WA Made Film Festival

2026 FESTIVAL T&CS:

By submitting your content, you agree that WA Made Film Festival can use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster) for promotional purposes.

To submit a film, you must have created the project yourself, own the rights or have permission from the owner of the content to submit the film to us.

Films must be made in Western Australia with a preference on being post produced here too. Please email festival organisers to inform them of any elements of your film being non-Western Australian (actors, crew members, locations, post production etc).

The "Student Shorts" category is for short films made at University, High School or Film School where a majority of the key creatives are students, or were students at the time of filming. Please DO NOT include a student email contact unless that email is monitored regularly. The submitter must be contactable during the December/January holiday period. All films submitted to this category will be automatically considered for the 2026 WA Made Film Festival Student Awards.

Your submission will be watched in its entirety and judged fairly. All decisions of the committee are final.

All entries must have been completed after June 2024.

Works in progress/rough cuts are considered (if the final film will be completed well before January 2026).

Non-English films accepted with English subtitles.

You must own or be given all of the rights to anything you submit to the festival including music in the film.

Submissions are NON-refundable. You also acknowledge that the film submission fee does not guarantee acceptance and no refund will be provided if your film is not selected.

Applicants who do not follow the guidelines will not be accepted.

Accepted short films will need to be supplied as a HD Prores 422 file with stereo or 5.1 audio. MP4 will be accepted if no higher resolution is available. Must be minimum 1920x1080.

Accepted feature films will need to be supplied on DCP on a NTFS PC formatted harddrive with a preference of 5.1 audio, if your film is not available on DCP, festival organisers can convert a Prores 422 file with embedded 5.1 or stereo audio.

2026 GET SMART! Presented by BUY WEST EAT BEST rules:

1. The 2026 Get Smart! Presented by Buy West Eat Best theme is WAVE.
Your film must contain the Get Smart! Presented by Buy West Eat Best theme WAVE to show that your film was specifically made for the WA Made Film Festival. The theme WAVE can be as subtle or as direct as you'd like it to be.

2. To be eligible for the $1000 Best Film cash prize your film MUST be made exclusively for Get Smart! Presented by Buy West Eat Best and cannot screen anywhere prior to the festival in February 2026. Student Showcase Screenings are permitted, but the festival must be made aware of any previous screenings during the submission process.

3. Your film must not be made public on any online platforms including YouTube before the 2026 festival.

4. Open to Western Australian residents only.

5. Submissions must be set and filmed in Western Australia.

6. Submissions must be shot entirely on a smartphone.

7. Submissions must be no longer than 10 minutes including titles and credits. There is no minimum time limit.

8. You must have the rights to all music and sound contained within the film for usage in cinema and online.

9. All genres accepted.

10. There is no age limit or qualification required.

11. External microphones, smartphone lenses, lighting, tripods etc. are permitted and encouraged.

12. Post-production (editing, colour grading, sound mix, VFX, credits and titles etc.) does not have to be done on a smartphone or tablet and can be done via any editing software or app.

13. Final film must be delivered in minimum HD quality - 1920x1080. Preference: MP4/MOV at 24 or 25 fps. However other frame rates are accepted.

Filmmakers will always retain the copyright on their films!