Milano Indie Movie Awards was created to give space and exposure to independent short films from all over the world.

Freedom of Art against Hegemony of Bureaucracies, a blend of extemporaneousness, dances and eschatological emotions to be enjoyed in a collective ritual, called "Ceremony"; a series of screenings in which the chat between a short film and another triggers initiative for those of the aforementioned Art he is an Art-ificer (precisely) and here he is rewarded for this.
This is the Home of the Independents, ladies and gentlemen! Come in! It is possible to talk about good and bad things, fragrant and smelly, deliberate or improvised, poop or pee. In the House of Independents, the important thing is that you don't care about the rules and show us what dreams, nightmares or (if you really can't) bad digestions are made of. But also the good ones, eh!

"Le Cinema est mort! Vive le Cinema!", which means that Cinema is You who do it on your own, Cinema is Us who talk about it on our own.

Sign up with discretion, anger and braggadocio. If you come to the ceremony poorly dressed, you will be more likely to be rewarded.

HI!

MIMA 2026 edition will be held on OCTOBER.
Screenings and related awards will be hosted in Milan.

We have reached the fourth edition!

That will be divided into 3 periods:
1st period: August 2025 - December 2025
2nd period: January 2026 - May 2026
3rd period: June 2026 – October 2026

IMPORTANT: The short films that win each single selection period, winning a prize in the Main Categories and/or in the best Lombardy and/or in the best Italian, and will directly access the official selection of the Festival as Semi-Finalists. The technical and genre prizes listed below will also be awarded in each period. All winners of such awards may subsequently be reviewed and presented at the final screening, but this will be at the discretion of judging committee.

ONLY FILMS UNDER 30 MINUTES AND $10K BUDGET ARE ACCEPTED.
EXCEPTIONALLY (BUT VERY RARE) : the jury reserves the right to direct a film entered in a specific genre towards a prize of equal cost deemed more appropriate.

Jury reserves the right to include works that don't respect the duration limits only if deemed artistically relevant.

Festivals partner:
https://filmfreeway.com/Assurdo
https://filmfreeway.com/RealeFilmFestival
https://filmfreeway.com/MonzaFilmFest
https://filmfreeway.com/Nightofshorts

Awards of each period:

Awards of each period:
MAIN CATEGORIES
Best Film
Best European Film
Best Extra-European Film
Best Italian Film
Best Lombard Film
Best Low Budget Film
Best Original Idea
Best Braggadocio (special jury prize)

GENRE FILM AWARDS
Best Drama
Best Comedy
Best Tragicomic
Best Horror
Best Thriller & Crime
Best Music & Romance
Best Sci-fi
Best Documentary
Best Animation
Best War
Best Web/TV Pilot/Tv Series

TECHNICAL AWARDS
Best Director
Best Young Author (under 30)
Best Soundtrack
Best Editing
Best Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Vfx
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Arthouse
Best Movie Poster
Other awards will be also decided by the jury.

- Registration for the competition must be made by FilmFreeway , then the author will receive an email notification of registration.

These are the link to register: https://filmfreeway.com/MilanoIndie
- ONLY FILMS UNDER $10K BUDGET ARE ACCEPTED.
- All fees are non-refundable.
- Films may have been produced anywhere in the world, without any distinction.
- Each film may have a maximum length of 30 minutes.
- Each author can register more films.
- All film genres are accepted.
– By registering, you declare that you have the rights to the registered film
– The festival may use for promotional purposes the data of authors, producers and crew, the movie poster, the trailer and a maximum of 1 minute of the video
– Films that incite violence or hatred in general are not accepted
– By registering the film at our festival you agree to share personal data with partner festivals, but only for promotional purposes.
– Distributors can ask for a special price for the registration of 20 or more films. To do this, just send us an email to festival@milanoindie.com

- In case of selection the author and / or production and / or holder of the rights of each film must send a downloadable link (via file sharing platforms such Wetrasnfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) to the festival organization. This video must be in usable format for projection, the basic format is required FullHD 1080p.
- A complete list of selected films will be published on the festival website, the authors of the selected films instead receive a mail of selection.
The composition of the jury will be announced by the date of notification, It will consist of persons qualified in the audiovisual sector.

- The author and / or production and / or holder of the rights of each film by subscribing to the festival claims to be in possession of the rights of reproduction video and audio of the film.
The author and / or production and / or holder of the rights of each film authorize the festival organization to use parts of their film (maximum 1 minute) for creating promotional films for this festival and for future editions.
The author and / or production and / or holder of the rights of each film grant rights to public screening inside the Milano Indie Movie Awards without any claims.
Any material sent to the organization of the festival will not be returned.

- The author and / or production and / or holder of the rights of all selected films authorize the publication of their data onhttp://www.milanoindie.com site and on every type of distribution channel as promotion.

- The admission to the Festival implies the unconditional acceptance of this regulation.
For any dispute not covered by the Regulation the competent authority is the organization of the Milano Indie Movie Awards, if such disputes do not find the solution, the competent authority is Foro of Monza.
In case of objections to this Regulation Italian version of the same prevails.

- Subscribers to the Milano Indie Movie Awards agree as established by Legislative Decree 30 June 2003, No. 196 on the protection of privacy, the use of personal data for all initiatives related to the event. The Author of the film declares to accept the Regulation in all its parts and to have the legal availability of the film and to authorize the public screening without compensation, freeing the organization of the Festival from any present and future responsibility. With the contest entry each author is responsible for the content of his work. The author claims to own all rights to the work, not prejudicing in any way the rights of third parties, like other authors, subjects portrayed, transferees of rights, together with those music, etc. . It also declares that the audiovisual material is not protected by SIAE. Under the provisions of Legislative Decree. 30/06/2003 n. 196, we inform the author that the data requested is necessary for completing the documentation of registration to the Festival.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Paulo B. Menezes

    How honored for the prize! I woud havel loved to sée the whole program. Cheers and thank you :)

    October 2025
  • A great festival and a great team. They definitely gave me more than two awards. Thank you all the team.Hüseyin Gürses(The Farewell)

    June 2025
  • ***SCAM Festival*** This was one of the first festivals I ever heard back from. I was so excited. It took me a long time to realise that it didn't mean anything. They will give awards to anyone, and won't actually screen your film. The only people who are seeing it are the people previewing the films and taking your money. Film Freeway is failing us! IT is outrageous. Be careful. If a festival sends you an email asking you to submit but does not waive the fee completely, they are just trying to take your money.

    April 2025
    Response from festival:

    Dear Evelina.
    The final screening and awards ceremony will be held in Milan, at the Teatro Alfredo Chiesa (just like in previous editions).
    Dates, times, etc. will be announced soon on our official channels. We are organizing the event and (trust us) it's not as simple as it seems.
    We apologize for the disappointment, but we are only independent cinephiles (not thieves, for sure).
    In addition, the long break between the second and third edition is due to the "restructuring" of the festival, as written on the description page, both here and on our website.
    For everything else, we refer to our rules, also available on the aforementioned webpages.

    Good work and see you soon.
    Ciao!

    !!mImA°_°pEoPle!!

  • Thank you fot giving a prize 🏆 to my short movie! I am really honored!

    March 2025
  • Awesome festival! I was so happy to be a part of it and for my film "After Death:" to be awarded best War/Action film!

    March 2025