Underwire Festival

ELIGIBILITY
• Underwire looks to showcase all kinds of film. We accept drama, animation, documentary, music video and artists' film of all production techniques, forms and budgets.

• Short films directed by men are eligible for submission, so long as there is a female head of department in any of the Awards categories and/or there is a female protagonist onscreen.

• The primary contact completing the submission process must be authorised to submit the film for consideration. This includes permission from a distributor or sales agent representing the film and the applicant must have obtained necessary permissions for the inclusion of any copyrighted music and/or images used within the film. With this submission, the applicant confirms that they possess all rights necessary for the screening of the submitted film at Underwire Festival.

All short film entries must be:
• Up to 25 minutes long including credits (25 minutes must be the maximum length of the short)

• Films must have been completed after September 2019 to be eligible.

• The film must be a UK or Republic of Ireland production, including student/graduation films.

• We accept short films via FilmFreeway only. Only entries received through FilmFreeway will be considered. Speculative submissions sent via email will NOT be watched.

• Films that do not fall within our criteria will NOT be watched.

Here’s an example of what is eligible:
- If the film is directed by a man and produced by a woman, then the film is eligible in the producing category but will not be considered in the directing category.
- If the film is being entered into a category where the entrant shares a credit with a man, it is not eligible for that category.
- Please let us know who on your crew is female so we can consider everyone that is eligible for an award. You do not have to pay the submission fee for each category, just once for the film.

PREMIERE STATUS

• Underwire Festival does not require any premiere status.

UNDERWIRE AWARDS
• Each Underwire Award category is eligible to female heads of department. For example, a film where all the crew is male but the production designer is female would be eligible for the Production Design Award.

• The nominees for each award category will be determined by the Underwire selection panel.

• The winner for each award category will be determined by the award partner or a judge of their choosing.

• The XX Award is eligible for both male and female directors. The Award is for onscreen representation of women, for films which put interesting female characters at their centre.

• Apart from the XX Award, films are only eligible for the category that they have a female creative for. For example: if your film was directed by a man, but has a female production designer, you can submit and be eligible for that category; if your film has an all-female crew, your film is eligible for all the categories.

SUBMISSION FEES
• There is a submission fee to enter your film. All submissions are final and there are no refunds. Underwire Festival is a non-profit organisation and submission fees help us with festival costs.

MULTIPLE ENTRIES
• You may enter as many films as you wish. Each entry requires a separate submission form, fee and separate upload.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS
• If the original language of any dialogue or text featured in the film is not English, the preview and screening copy must be subtitled in English, unless this is at variance with the filmmaker’s intention.

SELECTION PROCESS
• All submitted films are viewed by two or more members of the selection team.

• All programming selections are at the discretion of the Festival Director and the team of pre-selectors and programmers. Each film is carefully viewed, considered and curated.

• All submitted films will be notified of the Underwire Festival’s selection in advance of the festival via email.

• Full delivery instructions will be provided on notification of selection.

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

• If selected, there are no fees for participating in the festival. Filmmakers are not entitled to claim rental or other fees for the screenings of their films at the festival.

• Films screened at Underwire Festival may also be included in other public programmes, subject to the submitter’s permission.

• All filmmakers are asked to indicate on submission if they require geoblocking should their film be selected for online exhibition.

PUBLICITY AND MARKETING
• Submitting a film gives us permission to use publicity stills provided and up to 1minute of footage for use in all Underwire Festival marketing and publicity.

CONTACT
• If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at underwire@underwirefestival.com