-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 22nd edition will be held from 5~8 June 2025. 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
22nd Seoul International Eco Film Festival will be held from 5 to 8 June 2025 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 2023.
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.
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 Selected films cannot be withdrawn from the program after being confirmed to screen at SIEFF.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 8,000,000
Special Jury Award KRW 3,000,000
Audience's Choice Certificate
Korean Competition
Grand Prize KRW 10,000,000
Excellence Prize KRW 3,000,000
Special Audience Jury Award KRW 2,000,000
Winners will be announced at the festival’s award ceremony.
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 2025 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.*
