INDAF Independent Film Festival is an artist-led independent film festival that showcases emerging and established filmmakers by screening feature, mid-length, and short films and organizing other parallel activities in a polymorphic 3-day program. INDAF Film Festival 2024 will take place between 26-28/04/2024 on the island of Cyprus. We invite filmmakers worldwide to submit their films, ranging from Documentaries, Animation, Fiction & Experimental short films.

In times when commercialization is draining the creative space and conventional cinema is moving far away from the pure Art of Cinema and the Community, obtaining a rather shallow, hyperreal, and fast-paced approach. On the contrary, recent technological advances have arguably made the means of producing imagery much more accessible to the public, and we are keen believers that exceptional Art exists in small-scale independent productions; Thus, as INDAF, we are consciously turning our focus towards aspiring creators who are immersed in experimental, ground-breaking, boundary-pushing short films.

This year's festival will revive the "Mesokeleas" Cinema in Kaimakli, Nicosia.
Mesokeleas Cinema is located at Kafeneio Proodos in Kaimakli. It is a Cinema space from the 1960s with a strong social and political significance in the area. Indaf takes over the old cinema and regenerates the social energy that those cultural hubs need.

1. INDAF - Independent Documentary, Animation & Fiction Film Festival is happening for the first time at El Taller Space in Kaimakli, Nicosia, Cyprus from the 26th to the 28th of April 2024.

2. The festival aims to raise awareness, promote and showcase independent and low-budget productions of short films from local and international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue, understanding for the different.

3. In addition to the sections mentioned in the following paragraphs, the Festival also organizes special events and parallel activities such as live band concerts, Q&As, and film workshops.

4. Any artists based in Cyprus or Internationally can collaborate and send submissions to INDAF. We try to promote free and indie cinema with a social-political character. Films and behaviors that promote violence, racist characteristics, content against diversity, and don't understand equality between genders and races would not be tolerated.

4.1 Short Films
Accepting Short film Submission raging from Documentary, Animation, and Fiction Narratives.

5. Selection of films/projects
5.1 Selection Procedure
Only films that have been registered can be considered for selection.

Film registrations are accepted exclusively online on FilmFreeway.

The Festival Director will be assisted by his staff of programmers, as well as by a group of correspondents and international consultants, each responsible for different geographical areas, to select the Projects.
 Selection will be made under the following criteria: the latest aesthetics and expressive trends in international cinema, films demonstrating innovation, and creative originality. Films that promote dialogue with no violent communication and narratives, films that promote deference and are not produced by big production houses. We will select 10 films from each category depending on their duration and context.

5.2 Submission Deadlines
The following deadlines must be met without exception:

Late Submission Deadline: March 15th, 2024

6.3 Registration Fees
For each film submitted to the selection of the Festival, a registration fee is requested to cover administrative and programming costs. Films will only be considered for selection after the entry fee is received.

5.4 Materials to submit
Films are to be submitted in their original version for the selection process. All Projects must be uploaded via the FilmFreeway Secure Online Screener system and have English subtitles burned in the screener. This is to ensure the inclusiveness of the screening process to the most efficient way possible.

INDAF - INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL reserves the right to disqualify, without refund of any or all submission fees previously collected from the applicant, any Project that is not submitted via one of these formats.

5.5. Dialogues/Subtitles
We only accept films with their subtitles encoded in the video format. Please submit your films with their English subtitles.

5.6 Completion
We try to promote filmmaking and independent directors. We make sure that we showcase films that could be relevant regardless of the date of completion and publication.

5.7 Premiere Status
Short Films do not need to retain any sort of premiere status. Short Films do not forfeit their eligibility for submission to the Festival if they were previously released theatrically or via any home video platform, broadcast or streamed on television or the internet, or screened at any number of film festivals anywhere in the world.

Films need to be Preview screenings to be considered. They may have screened in the world beforehand, but may not be on general lease before INDAF 2024

Feature films that have been or will be broadcast or streamed on television or the Internet or released via any home video or other public distribution platform (Blu-ray, DVD, streaming, VOD, etc.) in the EU or Locally (CY) before INDAF2024 are eligible.

5.8 Re-submission
Projects that have been submitted for Festival consideration in previous years are eligible for re-submission only if the content of the submitted project has changed significantly since the previous year in which the Project was submitted.

5.9 Declaration of Rights Upon Submitting a Film
INDAF will only accept the submission of a film if the submitter is the holder of all usage rights to the film necessary for the submission and use of the film within the context of participation in INDAF. INDAF reserves the right to demand appropriate proof of these rights and to reject the submission upon failure to provide it.

5.10 Notification
All the submitted films will be notified in March of 2024 in writing if their film has been successful or not.

6. Selected Films/Projects
The invitation to participate is issued by the Festival Director or the section heads, respectively. Only officially selected films/projects can participate in the INDAF Independent Film Festival. Upon completion of the Festival selection process, INDAF will attempt to contact the Applicant using the contact information provided on the submission form to notify the Applicant of the Project’s acceptance status via email or through FilmFreeway Notification. It is the sole responsibility of the Applicant to ensure that the contact information provided on the submission form is correct.

7. Participant's Obligations
It would be highly respected if the films wouldn't withdraw from the application/submission. Participants should have their films available for download through the Filmfreeway platform and include Eglish subtitles.

8. Acceptance Form
Selected films will receive an Acceptance Form to be completed and returned no later than 10 days after the end of the extended submission deadline. Receipt of the form by the Festival implies the legal acceptance of the invitation by all concerned and will be considered definitive and irrevocable.

8.1 Announcement
The invitation of a Project to participate must remain confidential until the announcement of the program by the INDAF Film Festival. Failure to comply will result in its exclusion from the selection.

8.2 Screening Formats
Shorts:
Selected films must provide mp4, and MPEG 4 files to be screened (with English subtitles).
The Festival reserves the right to refuse any copy that, on the advice of the Festival technicians, is considered to be of inadequate quality for public screening.

8.3 Catalog
All the material required for the Festival catalog (synopses, cast and credits, biography and a complete filmography of the director, photographs of the director, of actors and scenes from the film in b/w and color, plus a brief director’s comment on the film) must reach the Festival as soon as possible, but no later than 10 days after the end of the extended submission deadline.

8.4 Press Material
The presenters of films participating in the Festival must send the promotional material for distribution to the press and potential buyers (press book, digital images of the film and the director, video material, audio clips, etc.) under separate covers, at their own expense, no later than 10 days after the end of the extended submission deadline, in the quantities that will be requested after the invitation.

8.5 Official Logo
Films awarded a prize or selected must also state which award or participation was won, under the official graphic designs predetermined and supplied by Kazanti Films or INDAF Film Festival contact.

9. Hospitality
Our hospitality department will be in touch with selected filmmakers to organize attendance and post-screening Q&As.

10. Shipping Insurance
All insurance costs covering the transport of films and press material to and from the INDAF Independent Film Festival will be at the expense of those presenting the films.

11. Usage Rights
The participant declares and guarantees that he/she is the holder of all usage rights necessary for the use of the film in the context of this agreement. The participant affirms that any third parties involved in the production and distribution of the film have agreed, where necessary, to its use in the context of INDAF as specified in this agreement. The participant guarantees that by using the film in the context of this agreement, no rights of third parties, including persons depicted in the film, are infringed.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Olympia Gauguet

    I was glad to be selected in this festival. Everything was super well organised. Thank you so much

    May 2024
  • They kept me up to date on happenings

    May 2024