Our Live Event was held on May 10–11, 2025 — heartfelt thanks to all the filmmakers who joined us and helped make it such a memorable experience!
Take a look at the photos above! 📸.

The city of Venezia is well known for its loving relationship with cinema. This festival, in a few years, has become part of the 15 most popular, and the 100 best reviewed worldwide and IMDb qualifying.

We are committed to screening the complete Official Selection at our live event, where filmmakers and guests will take part in Q&As and panels, creating valuable networking opportunities with directors, cast, crew, and industry professionals.
It’s a fantastic chance to immerse yourself in the work of other visual artists!
We will be awarding the best films with cash prizes 🏆

🏆 Celebrating Our Recent Winners! 🎬

We are proud to highlight some of the incredible rising directors who have been recognized at our festival. These talented filmmakers represent a new wave of visionary storytelling, and we can’t wait to see what they create next!

✨ International Talents

Murad Abu Eisheh
Klaas Diersmann
Erenik Beqiri
Cyprian Hercka
Arta Kroni
Pablo Río
Anders Walter
Pipaluk Kreutzmann Jørgensen
Sofiia Melnyk
Salomon Ligthelm
Elena Weiss
Paula Kweskin
Mark Ryan Walberg
Cornelia Schöpf & Federico Campana
Jonathan Laskar
Ania Jamila
Joseph Ollman
Sean Carter
Michèle Flury
Amanda Nalbant Nordpoll
Elham Ehsas

🎥 Celebrating New Italian Filmmakers
We are also excited to showcase emerging Italian directors making their mark in the industry:

Andrea M. Catinella
Luca Dal Lago
Lorenzo Sicuranza
Francesco Massimiliano Gozzo
Gianfranco Pellegrini

🏅 Student Academy Awards Winners
We also want to recognize the outstanding talent of these filmmakers who have been awarded the prestigious Student Academy Award:

Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma (USA)
Pascal Schelbli (Germany)
Maren Klakegg (Norway)
Percival Argüero Mendoza (Mexico)
German Golub (Estonia)
Lachlan Pendragon (Australia)
Tamara Denić (Germany)
Martin Strange-Hansen (Denmark)

…and many more! Stay tuned as we continue to spotlight groundbreaking talent from around the world. 🌍🎞️

Furthermore, the festival will select a number of films as semifinalists. All semifinalist projects will be invited to our Virtual Screening Events, where they will be awarded semifinalist laurels.
After the Virtual Event wraps up, we’ll announce the winner of the Venezia Shorts Virtual Edition Award — and that film will be screened at our Live Event!
We will hold 4 Virtual events per year and 1 live event.

All the Winners will receive the Official Laurels and the winning-category achievement certificate after the Live Event. Jury will choose from the Official Selection a film that will receive the JURY'S DISTINCTION AWARD with a cash prize of USD 1.000.🏆 This winner will be revealed at the Live Event in the city of Venezia.

All OFFICIAL SELECTION films will be screened at our public Live Event.📽 At the Live Event the Audience will vote for their favorite film and the winner will be granted the AUDIENCE PICK AWARD, a cash prize award of USD 1000.

Awards & Prizes

JURY
To keep the Awards fair and transparent, we invite independent judges from all around the world who enjoy the experience and assess each category.

Each short film will be reviewed at least for five judges after the film is scored by our screening team. Our judges team includes artists from all around the world.

We proudly announce our MAIN COMPETITIONS and our TECHNICAL AND PERFORMANCE COMPETITIONS:

📽 Main Competitions:
NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION
FOREIGN SHORTS COMPETITION
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION
ANIMATION SHORTS COMPETITION
NEWFILMMAKERS SHORTS COMPETITION
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS COMPETITION
STUDENT SHORTS COMPETITION
HORROR SHORTS COMPETITION
MUSIC VIDEOS COMPETITION
COMEDY SHORTS COMPETITION
🏆 Technical & Performance Awards:
Best Producer
Best Female Director
Best Male Director
Best Female Student Director
Best Male Student Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Acting Ensemble
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Production Design
Best Sound Design
Best Original Score
Best Screenwriting

Rules & Terms

* In order to submit a film, you must own the rights or have permission from the owner.
* The VENEZIA SHORTS relationship will exclusively be related to the film submitter.
Any film that is not in English must have English subtitles.
* All fees are non-refundable.
* VENEZIA SHORTS will not be responsible for damaged copies.
* A downloadable high definition link (.mov or .mp4) of the film is required in case the movie is selected to be screened with English subtitles embedded if needed.
* Not all the submissions are selected for the official competition. Our Judges are free to make their own choices and no feedback will be given about not selected films.
* VENEZIA SHORTS can consider any film to be disqualified if the festival considers the content inappropriate. If you have any question regarding this decision you might contact us at our email address
* A fee is required for all the Competitions. For payment structure visit FilmFreeway
* The applicants (submitters) must accept VENEZIA SHORTS Rules and Terms.
* By submitting your movie, you authorize VENEZIA SHORTS to use, distribute and share the film poster, trailer, synopsis and movie stills in our social media.
* Maximum length allowed is 40 minutes.
* We do not require premiere status.
* When submitting your film, you are consenting to our Privacy Policy. We are committed to respecting each filmmaker's preferences. We might contact you through your email or social media provided in the submission page to communicate updates on your submission status, screening and DCP requirements, events ticket confirmation, as well as to provide information about events, services, promotions that we think you might be interested in. You can unsubscribe from any marketing or advertising newsletter from us or any partner festival simply by clicking unsubscribe.
Even when unsubscribing from a marketing newsletter, you can still receive any communication regarding your submission status through the FilmFreeway system. For more information about our associated event, please refer to veneziashorts.com. If you need further information, please contact us via contact@veneziashorts.org, and we will be happy to help you.

138 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
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  • Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz

    We had a wonderful time screening at Venezia Shorts! Many thanks to Tere for being such an incredible host and organizer. We flew in from LA and met so many talented filmmakers. Special shoutout to Andy for leading a thoughtful (and hilarious) Q&A. Congrats to the Venezia Shorts team for hosting such a fantastic event!

    May 2025
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  • Jonathan Derksen

    We were thrilled when we were notified that our documentary “Voices for Madidi” was selected as a semi-finalist at the Venezia shorts Italy. we felt privileged to be included in such an impressive lineup of films. Kudos to the organizers!

    May 2025
    Helpful
  • Leila Mesbahi

    I'm thrilled that my film "Casting" was selected as a semifinalist. Venezia Shorts is a fantastic festival with outstanding communication. Thanks once again for this incredible opportunity.

    May 2025
    Helpful
  • Sonja Kröhn

    Thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part in your festival as a semi-finalist. It is a great honour.

    May 2025
    Helpful
  • Yusuke Nakamae

    Participating in VENEZIA SHORTS ITALY was a truly valuable experience.
    It was an honor to have my film selected as a semifinalist and to be given the opportunity to screen it as part of the festival.
    The entire process—from submission to virtual screening—was smooth and professional, and I’m grateful to have been included among so many inspiring filmmakers from around the world.
    Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

    May 2025
    Helpful