Russian Indie Film Festival (RUIFF) is the annual international film festival, which aim is to show the best indie short films from all over the World to the 5-million city of Saint Petersburg, Russia.

RUIFF has 3 cash prizes. Total amount of cash prizes is 600$.

RUIFF is non-profit, non-governmental event without:

– any support from the government;

– any discrimination of films and filmmakers on any basis (nationality, residence, profession, sex, age, faith, politics, theme of the film and so on).

RUIFF principles

1) Everybody is equal in front of the arts.

2) No internet screenings – only live screening of the films.

The winners of RUIFF will receive unique beautiful crafted awards - famous Russian Babushka.
RUIFF has 3 cash prizes. Total amount of cash prizes is 600$.

Awards of RUIFF:

– Peter the Great Award

– Audience Choice Award + cash prize 200$

– Best Fiction Film + cash prize 200$

– Best Animation + cash prize 200$

– Best Russian Fiction Film

– Best Russian Animation

– Best Director

– Best Screenplay

– Best DOP

– Best Actor

– Best Actress

– Best Sound Design

– Best Art Direction

– Best Editing

– Special mentions (diplomas).

Rules and Regulation

Submission to the Russian Indie Film Festival implies understanding and acceptance of the following Rules and Regulations.

About the festival

Russian Indie Film Festival (RUIFF) is the annual international film festival, which aim is to show the best indie short films from all over the World to the 5-million city of Saint Petersburg, Russia.

RUIFF has 3 cash prizes. Total amount of cash prizes is 600$.

RUIFF is non-profit, non-governmental event without:

– any support from the government;

– any discrimination of films and filmmakers on any basis (nationality, residence, profession, sex, age, faith, politics, theme of the film and so on).

RUIFF principles

1) Everybody is equal in front of the arts.

2) No internet screenings – only live screening of the films.

RUIFF competition

Competition is open to the:

– fiction (narrative) short films from any country;

– short animation (any style) from any country.

Films eligibility

Only films that satisfy all points written below can participate in the competition of the RUIFF:

– short fiction (narrative) films, completed not earlier than January 2019 with running time (including credits) no more than 26 minutes;

– short animation films, completed not earlier than January 2019 with running time (including credits) no more than 15 minutes.

We prefer Russian premiers, but Saint Petersburg premier is mandatory.

Films mustn’t be available in Internet in public free access (private access – private links, links with password, e.t.c. is OK), or shown in Saint Petersburg before the RUIFF (no matter – commercial, free screenings, any screening at any festival in Saint Petersburg). VOD, any screening (theatrical or TV) outside Saint Petersburg is OK.

We don’t accept into the competition:

– documentaries;

– WEB-series;

– music videos;

– commercials;

– experimental films;

– video-art.

Submission category

You should submit in one of these categories:

– fiction;

- Russian fiction (only for directors from Russia, foreign submissions to this category will be disqualified!)

– animation;

- Russian animation (only for directors from Russia, foreign submissions to this category will be disqualified!).

Submission process

All submissions should be made only through the platforms:

FilmFreeway

We don’t accept submissions in any way besides the platforms, so, please, don’t send us submissions by e-mail or mail - they will be rejected.

All submitted films should have burned-in English subtitles, if the language of the film is not English.

Important! You should be able to allow us to download your film from the platform for the selection process.

There is a fee for submission. Fee is nonrefundable.
Entry fee is paid via submission platform.

You can submit as many films as you want, but each film should be submitted separately with the appropriate entry fee for each film.

Only final version of the film can be submitted.

RUIFF will not revise submitted films. RUIFF will not answer letters with the questions about the selection process, of non-selection and so on.

All applicable licenses and waivers of copyrights, moral rights, trademarks and other such intellectual property rights have been secured by the submitter.

The festival keeps the viewing material in the festival archive for the sole purposes of documentation, and viewing by professionals on its premises.

Waivers

All fees will be spent for the technical purposes: translation, subtitling and so on. So we can’t give any fee waivers or refund entry fees in any circumstances except listed below.

We can give special offers for film distributing companies, film schools and so on for the multiple submissions. Feel free to write us ruiffestival@gmail.com to receive your special offer.

Selection

All submissions are evaluated by RUIFF Selection Committee. All submitted films will be watched by not less than 3 different persons. Their reports and decisions are final and confidential.

Submitters of all accepted films will be informed by e-mail in October 2022.

