will be given at the award ceremony.

A. International Competition
1) Best Film 10,000,000 KRW
2) Special Jury Award 5,000,000 KRW
3) Audience Choice 1,000,000 KRW

B. Korean Competition
1) Grand Prize 5,000,000 KRW
2) Excellence Prize 3,000,000 KRW
3) Special Audience Jury Award 2,000,000 KRW

-Objective
Seoul International Eco Film Festival (SIEFF) is the first and biggest film festival in Korea focusing on environmental issues. Established in 2004 by Korea Green Foundation, SIEFF is a festival that seeks to share the hope for a better world where all the lives can live in harmony with environment and nature. Through cinema, the festival hopes to promote ideas of environmental protection and life respect to encourage public awareness and action for positive changes. SIEFF is an annual event with one international and one domestic competition among other non-competitive sections, and its 21st edition will be held from 5~9 June 2024. SIEFF would like to welcome all to join the festival where the concerns and visions about the future of our environment can be found and shared.

-Festival Date and Place
21st Seoul International Eco Film Festival will be held from 5 to 9 June 2024 in Seoul, Republic of Korea and via online platform.

-Film Program
Competitive sections
International Competition is a competitive section open to outstanding foreign and domestic environmental films.
Korean Competition is a competitive section for domestic environmental films.
Non-Competitive sections
The sections will be subject to change every year, special and retrospective section could be included.

-Eligibility and Conditions
Films completed after 1st January 2022.
Films never been submitted to SIEFF before.
SIEFF accepts films that deal with environmental issues regardless of genre.
‘Feature’ (equal to or longer than 40 mins.) / ‘Short’ (less than 40 mins.)
There is no limit on duration of time of film.
No entry fees.

-Film Entry
To submit your film to the Competition, a full-length preview file (avi, mov, etc.) or private link, that is the exact same version as the screening copy and also must be provided with English subtitles, together with a completed and signed entry form and other requested materials (see the entry form) must be sent to the festival no later than 31st Jan 2024.
All the materials submitted for selection will not be returned.
All the costs of transportation and insurance must be fully paid by the entrant.
Please note that the declared value should be equivalent to the materials only (less than USD 10).
To reduce the carbon emission, SIEFF only accepts online registration.
https://filmfreeway.com/SIEFF

- Selection Status
The festival’s Selection Committee will select the films for competition and the entrant will be notified of the selection results individually. Selected films cannot be withdrawn from the program after being confirmed to screen at SIEFF. The final winners of the competition will be selected by SIEFF Juries during the festival and will be announced at the festival’s closing day. Films in the competition will compete to win six prizes, worth of about KRW 26 million won (appx. USD 23,000) in total, as follows:
International Competition
- Best Film, Special Jury Award, Audience’s Choice
Korean Competition
- Grand Prize, Excellence Prize, Special Audience Jury Award
Korean Competition is a competitive section for domestic environmental films.
Unless otherwise indicated on the entry form, submitted films will be considered including non-competitive sections after pre-selection for the competition.

- Awards
International Competition /
Best Film KRW 10,000,000
Special Jury Award KRW 5,000,000
Audience's Choice KRW 1,000,000
Korean Competition /
Grand Prize KRW 5,000,000
Excellence Prize KRW 3,000,000
Special Audience Jury Award KRW 2,000,000

Winners will be announced at the festival’s closing day.
Where there is more than one winner of a single prize, cash will be divided equally among winners.

- Materials
All requested materials must be submitted to the SIEFF within the deadline. All materials will be used for the Festival’s official catalogue and other promotional purposes.
Once a film is selected for the festival, SIEFF can use footages from a film, with a maximum of 3 minutes, for promotional purposes. In the event that footages are not available, and it is understood that under no circumstances the entire print may be lent out, SIEFF is qualified to copy, under its strict supervision, one or more excerpts from the film for promotional use on the various platforms including television, the internet, mobile media and theater.
SIEFF can use the images from a film for promotional but non-profit purposes only.
Submitted materials will not be returned unless there is a specific request from participants.

- Screening copy
The screening copy of all selected films must arrive at SIEFF by 15th April 2024 by online. The screening can be canceled if the screening copy doesn’t arrive by the deadline.
SIEFF accepts the following formats for selected films:
DCP(JPEG2000 format), Digital File(it should be same or higher quality with apple ProRes 422 HQ)
SIEFF destroys all submitted original screening copies after the festival.

- Subtitles
If not with dialogues in English, films must be subtitled in English. Additionally, all entrants must provide the festival with a script either in English or Korean. SIEFF reserves the right to reject entries that do not have English subtitles.
For non-Korean dialogue films, SIEFF creates Korean subtitles for Korean audiences. All rights of the Korean subtitles reserved to the SIEFF. Above mentioned subtitles will neither be provided nor given for free to the submitter and/or participant of the indicated film but could be sold and/or be rented based upon the internal standard for Subtitles creation.

- Green Archive program
All the submitted or provided previews and copies of screening to SIEFF will be kept in the Green Archive run by SIEFF. SIEFF welcomes the donation of the applicants’ films and any other related materials. The donated materials will be kept in the Green Archive permanently and will be used for non-profit, educational and research purposes.
All the films which are submitted to or screened at SIEFF can be included in the tour screening of the festival or the Green Archive under the agreement of the filmmaker or his/her representative. As for the SIEFF award winning films, the festival has been given the approval to screen the winners in its tour screenings or in Green Archive for 1 year after the events, but only with non-profit, educational and research purposes.

- General
This regulation is valid once the initial application of a film is submitted to SIEFF, which contains the approval of the filmmaker or his/her representative in signature.
SIEFF reserves the right to make an independent decision on matters not concerning the above or where no decision has been specified.*

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Sophie Réthoré

    My film was selected on the platform but then I had no news from the festival. I write an email but I had no answer. So that's a big mystery for me. I wish someone can give me an explanation about what's happened...

    June 2023
  • Srishti Lakhera

    This was a wonderful festival that I got the opportunity to take my film. It was very easy to interact with a understanding and respectful team. They were fully present to communicate and guide us through the process. The festival also supported us to get publicity on the asian platforms.
    Overall a great experience. I will highly recommend taking your film to this festival :)
    Thank you to the Team of SEFF

    June 2021