📖 SHORT FILM BREAKS is the only film festival taking place within private companies, public and non-profit organizations, in a bid to offer smart break opportunities while promoting the independent movie industry around the world.

🏆 Awards and Prizes

Short Film Breaks is proud to offer cash prizes of 💲5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ for our 13th edition, aiming to recognize and celebrate the best independent short films from around the world.

All winners will be announced in December, and we will be awarding the following prizes in every category:
🥇 Gold Elephant
🥈 Silver Elephant
🥉 Bronze Elephant

In addition, the winning films will be listed on IMDb (www.imdb.com/event/ev0004935), offering them valuable exposure to industry professionals and audiences worldwide.

We believe that independent short films are an essential part of the filmmaking landscape and deserve recognition for their creativity and innovation. Join us in celebrating the best and brightest talents in the industry at Short Film Breaks!

💪 Our Mission

At Short Film Breaks, our mission is to bridge the gap between hard-to-distribute films - especially independent shorts - and hard-to-reach audiences, including employees and beneficiaries of our partner companies and NGOs, as well as people living in remote villages around the world. As a festival founded by filmmakers and human resources professionals, we believe in the transformative power of cinema to inspire and connect people across cultures and borders.

Over the past 12 years, we've screened over 900 films to audiences in seven countries, reaching a total of 96,000 people, and offered cash prizes of more than $40.000. Our goal is to continue expanding our reach and impact, bringing more diverse and innovative voices to audiences who might not otherwise have access to them. Thank you for joining us on this journey!

📜 History and Milestones

We started back in 2013 and we’ve kept ourselves busy, trying to improve with each hosted edition. During the years we’ve managed to:
✰ screen films in 19 communities from 7 countries (Nepal, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Romania, Senegal and Guatemala)
✰ multiply the total value of cash prizes we’re awarding winning filmmakers, awarding more than $40.000 in all our editions
✰ organize screenings in Bucharest and Brașov, over a three months periods, for more than a thousand corporate employees of Ipsos
✰ create special events and Q&A sessions with guests from the Romanian filmmaking industry, such as Tudor Giurgiu, Florin Piersic JR, Adrian Sitaru, Vivi Dragan Vasile, Ioana Flora, Dana Bunescu, and Gabi Suciu or Tom Wilson
✰ partner with the biggest local short-movie festival, NexT IFF, in order to expand the audiences we were targeting and bring to them a larger number of films
✰ add multiple competitive sections to the festival
✰ organize public white night screenings in Bucharest, partnering with J’ai Bistrot
✰ partner with Alter-Native, the most important Hungarian language film festival in Romania, for adding a new layer to the type of offered content
✰ start a collaboration with Onion Films (Katmandú), which lead to setting up our first edition of Katmandú Short Film Breaks
✰ expand the list of companies that wanted to offer smart film breaks to their employees with Zitec (Bucharest and Brașov), Estuar Foundation (Bucharest), UBIS Club (Bucharest and Iași), DXC Technology, Casa Pariurilor and eFortuna
✰ offer an online component to our film festival, which proved very beneficial, especially during the pandemic period, involving the audience even more in the process
✰ increase our total number of received submissions (with a record of 3850 films in 2018)
✰ organize an event for the Romanian Mental Health community, in front of a full house, in partnership with the Estuar Foundation and Mental Health Europe, at ARCUB Bucharest
✰ host a film screening event at 2.544 meters, on the Moldoveanu Peak in Romania, and at 5.364 meters, in the Everest Base Camp
✰ partner with Eforie Colorat to bring our festival to the Black Sea community on Eforie Sud, both to residents and tourists visiting the coast
✰ set in place a national program through which local libraries from villages and small cities become cinemas for their audiences, through recurring screenings that take place in each venue, accompanied by debates and encounters with industry representatives

📖 We can't wait to discover new gems and fall in love with your films. Submit your films now and join us in celebrating the magic of cinema!

💰 TOTAL PRIZES OF - 💲5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣

🏆 Golden Elephant for Best International Film - $1000
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Romanian Film - $1000
🏆 Golden Elephant for Audience Award - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Feature Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Comedy & Feel-Good Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Horror Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Animated Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Documentary Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Human Rights Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Mental Health Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Experimental Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best No Dialogue Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Micro Short Film - $250
🏆 Golden Elephant for Best Music Video - $250

Winners will receive the 🥇Gold Elephant, 🥈Silver Elephant, or 🥉Bronze Elephant awards in each category. All winners will be announced during the month of December and will be added to IMDb (www.imdb.com/event/ev0004935)!

All films from every category will also participate in the 🏆 Audience Award 🏆, where our global audiences will vote for their favorite films.

1) If selected, all films must have hard-coded English subtitles. Even the ones with dialogue in English. Our audience also contains speakers of other native languages, so English subtitles offer you the assurance they will understand your film, and them a better experience. For the judging phase, if you submit films with English dialogue, they can miss the subtitles, but we will ask for a version with hard-coded English subtitles for the festival.

2) Proudly, we have no production year / budget / premiere status or availability restrictions for your film. We do ACCEPT films that have been made available online. Our only criterions for selection are the quality of your films and their fit with our festivals values.

3) Also, entries that have been submitted to previous SFB editions, but have not been selected, ARE still eligible.

4) The same film can be submitted to more than one category. (Example: Animated film submitted to both Best International Short Film, Best Animation Film and Best Micro Short Film)

5) Please read the time limit submission rules for each category. Films that don't respect them will not be selected.

6) By submitting your film, you agree that clips under 30 seconds from your film and all other materials related to your project may be used and/or published on our website/social media channels/event program, or for any promotional purposes which SFB deems appropriate.

7) If selected, all commercial/private property including all trademark/copyrighted materials shown or recorded in the project are the responsibility of the filmmaker. Short Film Breaks will NOT take responsibility for any infringement of copyrighted materials.

8) By submitting your film to Short Film Breaks you confirm that you have the right to distribute the film and take full responsibility of the consequences. Short Film Breaks does not own the films and will only screen and promote them, based on the acceptance of these Rules & Terms.

9) By submitting your film to Short Film Breaks you agree that your film can be screened in any location in the world, in one or more events, which can take place in one or more days, in public or private screenings, to which access is made with or without payment of an entrance ticket, for as long as the festival exists.

10) By submitting your film to Short Film Breaks you understand that the festival does not offer screening fees for the films selected and screened during the festival.

11) Rules are subject to change at any time with or without prior notice.

An event organized by:
INTERNATIONAL FILM BREAKS FESTIVAL S.R.L.
EUID: ROONRC.J40/10815/2023
Bucharest, Romania

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jesús Soria

    Very well organized and excellent communication policy.
    A pleasure to collaborate with "Short Film Breaks".

    February 2024
    Logo 2016
    Response from festival:

    Thank you so much for your amazing films, Jesús! Good luck!!

  • It is a pride to have been part of this great festival. Thanks for everything!

    May 2023
    Logo 2016
    Response from festival:

    Thank you for sharing your amazing film with us, Emanuel! Good luck!!

  • Boudra Ali

    We are very happy to participate in this wonderful festival, we hope that this edition will be distinguished.

    February 2023
  • Penny Davies

    We were so pleased to have Consumed selected for the 2023 edition and can’t wait to hear where our film will be screened this year!

    February 2023
  • Marcos Altuve

    Thank you for selecting our short film "The eyes of the land".

    January 2022
    Logo 2016
    Response from festival:

    It's our pleassure to have your film in our Official Selection! Thank you for offering us the chance to share it with our audiences!