SHORT FILMS FERTILE GROUND

Demetera International Festival is a young, bold, and independent event in the short film world. Since 2019 we gather filmmakers from all over the world and celebrate culture and art.

Our goal is to promote a wide variety of styles to cinema fans and fellow international filmmakers and to establish a strong network for filmmakers, producers, and marketing professionals.

Despite the chaos of covid we’ve hosted one of the most followed online festivals in France during the pandemics, with almost 20.000 unique viewers.

We partner with Sticky Soils, Paris based group of artists, to design and create beautiful and meaningful awards for our winners. Each piece is unique and 100% handmade, inspired by nature, its force, and its astonishing beauty.

This year's award is inspired by the beauty of icebergs as they slowly drift and melt, infusing the world from their sole being – a metaphor of the current times and culture.

Our team is currently working on our big 4th edition for 2022, which will take place in the city center of Paris.

Whether you're a filmmaker or just a film enthusiast, we hope you will join us this year and experience what makes the Demetera International Film Festival one of the "Top 100 Best Reviewed" festivals according to FilmFreeway!

This year, Demetera is pleased to partner with script development consultancy ScriptUp to launch the first edition of its Short Screenplay Competition.

All Short Screenplay Competition submissions will be read in full by a team of industry readers with a strong background in screenwriting appraisal.

The top third of these screenplays will progress into the Quarter Finals and will receive Demetera Screenplay Competition laurels. From these, ten will be selected for the Semi Finals and will receive the matching Demeter laurels.

From the ten Semifinalists, five screenplays will be selected as Finalists and will be read in full by a jury of industry professionals. The script with the highest aggregate score from the jury will be crowned winner of the Demetera Screenplay Competition 2023.

DEMETERA 2022
Best Narrative Short: Que règne le silence by Lucas Trochet
Best Documentary Short: A close shave by Michele Aboud
Best Animated Short: Un coeur d'or by Simon Filliot
Best Experimental Short: Graindelavoix: Saint Anthony’s fire by Sebastian Pańczyk
Best Music Video: Benz delaer by Sebastian Pańczyk
Demetera Prize: Upya by Maxence Cazorla

DEMETERA 2021
Best Narrative Short A real man by Aurélien Mathieu
Best Documentary Short Welcome to Thoo Mweh Khee by Chris Neilan
Best Animated Short The Catastrophe ou la Charade by Shawy
Best Experimental Short KILTER by Rob Stanton Cook
Best Music Video Metamorfosis by Karen Zen Eckell and SebastiAn Badino Lynch
Best Actress Allison Cameron Gray
Best Image Q: ghostly remote effect by Marcus Hanisch
Audience Awards Sang d'Encre by Guillaume CAGNIN
Prix special A Thousand Ways To Kiss The Ground by Henna Taylor

DEMETERA 2020
Best Narrative Short The House of Lekeitio by Jasone Urgoitia Urrutia
Best Documentary Short Ghazipur, in the shadow of the landfill by Maxime Priou, Arthur Rayssiguier, Marin Guillochon
Best Animated Short The Wedding Cake by Meet Monica Mazzitelli
Best Experimental Supernova by Laís Sambugaro
Best Music Video Refugee by Morgan Matyjasik
Best VR Short Swing by Mari Jaye Blanchard and Mark Reisch
Prix du Jury Through the Eyes of an Astronaut by Pierre Emmanuel Le Goff et Jürgen Hansen
Audience Awards Extra Innings by John Gray

DEMETERA 2019
Best Narrative Short Cold Storage by Thomas Freundlich
Best Animated Short Big Toast by Sacha Beeley
Best Experimental Short Jump by Clea van der Grijn
Best Music Video Phoet Symmetry Breaking by Ezra Capogna

Awards & Prizes

𝗔𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗭𝗘𝗦

🏆 Best Narrative Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best Documentary Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best Animated Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best Experimental Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best Music Video Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best Virtual Reality Short: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

🏆 Best New Media / CGI: handmade Trophy by our partner Sticky Soils (worth $500) + Digital Certificate + Unique NFT Animation by our partner Nasty Crowd.

All winners receive a digital certificate, ready to print. Some winners will be personally interviewed, and those interviews will be shared on our social media.

Rules & Terms

All films must be the original work of the filmmakers and all filmmakers must have the necessary rights.

If the original language of any dialogue or text featured in the film is not
English, the preview and screening copy must be subtitled in English, unless this is at variance with the filmmaker’s intention.

The Maximal duration for all our short films is 25 minutes, except documentaries which are maximum 30 minutes.

DCP capability is limited and dependent on the screening venue and the Demetera International Film Festival cannot guarantee that any film will play in a DCP-capable theater. Please be prepared to have an alternate print format available. If approved for DCP, you must provide a backup format (such as Blu-ray or a digital file).

Entry fees are non-refundable.

We do not accept the following content:
- Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations.
- Films that are made before 2015.
- Films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/captions for non-English films, or video resolution less than 1080p HD).

By submitting your film, you agree that Demetera can use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster) for promotional purposes.

If you have any questions that are not answered here please email us at contact@demetera.org. We are unable to address inquiries via phone.
52 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Stefano Di Pietro

    It was a privilege to be selected by this great festival. I had a few communications with the staff of the organization of the festival and they were kind and responsive. Unfortunately, I could not go to Paris for previous commitments, but I would love to join the festival next time.

    August 2022
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  • Michele Aboud

    Thank you Demetera FF, what a wonderful experience, at all times you made the process very easy with very thoughtful communication.
    It was such a lovely surprise to have won Best Short Documentary, totally unexpected and the email announcing this was full of joy!

    April 2022
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  • Emmanuel Renaud

    Merci à toute l'équipe du festival et au jury!

    April 2022
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  • Yumi Sonoda

    Great festival. Cool selection. Good communication. Thank you for selecting our work at your festival. I am great honored and had a great time.

    September 2021
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  • Sarah Lasley

    I agree with the comments below. The festival team was clear, thorough, and accommodating, and despite being online this year, the event was well-attended. I really enjoyed being a part of this and am grateful for festivals like Demetera that value experimental film! Bravo!

    April 2021
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