I. General statements
1. Student Film Festival of Slavic Countries (Studencki Festiwal Filmów Słowiańskich) will take place in Warsaw (Poland) from the 5th to the 7th of June 2026.
2. The Festival is organized by Art Horizon Foundation (Fundacja Horyzont Sztuki) and students of University of Warsaw.
II. Competition requirements
1. The Festival is open to student short film productions (the director must be a student during the shooting) from Western and southern Slavic countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria) produced after March 31st, 2024. We accept only short fiction and experimental films.
2. Fiction and experimental student films with a running time of no longer than 30 minutes. (1800 sec.) in length are eligible.
3. All films must have readable credits in the end. The time of showing credits is included in 30 min. limit.
4. The author of the submission is required to provide evidence of their student status or that the film was made during their studies.
5. The film's form and topic are not subject to any regulations.
6. There is no limit to the number of films that a filmmaker or film school may register.
7. To be admitted, the materials must be in English or have English subtitles.
8. The film’s submitter must own the copyright in the film and must not infringe third parties’ copyrights; otherwise, they will bear all responsibility for any infringement.
9. The festival organizer may add Polish subtitles to the selected films.
10. The Festival does not pay screening fees.
11. The Festival may use the fragments of film (max. 3 min.), stills, film excerpts, and any other visual material (e.g., trailers, teasers) of the selected films to promote the event and create the Festival's promotional material.
III. Submission of films
1. Films must be submitted via FilmFreeway and screeners must be password protected and not available for public online stream. All registrations have to be made online.
2. The deadline for submission is April 6th 2026.
3. The film’s submission to the Festival is free of charge.
4. Once a film has been submitted for participation it cannot be withdrawn.
5. All questions regarding film submission can be sent to sffs.kacper.contact@gmail.com
IV. Notification
1. The Festival will not confirm the receipt of submissions and preview copies. We kindly ask you to refrain from calling or emailing us to confirm the receipt of your material. All applicants will be notified via FilmFreeway about the selection or rejection of their film until the 20th April 2026.
2. Films selected to the Main Event have to be available for Festival screening in the DCP or similar standard.
3. Creators of films selected for the Main Event will be informed by email about the method and destination for delivering the screening copy.
V. Main Event
1. All films submitted to the Festival are subject to a pre-selection process conducted by the Organisers.
2. Based on the results of the pre-selection, a number of films will be officially selected and admitted to the Main Competition, which will take place during the Festival between 5-7 June 2026 in Warsaw.
3. Only films admitted to the Main Competition will be: presented during the Festival screenings, and considered for Festival awards.
4. Submitting a film to the Festival does not guarantee its admission to the Main Competition nor its public presentation within the Festival programme.
5. Films admitted to the Main Competition will be evaluated by the Commission.
6. For each film admitted to the Main Competition, the Organisers may invite up to two representatives of the film’s creative team to attend the Festival. The scope and conditions of the invitation (including possible accommodation or travel support, if available) will be specified and confirmed individually by the Organisers.
VI. Awards
1. Films will be judged by the Jury, composed of professionals working in film industry.
2. The verdict will be announced during official closing ceremony. Organizer has right to publish the results online on Festival’s website and social media.
3. The prizes will be granted in two categories:
- Best Short Film
- Best Cinematography
4. The Jury has right to grant Special Mentions.
5. The Audience’s Prize and The Organizer’s Prize may also be granted.
6. Indicated representative may collect the award only if organizer knows about absence of author and gave consent earlier. Only the award of honor will be sent if the author is not present at the official closing ceremony and has not informed about selection of the representative.
7. Uncollected prizes (except of diplomas) are under disposal of the jury, and it may be granted to another film.
8. Additional categories of the awards can be created in various Festival's editions, if Organizers will decide to grant an additional award from the particular Sponsor.
VII. Ending statements
1. The submission of the film is equivalent to acceptance of the regulations and participants undertake to comply with them. Organizer has the right to remove the participant's work from the competition due to non-compliance with the regulations.
2. Festival organizer undertakes to comply with all laws relating to the use of films admitted to the competition.
3. The submitter of the film is responsible for all duties or taxes connected with sending the film to the Festival.
4. Organizer reserve the right to change these regulations.
5. All matters not stated in these regulations are decided on by the Festival's organiser represented by Maciej Karczewski (contakt: sffs.maciej@gmail.com).
