Dear filmmakers,

It is a pleasure to announce the 15-th edition of The World Festival of Animated Film, in Bulgaria’s famous sea capital Varna, the city where the artist never sleeps!

On the Black Sea shore authors and colleagues, people from all kinds of backgrounds will meet with some of the best authors in this kind of cinema. People from all continents will present their works, and share with the spectators their stories through the magic of the moving drawings.

The World Festival of Animated Film, WFAF, is an event for all kinds of filmmakers from around the globe, with our sole aim to showcase both the cultural and artistic significance of the Art of Animation.

The festival’s jury members come from different film backgrounds and will select films from each category depending on their conceptual, aesthetic and technical qualities. And this year the competition programme consists of six categories, with our newest addition: the category for Animated Music Video.

After that expect the special programme of films "Echo from Varna" in Sofia to be held in the halls of The National Palace of Culture!

Submit your films for a chance to be screened in front of a live audience in the Festival Congress Center in Varna!

🌊 🌊 🌊

The Festival is organized by the World Festival of Animated Film Association, The Festival and Congress Center Varna and The National Palace of Culture in Sofia with the support of the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, Bulgarian National Film Center and the Municipality of Varna.

Awards & Prizes

Best Animated TV Series
Best Animated Short
Best Childrens Animation
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Animated Music Video
Best Animated Student

Each of the jury members also presents special mention awards for all six categories.

Rules & Terms

The official languages of WFAF are Bulgarian and English.

Film eligibility

Any frame by frame or computer-assisted animated film, meeting the following requirements, will be considered eligible for the Festival:
→ The film has to be completed after January 1st 2017 and must have not participated in any competition programme of previous editions of WFAF.
→ The screening copy of the selected films must be in one of the following video formats: H264, MOV, DCP.
→ Considering the international character of the festival all films in Bulgarian must come with English subtitiles.
→ The running time of the film must be up to 20 min for the short film competition, and around/over 60 min for the feature film competition.
→ One episode per series (up to 20 min) is allowed for the TV series competition.
→ Films using copyrighted scripts, images and music without the consent of the copyrights owner, will not be allowed at the Festival.

The films will compete in the following categories:

- Short films
- Feature films
- Children`s films
- TV series
- Students film
- Animated music video

Participation:

→ The deadline for entries and preview is June 15th 2019. No entry forms and preview files will be accepted after this date.
→ Entry fee – 15 USD
→ The copies for the official selection are to be uploaded only online via a download link, provided in the entry form.
→ The preview copy of the film can be in these formats only: MOV, H264, MP4
→ The file name should be THE SAME WITH THE TITLE OF THE FILM.
→ Only correctly filled out entry forms will be accepted.
→ Only one entry form must be submitted for each film.

Required Information for the online Entry Form:

→ In case of voice-over screen commentary and/or dialogue in a language different from the official languages of the Festival, the films must be submitted with embedded English subtitles and an English dialogue list, or English subtitles list must be provided.
→ WFAF takes no responsibility for inaccuracies in the submitted materials.

Selection

→ The results of the selection will be announced on the Festival website. The directors of the selected works will be notified in a timely manner.
→ A selected film cannot be withdrawn from the competition. The Festival has the right to change the category of the selected film, change the Festival program without previous notice, and remove delayed or poor quality films from the competition.
→ The official selection will be announced by the end of June.
→ The screening copies of the films selected for the official competition program must be received no later than July 25th 2019.

Jury

→ The Organization Committee of the Festival will choose the International Jury members.
→ The members of the Jury will be announced on the official WFAF website.
→ The decisions of the International Jury members will be final and are not to be taken into question.
→ The International Jury defines the programme for the screnning of the winner‘s films on the last evening of the Festival, which is determined by the remaining screening time and the Organization comittee‘s decision.

Rights

→ If a film is selected, the director or producer of the work must provide a copy of the film in the format, specified in the entry form.
→ The International Jury has the right to withhold an award in any category if none of the films within the category meets their quality criteria.
→ Unless otherwise specified in the entry form, the entrant grants the Organization Committee the right to present the work (in full or as an extract) and its promotional materials, free of charge, over the next 2 years, on any media or public screening, for non-commercial publicity purposes of the World Festival of Animated Film.
→ All films in the competion programme and panorama are free of charge and will be screened throughout the course of the Festival.
→ Тhe entrant grants the Organization Committee the right to present the work and its promotional materials, free of charge, at the Festival`s "echo" event in Sofia.
→ The Festival invites the producers of awarded films and films that took part in the competition to donate a copy of these films to the Festival Archive.
→ The entrant is responsible for all copyrights, clearances and permissions. WFAF takes no responsibility for violations of the copyright law.
→ All issues not addressed here are subject to the decision of the WFAF Organization Committee.
→ With the submission of the entry form, the entrant agrees with these Regulations.