Organization
Linea d'Ombra Festival is an international film and audiovisual festival, conceived and promoted by the SalernoInFestival Association Ente del Terzo Settore (ETS), supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Campania Region, and the City of Salerno, and created with the contribution of other public and/or private entities, associations, foundations and sponsors. The Festival is a member of AFIC (Association of Italian Film Festivals) and CFCC (Coordination of Film Festivals of the Campania Region).

Date
The 31st edition takes place in Salerno from November 7 to 14, 2026.

Project
Linea d'Ombra Festival is an event that aims to publicize and promote the best international film and audiovisual productions, particularly European ones, to relate the different forms of youth creativity and promote awareness of them among the public, to develop projects that have an effective educational and productive spin-off, to encourage the creation of collective works by young artists from different experiences, and finally to enhance the cultural potential of the Campania Region territory on a national and international level.
Over the years the festival has been attended by international and national stars like Kenneth Branagh, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Peter Cattaneo, the Dardenne Brothers, Paolo Sorrentino, Nanni Moretti, Marco Tullio Giordana, Marco Bellocchio, Eran Riklis and many more.

Awards & Prizes

The Linea d'Ombra Festival prize for the best short film in the CortoEuropa section is €2,000. A jury of experts will award it. At least three experienced representatives from the world of cinema and audiovisuals will make up the jury. The artistic direction of the festival will select them. The prize money is gross of the withholding taxes provided for by Italian law. The Popular Jury (registered and present in the auditorium) will award the Linea d'Ombra Festival Prize Plaque for the best short film in the CortoEuropa section. The Artistic Direction, having consulted the Jury of Experts, may award special mentions to films that demonstrate particular technical and creative qualities.

The Jury of Experts may, at its discretion, split the prize money in the event of an ex aequo situation. The sum of €2,000 shall be paid to the director or co-directors of the winning film. The term ‘director’ refers to the person listed as such in the credits of the audiovisual product submitted to the competition. Other third parties other than the director, whether natural or legal persons (e.g. production and distribution companies, etc.), are not eligible to receive the cash prize, even if they hold the copyright or economic exploitation rights to the film, unless otherwise specified by the director.

Rules & Terms

Competitive section: CortoEuropa

The competition is open to short films (fiction, non fiction and/or animation) in digital format, with a maximum length of 20 minutes, produced in Europe during the two-year period 2025/2026. The number of works admitted to the competition section will be determined by the artistic direction and may vary according to programming needs and creative coherence. The pre-selection of the works will be supervised by a panel of experts and film scholars and coordinated by the Festival's Artistic Director, who will be responsible for the final selection of the works admitted to the competition.

How to submit
a. Films may be sent:
- on the online platform: www.filmfreeway.com
- on direct invitation by the Festival

b. There is a fee of 3€ to be paid at the same time as entering the platform.

c. The deadline for submission of a work in pre selection is 1 September 2026 at 23:59 UTC+1;

d. The submission of a work to the competition implies full acceptance of these regulations. In the event of any dispute, the Italian text will prevail. For anything not covered by these regulations, the Festival organisation reserves the final decision.

e. Acceptance of these regulations autorises Linea d'Ombra Festival to use the films selected for the competition in the CortoEuropa category. The organisation of the Festival will request the autorisation to present the work in competition in any other activities, directly organised and/or sponsored by the Festival, even outside the dates of the festival.

Competition Admission
The artistic direction will notify the official entry of the films in the competition by 10 September 2026. On receipt of this notification, the following materials must be sent as a matter of absolute priority, either by e-mail or by file transfer service, to intmanager@lineadombrafestival.it:
- clean projection files in .mp4 or mov, full HD o 4K without subtitles;
- .srt files of subtitles in Italian, if available, or in English;
- synopsis (.doc, .rtf or .pdf format);
- bio-filmography of the director (.doc, .rtf or .pdf format);
- photos of the film and the director;
- film data sheet (.doc, .rtf or .pdf format).

12 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Gargantua Film Distribution

    Thank you so much for screening the films from our distribution! Hoping to be back next year.

    January 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    I hope so, too!

  • Naz Çaybaşı

    Thank you so much for this amazing experience!

    April 2024
    Helpful
  • Thomas Bauer

    I learned two things at the Linea d'Ombra Festival-CortoEuropa: 1) Don't drink cappuccino after hours! 2) there are still festivals that are not on the dark side of money and organize film festivals to make quick money with the hard work by us filmmakers. I was very happy that my low budget production Cannibal Corp. was selected for the festival and in competition with a lot of great short films from Europe. This is a festival that really supports art and creativity, with a focus on the youth and new talents. They do not just screen films, but also offer a lot of panels with discussion around filmmaking. There is nothing to complain. Communication, hospitality ... all fine. A real professional event, very nice people and Salerno is a beautiful city, too. I hope I can be back next year and join the festival for the whole week.

    November 2023
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Great to have had your fantastic short Cannibal Corp. and yourself in our festival. Thank you for your nice words. We do our best to make the festival an unforgettable experience for all. Looking forward to seeing you back as a guest in Salerno.

  • Andrej Kolencik

    Unfortunately very bad and unprofessional communication. After the first email where festival stated that they will invite selected filmmakers i replied that im interested to come, since our film was selected. But after that, nothing.. no email from guest service. When i wrote them some days before the festival, they answered me this: "Dear Andrej, thank you for reaching out. You indeed expressed your intention to visit the festival, but in the beginning all directors do. I didn't hear anything from you, so I understood you didn't wanted to attend anymore." So they assumed. No apology saying that they forget or made mistake. And this came directly from the festival director :(

    October 2022
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    We make a lot of effort to organise a festival like ours; a beautiful low budget festival with a lot of volonteers.

  • Antonio Michele Stea

    Awesome festival!
    The festival is extremely organized and the staff was very nice.
    Thanks for this experience

    November 2021
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thank you for participating!