South East European Film Festival Los Angeles (SEEfest) is a competition festival presenting to American audiences cinematic and cultural diversity of 20 countries of Eastern/Central Europe, the Balkans and Caucasus. It provides a platform in the U.S. for the discovery of new talent from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, with a wide selection of films, art and literary talks, workshops and panels.

The festival serves as the cultural hub and resource for scholars and filmmakers, and creates opportunities for cultural exchange between Hollywood industry professionals and filmmakers from South East Europe. It is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, public benefit corporation.

Awards & Prizes

SEEFest is a competition festival. Unless otherwise stated all films are eligible for one of the following Awards, in-kind or subject to underwriters:

Best Narrative Feature
Best Documentary Feature
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animated Short
Best Cinematography
Audience Award

ACCELERATOR: Impact Award, for Best Project (Valuable Post-Production Packages)

The juries are comprised of Hollywood film industry professionals and award-winning filmmakers. Audience Award is given to the highest-scoring film based on the audience ballots.

Rules & Terms

The festival accepts narrative feature, documentary feature, narrative short, documentary short and animated short films from, and about Eastern/Central and South East Europe. Expatriate filmmakers and filmmakers who are not from the region are eligible if the theme of the film is tied to the region and its people.

Please note: the festival does NOT cover all of Eastern Europe. It promotes the cinema and cultures of East/Central/Southeastern Europe at the cultural crossroads between Europe and Asia, from Austria in the north-west and Ukraine in the north-east to the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the south-east.

Only films made in the last 18 months prior to the Festival qualify.

Submissions are open September - January. In each category selection committee will review all submitted films and suggest the final line up.

Students submitting short films (fiction, documentary or animation) can get a fee waiver. Please contact the festival to obtain the waiver at: info(at)seefilmla.org.

SEEfest on YouTube: Short YouTube video is FREE to enter.

38 Reviews
Overall Rating
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  • Jeyan Kader Gulsen

    A wonderful and kind team and an amazing festival. We took part in the 2023 edition of "SEEfest" and we were honored. "SEEfest" will never be forgotten on our film's festival journey. We would love to meet again with new films.

    September 2023
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  • hirotoshi takeoka

    SEEfest is a great festival for getting to know the stories of Europe in all its diversity. It has a very good selection and is run by a great team. I feel honored to have submitted my film. I would definitely participate again in the future.

    September 2023
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  • Mirta Puhlovski

    We know for this festival for a long time and this year our film was selected and presented there. Everything was great and very supportive towards us and our film. The team is great. They follow the life of the films that were in their selection and really create a great atmosphere.

    August 2023
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  • Vahagn Karapetyan

    I recently had the opportunity to attend The SeeFest Accelerator and Writer's Showcase, a highly anticipated event that brings together aspiring writers and industry professionals. As a passionate writer myself, I was eager to participate in this event and explore the possibilities it offered for networking and skill development.

    May 2023
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  • Derya Durmaz

    South East European Film Festival and its Project Accelerator Lab are just wonderful. I have been to the Accelerator twice with my two different feature film projects and it gave the very much needed push for both of them in terms of both necessary industry knowledge and the content development.
    People organizing the festival and the accelerator are wonderful. They have their heart and minds in the right place, with all their focus being on supporting filmmakers.
    Thank you SEEfest!!

    May 2023
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