The National Irish Science Fiction Film Awards (THE GOLDEN BLASTERS) is a film festival open to entries from across the world and is dedicated to the art of the short film and screenplay in the genres of Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy.

It is our aim to bring greater recognition and attention to those Film makers and Screenwriters who create speculative fiction in the format of the short film.

Awards & Prizes

The Festival will be held this year as part of Dublin 2019 - An Irish Worldcon, to be held in Dublin on the 15th - 19th of August 2019. In Celebration we will be awarding our coveted Blaster trophy in three categories

Best Picture ( Golden Blaster)
Audience Award (Silver Blaster)
Short Screenplay (Golden Blaster)

Each film and Screenplay selected are nominated for the award and have the right to also list themselves as nominees in that category.

Rules & Terms

Submission Requirements

Script Format
As this is a short competition , Screenplays can be up to 20 pages in length but must be in the correct screenplay format ( Courier, Font size 12)

Short Films
Films can be as short as you like, however the ideal maximum running time should be between 12 to 18 minutes. This festival is after all dedicated to the art of the short . However we will consider films that run one or two minutes longer than this for nomination if the selection committee consider their quality high enough.

Short Film Exhibition Format
Films can be filmed on any format but entries must be presented as download (preferred), or on DVD or CD-ROM for consideration. The Same for Exhibition; however if submitting via DVD or CD-ROM, we request two copies

AWARDS
There are three awards
Best Picture (Golden Blaster)
Audience Award (Silver Blaster)
Short Screenplay(Golden Blaster)

The Golden Blasters for Best Picture and Short Screenplay will be decided upon by a select panel of judges.
The Silver Blaster will be decided by the audience.

Terms and Conditions
You agree that we may screen your film publicly during the festival and that we may use clips and stills on our website or elsewhere for promotional purposes only.
No fee waivers.
All non English Language films must include English language subtitles.
All films accepted must arrive by July 15th with shipping , custom duties and taxes pre-paid.
You agree that entry does not guarantee acceptance as per the above requirements. No Materials shall be returned under any circumstance.

6 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jeffrey Howe

    Great communication on the screenplay side of things--couldn't make the awards, alas, so blanks on the in-person categories.

    August 2019
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  • Julia Beney

    Lovely festival with great communication! I will definitely be submitting to this festival again :D

    August 2019
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  • Katie McNeice

    This was one of the worst festival experiences I've ever had. I have NEVER given a bad review on Film Freeway before, but this calls for it.

    Firstly their website is dead. There's no information available online aside from very quiet FB and Twitter profiles.

    There was no list of nominees published online that I could see. There were no laurels sent out. My email about when this would be available was ignored. My tweet to ask about tickets was ignored.

    The festival did not run alone but part of a larger event which also ignored my emails. No programme was published by them either. The only thing I knew was the time, date and venue and that the entirety of the larger event was sold out.

    No one got in touch about how to attend. No one offered a ticket or pass. There were less than a handful of tweets about the entire festival event, one of which said that they hadn't test screened anything and that it wasn't fair on the filmmakers or attendees.

    The only communication I got aside from being told I was shortlisted was that I hadn't won the award. All in all, I got no value whatsoever out of submitting, let alone for being shortlisted.

    August 2019
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  • Vijay Varman

    I had a wonderful experience with Golden Blasters. While I wasn't able to attend the final awards ceremony, the great communication I received from them in the lead up was very appreciated. One of the best festivals out there!

    October 2016
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  • Marco Checa Garcia

    Our short film "2BR02B: To Be or Naught To Be" was nominated to the Best Picture award but unfortunately we couldn't attend to the festival.
    Reading the Facebook and Twitter posts about the festival is clear that everybody enjoyed the festival and it was a total success.

    I'll try to go for sure if I ever get nominated again.

    Cheers.

    October 2016
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