I. General statements
1. 21st Węgiel Film Festival will take place in Katowice (Poland) from the 24th to the 27th of April 2024. In case of lockdown or difficult pandemic situation, the event will take place entirely online.
2. The Festival is organized by students of Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School (University of Silesia in Katowice).
II. Competition requirements
1. The Festival is open to student short film productions (the director must be a student during the shooting) from all over the world produced after the 1st of January 2021. We accept only feature, documentary and experimental films.
2. Fiction, documentary and experimental student films with a running time no longer than 30 min. (1800 sec.) in length are eligible.
3. All films must have readable credits in the end. Time of showing credits is included in 30 min. limit.
4. The form of the film and its topic are not subject to any regulations.
5. There is no limit to the amount of films that a filmmaker or film school may register.
6. In order to be admitted, the materials must be in English or presented with English subtitles.
7. The film’s submitter must own copyrights to the film and they must not violate third person’s copyrights, otherwise they will bear all the responsibility for it.
8. Festival organizer may add Polish subtitles to the selected films.
9. The Festival does not pay screening fees as it is non-profit.
10. 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 December 31st 2023.
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 Once a film has been submitted for participation it cannot be withdrawn.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 wff@us.edu.pl.
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 18th February 2024.
2. Films have to be available for Festival screening in the DCP or similar standard.
3. Copies of selected films must be sent before 20th March 2024 as a file transfer to the email address: anna.huth@us.edu.pl
V. Awards
1. Films will be judged by the Jury, composed of professionals working in film industry.
2. The verdict will be announced during official ending ceremony. Organizer has right to publish the results online on Festival’s website and social media.
3. The prizes will be granted in three categories:
- Best Feature Film
- Best Cinematography
- Best Documentary
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.
VI. 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 submitted film will be shown during the Festival and online on password protected site. Films can be available to online watching until max. 1 week after Festival (May 4th 2024).
4. The submitter of the film is responsible for all duties or taxes connected with sending the film to the Festival.
5. Organizer reserve the right to change these regulations.
6. All matters not stated in these regulations are decided on by the Festival's organiser represented by Anna Huth (contact: anna.huth@us.edu.pl).
