We are thrilled to announce our 13th Annual Toyama International Film Festival!

The festival will take place in June of 2026 in Toyama Prefecture. With such great success in previous years, we are excited to once again share the visions of filmmakers from all over the world with our local community in countryside Japan.

Submissions will close on March 22nd, 2026.

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The Annual Toyama International Film Festival was started by a handful of English teachers in rural Toyama Prefecture, Japan. Ignited by a passion for films and a desire to connect communities, our committee hoped to one day reach a great number of people—and with time, we were able to do just that.

The first film festival took place in 2012, inside a small room within a shopping center where 70 people watched the ten submissions we had received. The following year was a tremendous success with over 100 submissions from different countries, quite a step from our first year. The event was held in the city of Toyama at a local independently-owned venue, Bodegas-Mambo with around 80-100 guests coming to view the films. Ever since then, we hope to expand even further and provide an even larger venue for participants and the movie-going community in Japan.

Today, with over 3000 submissions each year from countries around the world, TIFF has become a highly-anticipated annual event and a staple of Toyama’s international community. We reach out to the rest of the world and challenge everyone to produce short films to help create a film culture in our beautiful, countryside prefecture of Toyama.

Awards & Prizes

By entering the competition, the winners agree to participate in any such promotional activity and material as the Toyama International Film Festival may require.

There is no cash prize, however, we will send you the file for our laurel if selected.

Rules & Terms

By entering the Toyama International Film Festival, you confirm that you agree to the following Terms & Conditions:

1. No purchase necessary and no festival fees apply.

2. Indivdual filmmakers may submit up to 3 films. Organizations and schools may submit up to 10 films. If this limit is exceeded, we will only judge the films in order of submission up to said limit. Any remaining films will not be considered.
Due to time constraints, we cannot accept films that run over 10 minutes. However, any genre of short film will be considered for exhibition.

3. Entries must be submitted with content warnings, including the following: abuse, ableism, blood, (animal) death, disordered eating, homophobia, murder, nudism, pornography, racism, self-harm/suicide, slurs, violence​

4. No responsibility can be accepted for entries that are lost or delayed, or which are not received for any reason.

5. The winners will be contacted via email. The audiences' decision will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

6. By entering the competition, the winners agree to participate in such promotional activity and material as the Toyama International Film Festival may require.

7. There is no cash prize, however, we will send you the file for our laurel if selected.

8. Incorrectly completed entries will be disqualified.
3 Reviews
Overall Rating
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  • Adam Szudrich

    We had a great experience with the festival - the team was supportive, communication was clear throughout, and we were honoured to win Best Drama. Highly recommend!

    June 2025
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  • ECV FESTIVALS

    A big thank you to the entire festival team for the positive feedback on our film!

    June 2024
    Helpful
  • Kenneth Pulgar-Vidal

    It was a great experience!!! The organizers selected a wonderful lineup of films, and everyone there was so welcoming and cheerful! I would happily go back and submit my next film in a heartbeat. Thank you so much for the Best Drama and Best of Show as well!

    June 2024
    Helpful