The list of selected films will be published on the festival’s website and at the festival’s Facebook group and page in October 2022.

Submitter of the accepted film should send by e-mail ruiffesival@gmail.com no later than 10.10.2022:

– projection copy (downloadable link) of the film (25 FPS, FULL HD (1920*1080), H264, MP4, no more than 2 Gb - NOT DCP), if your film needs subtitling in Russian we need to have projection copy WITHOUT subtitles (or you can also send us the copy with Russian subtitles);
– if your film needs subtitling in Russian – file with English subtitles and time-codes in .SRT format;
– press-kit: trailer, poster, stills of the film, synopsis, photo/biography/filmography of the director, screening/award history of the film, premier status of the film (World, International, European, Russian, Saint Petersburg).

The authors and-or right-holders of selected films cannot withdraw the accepted submission.

Once a film is selected, the right-holder automatically authorizes RUIFF:

– to screen it in the Festival program. The right-holders of the films selected for competitive or non-competitive sections of the festival agree to the screenings of the film FREE OF CHARGE, and will not request a screening fee;

– use a maximum of 10% of video from the film offline and online to promote the film and the festival;

– publish press-kit and the film trailer offline and online to promote the film and the festival;

– to screen selected films in the RUIFF extended promotional screenings during the 12 months from the end of the festival free of charge.

RUIFF make final selections and determine in which section selected films are presented. Designation of a selected film’s program category, exhibition date(s), time(s), and location(s) is at the sole discretion of the Festival.

Jury RUIFF

RUIFF will have a separate international jury for fiction and animation competitions. Exact persons will be announced in 2022.

Awards of RUIFF:

– Peter the Great Award

– Audience Choice Award + cash prize 200$

– Best Fiction Film + cash prize 200$

– Best Animation + cash prize 200$

– Best Russian Fiction Film

– Best Russian Animation

– Best Director

– Best Screenplay

– Best DOP

– Best Actor

– Best Actress

– Best Sound Design

– Best Art Direction

– Best Editing

– Special mentions (diplomas).

RUIFF has the right to change awards categories. Final awards categories will be announced in 2022.

The winners of RUIFF will receive unique beautiful crafted awards - famous Russian Babushka. If the winner can’t attend the ceremony, prizes will be sent to such winner by regular post at the expense of the winner.
Cash prizes will be transferred to the winners only via PayPal.

Place and dates of RUIFF

RUIFF 2022 will take place in Saint Petersburg, Russia in November 2022 in the main cinema hall in Saint Petersburg – Kinocentr Rodina. The dates and the venue can be changed due to the unseen circumstances.

Attending RUIFF

We will be glad to meet filmmakers at our festival. We will give each filmmaker 2 (two) free tickets to the festival screenings.
We also will give information support to receive electronic visa to Saint Petersburg.

Sorry, but we can’t hold or refund any travel or accommodation expanses of filmmakers.

Submission to the RUIFF implies full acceptance of the terms and provisions of the present Rules and Regulations with all changes, which will be published on the site of the Festival and in its group, page in Facebook.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Great and kind communication from the very beginning. Hopefully next time in Person!

    November 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you!

  • Przemysław Stański

    It was a great experience and great communication! I'm of course happy tpo be a winner, and I hope to get back to RUIFF when the film gets made! Hopefully ;)

    Cheers!

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Dear Przemysław, thank you for your review! Hope to screen the film, made on your screenplay :)

  • Vanishing Elephant

    Great communication, friendly staff. Will hopefully be able to attend it in person one day.

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you! Hope to meet you in person at RUIFF!

  • rolf brönnimann

    The communication with the festival team has always been easy - they were clear and quick in responding to my questions. That is not easy in these hard covid 19-times. I wish them a lot of success with the festival hope to be there in person with my next project.
    Thanks again for putting up your festival!
    Rolf Brönnimann, director "Bolero Station"

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Dear Rolf, thank you for your review! We are waiting for your future film to screen it In St.Petersburg :)

  • Llewellyn Michael Bates

    Russian Indie Film Festival was great to be apart of. I was humble by the skill level of films that were in my category it's an amazing festival to be apart of they campion really creative and exciting work.
    With wonderful communication they make the selection process very simple . WELL WORTH THE ENTRY FREE

    December 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Dear Llewellyn, thank you very much for your review and great film "Watch out for Australians"!