IMDb qualifying Chicago Indie Film Awards celebrates independent U.S. and international film and script projects of all genres. 

Every bi-monthly edition, U.S. and international projects compete together in various sections of the festival. The official selections are screened privately to jury members of each edition in various categories.

Our team consists of filmmakers, actors, directors, writers and critics from all over the world.

We believe that we live in a new era of digital technology and the festivals need to be able to adjust to various forms of online competitions, screenings and virtual events in order to recognize and promote talented artists working in media.

Chicago Indie Film Awards is committed to supporting international and American indie film projects of all genres.  

Awards & Prizes

Best Narrative Feature
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary short
Best Experimental
Best Animation
Best Science Fiction
Best Horror
Best Director
Best Producer
Best Cinematography
Best Editor
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Script
Best Unproduced script
Best TV Series/Pilot/Web
Best Comedy
Best Student Film
Best Music Video
Best Thriller
Best Trailer
Best Composer
Best First Time Filmmaker
Best Female Filmmaker
Best Indie Film

Rules & Terms

Films can be available online and still submit to our monthly festival.
Films must have been completed within the past 4 years.
Shorts must be less than 50 minutes.
Chicago Indie Film Awards can use stills, poster, headshots and trailers to promote films and artists.
Entry fees are non refundable since our programmers will go through all submitted projects.

174 Reviews
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  • Janin Stenzel

    We are so honoured to be part of this festival, a big shout out to the whole team behind the Chicago Indie Film Awards.

    June 2021
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  • Sybil Jatta

    We are humbled beyond measure to have been selected to the Chicago Indie Film Festival. We love Chicago, it's energy, style and people.

    July 2021
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  • Hongying Chen

    Thank you for selecting my project, and I am so grateful to join the festival :)

    July 2021
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  • Diana Frei

    I am honored my film has been selected. Very nice experience, although it has been slightly unreal due to the corona situation.

    February 2021
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  • Andrew Marv

    Thank you for having our short Film ''500'' as an official selection at the festival. We are happy and proud to see our work shown to other people and we hope everyone enjoyed watching it as much as we did making it. Much love and respect to everyone involved and to all participants' success in future projects. All the best, the team behind @500

    June 2021
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