TOP PRIZE FOR OVERALL BEST BLUE DIAMOND TROPHY WINNERS
Promotions, Screening, and Awards: Blue Diamond Trophy awarded to top feature film winner.

All-Inclusive Festival Benefits: Paid screening, travel, publicity, and press coverage for top Blue Diamond feature film winner.

Top Project Marketing: Promoted on a YouTube game show featuring clips of your film with links to your web pages.

Important Requirement: For the offer to be valid, winners must accept a distribution deal with Spotlight Feature Films. Participants are encouraged to engage online during the festival's final rounds in the community section of the Spotlight Feature Films YouTube page to boost their scores and advance further.

Grand Prizes
Short Film and Feature Film Winners:
The overall Best of the Festival winners in the Short Film and Feature Film categories receive representation offers for promotion and pitching to global markets, including:

Cannes Marché Du Film, AFM (American Film Market), European Film Market, Film London Production Finance Market, MIPCOM Cannes, ASIA TV Forum and Market, BANFF Media Festival
Toronto International Film Festival (Markets are selected based on the project’s specific needs.).

Winning Short
Is offered a contract for inclusion in a compilation series. The festival covers all distribution costs, including representation and securing an international sales agent.

Short Film winners, including genre-specific winners, are eligible for inclusion in the "Best of the Festival" compilation alongside renowned actors such as Sean Astin, D.B. Sweeney, and Michael Muhney.

Awards & Prizes


Other winning categories are 1-5, with 5 (five) being the Best and up for the top prizes!

1) SELECTED Check out Spotlight Feature Films YouTube Announcement video Friday, September 5th: accepted into the contest, weekly festival YouTube promotion clips built into game show, along with live premier and community voting to bump your score up 20% and engage your audience with your selected status and help you move to the next level of semi-finalist.= OFFICIAL SELECTION LAUREL

2) SEMI-FINALIST (Announcements on YouTube September 12th): accepted into the contest with more game show promotions and live voting = SEMI-FINALIST LAUREL

3) FINALIST (Announcements on YouTube September 19th): accepted into the contest & promoted on the website and social media last week to vote on a new round of finalists to become the top winner = FINALIST SELECTION LAUREL

4) WINNERS & RUNNERS-UP (Announced September 26th): accepted into the contest and promoted on website & social media, IMDb credit = WINNER LAUREL

5) OVERALL BEST OF WINNERS AKA BLUE DIAMOND WINNERS promoted on the website and social media, trophies, laurels, and IMDb credit.

Rules & Terms

CONTEST:

You must not have a current distribution or be self-distributing. All submissions must prove that the author owns the project and that there are no copyright /music rights issues.

Overall, BEST of Winners for features, TV, and shorts will receive a guaranteed screening premiere and/or distribution offer, unfinished features, or TV production funds.

All Category Winners, Overall best of WINNERS, and 1st runner-ups are guaranteed to receive IMDb credit and laurels.

Not all films selected for the festival will be screened. Chosen Top Award feature film Winner will receive a screening and representation.

98 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jefferson Bittencourt

    We were truly happy and honored by the selection of our feature film PIECE FOR SOLO SOLITUDE. For our entire team, it was a great joy to take part in this Festival and to have our film included among so many other works of outstanding quality

    December 2025
    Helpful
  • Vijaykumar Mirchandani

    Great to have our film selected. Its always exciting and a happy moment. Thank you to the jury and team and its open doors for us for next year.

    November 2025
    Helpful
  • Maks Stupak

    Thank you guys ! Good news for everyone filmeykers!

    November 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thank you Maks! Hope to see you again!

  • Mark Krol

    Participating in the Spotlight International Film Festival has been a transformative experience for us! We are overjoyed to have received the award for Best Documentary for our film "Invisible Life." This recognition not only validates our hard work but also amplifies the voices we aimed to highlight through our storytelling.

    We are incredibly grateful to the festival team for their dedication to independent filmmakers. This award inspires us to continue creating impactful narratives.

    December 2024
    Helpful
  • Petra Revenue

    A fun and playful festival that provides promotion and shows great interest of the projects. Thanks for everything connected to our project The Portrait. It was also a fun and unique experience for the team to be able to follow the festival through the gameshow. Our crew is spread out... so for us it was a way to unite.

    November 2024
    Helpful