South East European Film Festival Los Angeles (SEEfest) is a competition festival presenting to American audiences cinematic and cultural diversity of 20 countries of Eastern/Central Europe, the Balkans and Caucasus. It provides a platform in the U.S. for the discovery of new talent from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, with a wide selection of films, art and literary talks, workshops and panels.

The festival serves as the cultural hub and resource for scholars and filmmakers, and creates opportunities for cultural exchange between Hollywood industry professionals and filmmakers from South East Europe. It is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, public benefit corporation.

Awards & Prizes

SEEFest is a competition festival. Unless otherwise stated all films are eligible for one of the following Awards, in-kind or subject to underwriters:

Best Narrative Feature
Best Documentary Feature
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animated Short
Best Cinematography
Audience Award

ACCELERATOR: Impact Award, for Best Project (Valuable Post-Production Packages)

The juries are comprised of Hollywood film industry professionals and award-winning filmmakers. Audience Award is given to the highest-scoring film based on the audience ballots.

Rules & Terms

The festival accepts narrative feature, documentary feature, narrative short, documentary short and animated short films from, and about Eastern/Central and South East Europe. Expatriate filmmakers and filmmakers who are not from the region are eligible if the theme of the film is tied to the region and its people.

Please note: the festival does NOT cover all of Eastern Europe. It promotes the cinema and cultures of East/Central/Southeastern Europe at the cultural crossroads between Europe and Asia, from Austria in the north-west and Ukraine in the north-east to the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the south-east.

Only films made in the last 18 months prior to the Festival qualify.

Submissions are open September - January. In each category selection committee will review all submitted films and suggest the final line up.

Students submitting short films (fiction, documentary or animation) can get a fee waiver. Please contact the festival to obtain the waiver at: info(at)seefilmla.org.

SEEfest on YouTube: Short YouTube video is FREE to enter.

53 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Bianca Zylla

    SEEfest is a fantastic film festival; one of the best to highlight South East European cinema on a global scale! Me and my film crew felt honoured to be included in the short documentary section of the 20th anniversary edition of the festival with our film "Motherland."
    The whole festival team was wonderful and the communication was great all throughout. They were very hospitable and did their best to ensure I would be able to attend the screening of my film in person. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there for the entire duration of the festival, (so the networking aspect fell a tiny bit flat,) but I still could not have asked for a better place to celebrate the world premiere of my film. Thank you Vera, Gabrielle and the entire festival team for your work!

    May 2025
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  • Nadejda Koseva

    I would like to express my sincere admiration to South East European Film Festival. I have had the honour and pleasure to screen my two feature films Irina and The Trap there. For us, the filmmakers of Eastern Europe the festival is an important and unique platform showing our work in the very heart of the American film industry. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, dear SEEFest team!
    Nadejda Koseva, director

    September 2024
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  • Leon Ristov

    Had the pleasure to be part of the Accelerator program with my first feature script. SEEFest makes it a point to create a safe space where emerging filmmakers can ask questions about any and everything. Nothing is off limits and the mentors are happy to provide as much support as they can. The tight-knit group makes conversations easy and intimate. The schedule is well-proportioned with talks mostly focusing on distribution. The program is super informative. Would recommend especially for those further down the line with their production.

    August 2024
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  • Armine Abrahamyan

    Such a wonderful and perfectly organized festival!!! So happy my animation was in the selection!! Hope to come with all my films and hope to attend next time! Thank you!!!

    July 2024
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  • Eneos Çarka

    SEEfest is the most important Eastern European focused film festival not only in California, but arguably in the entire US. The two years that they generously screened my films, I got the chance to see the best Eastern European films from recent years. Looking forward to attending next year!

    June 2024
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