The Sandton Film Festival is the first of its kind in the greater Sandton area, north of Johannesburg. Sandton is without a doubt one of the most popular destinations in South Africa, both for leisure and for business.

The Sandton Film Festival combines great business opportunities with leisure. The relaxed environment will allow festival goers to enjoy the various films and documentaries whilst also mingling with top businessmen and investors looking for future projects to invest in. The Sandton Film Festival will be where business and film meet, and grow together as one.

This opportunity has no boundaries and films and documentaries of all lengths (feature or short) are welcome to submit.

The festival also offers a screenwriting competition where scripts submitted will be judged by professional screenwriters and prizes awarded to the winning scripts.

Awards & Prizes

The Sandton Film Festival has many awards on offer. You don't need to submit to each category as all films are judged equally. All successful submissions will be allowed to compete for any and all prizes. Short films, student films, feature films and documentaries all compete together in the same categories.

The awards on offer:
Best Production.
Best Director.
Best Cinematography.
Best Sound Design.
Best Edit.
Best Visual Effects.
Best Production Design.
Best Achievement Art Department.
Best Actor.
Best Actress.
Best Supporting Actor.
Best Supporting Actress.

Screenwriting Awards:
Best Feature Script.
Best Short Script.

Rules & Terms

1 - All films (short, student and feature) as well as documentaries are welcome to submit. Films and documentaries in progress will not be accepted, the film needs to be a completed film. Submissions may be adjusted/edited after submission, only if clear permission has been granted from the festival committee and jurors. This is only allowed in extreme cases or in order to remove scenes that the festival committee deemed to have gone against guidelines.

2 - Films may be withdrawn from the festival at any stage until 24 hours prior to the screening of the film.

3 - Films must be in English or have English subtitles.

4 - All films will go through a vetting process whereby our committee will assign age ratings and restrictions. If we deem a scene or scenes to go against our guidelines or those of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa we will ask for these scenes to be edited or removed completely.

5 - NO FILMS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

6 - All submitters accept that awards given to films and anything that may be associated with the award are at the discretion of the festival organiser, awards may be revoked at the discretion of the festival.

7 - Terms and conditions are subject to change at the discretion of the festival.
2 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Terver Malu

    I'm grateful that our film was selected as a nominee, however I don't know the final status of the film. NO list of winners?

    October 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Good day, congratulations on your nomination! The list of winners was emailed last week and is available on our Instagram page. If you need more information, please email info@sandtonfilmfestival.co.za, have a great day.

  • Jonathan Zarantonello

    Professional communication, nice experience, thank you!!

    October 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Jonathan, it was fantastic to have you be part of the festival, and congratulations on the award 🥇