ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
1. Entrants of the international category can submit their film from any country in the world, and there is no age restriction.
2. Entrants of student categories must be currently enrolled as university students or school students in Sri Lanka and must be below 35 years of age by 31st December 2026.
3. Open Category entrants must be below 35 years of age by 31st December 2026.
4. The duration of the film is at least 1 minute and a maximum of 15 minutes (including title and credits) for the Inter-school category and animation section. The duration of the film is at least 1 minute and a maximum of 30 minutes (including title and credits) for all other categories.
5. Any genre and topic can be submitted. (no porn, nudity, violence, no political or social harm, and no personal insults for any person)
6. Original film language can be Sinhala, Tamil or English and all entries must submit embedded English subtitles with the film. English subtitles are mandatory and Dialogue lists are not accepted.
7. Films must be completed on or after January 01, 2025.
8. We don’t accept work-in-progress copies of films.
9. A creative film poster, director’s statement and biography, and synopsis are required along with the short film. (a director's statement is a note of the director's intent as to why he/she made the film., a synopsis is a summary of the story within a few sentences)
10. All entries should adhere to the following video and audio format for the submission:
Video Container: MP4, MOV
Resolution: 1920 X 1080 or higher
Video Codec: h.264
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
*Audio / Video formats for the festival screening will be communicated post-selection
FESTIVAL RULES:
1. By submitting a Film, the entrant ensures that he or she has obtained consent from any and all owners, creators, writers, producers, and/or other authorized representatives of the film and has read, understood, and agreed to the terms.
2. By submitting the film to NIYFF 2026, the applicant and copyright owners hereby warrant and represent that the film is original and is not copied from, and does not include any other work that is the subject of copyright or other protection unless such work is in the public domain or the Submitting parties have obtained any and all consents, releases, licenses and we the festival team takes no responsibility in this matter.
3. The submitted film must not defame any person or violate the common law or statutory rights, including, without limitation, the rights of privacy and publicity or any other right of any person.
4. Submitted films must not be made available on any open-access streaming site (e.g., YouTube, Facebook) during the competition period.
5. All films should be submitted by 31st May 2026, and the Festival Authority may accept or reject late submissions at its sole and absolute discretion.
6. By submitting their films in the competition, entrants allow the screening rights to NSBM Green University. Selected films will be screened in public sessions, and NSBM Youth Film Festival holds the right to screen the films in selected festival venues.
7. The NSBM Youth Film Festival authority reserves the right to rule in its sole discretion on cases and situations not foreseen by these Terms.
8. The festival authority reserves the right to disqualify any submission if it notices any violation of the terms and conditions. They can ask for proof of studentship and authenticity anytime.
All submissions will be viewed in their entirety by at least three judges who are professionals in filmmaking. Submissions will be judged and scored based on criteria including quality of screenplay (story, dialogues, etc), acting, production quality, originality, technical proficiency, cinematography, sound design, editing, location/s used, and set design. We support indie filmmaking and will award additional points to shorts produced on a micro-budget.
