Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People started in 1997 as a bold and innovative festival that would present quality European cinema to children, adolescents and young people, as well as to educators, parents and film enthusiasts, in the small provincial city of Pyrgos in the Region of Western Greece. After two and a half decades of consistent work in the field of children and youth audiences, the Festival is recognized as the largest children and youth film organization in Greece, with strong film and audiovisual literacy activities and a clear focus on European content. The Festival has been supported by public national funds since its early days and has been a beneficiary of Creative Europe MEDIA Festival Support scheme for many years. Since 2018, the Festival has been organized by Olympia Festival Social Cooperative, under a program contract with the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Regional Administration of Western Greece.

The main event is held in late November-early December each year. The physical event takes place in the Region of Western Greece, while the hybrid and digital activities reach out to audiences around the country and in some cases to international audiences. Year-long activities are being implemented throughout Greece. They can be physical, digital or hybrid.

The main event consists of three audience and one professional pillars:

1. An International Film Festival with strong European flavor: 4 Competition sections and various tributes, around 200 film screenings in total in each edition.

2. The “School Cinema” film literacy activities: around 80 physical, digital or hybrid workshops and seminars for children, youth and educators each year,

3. “Camera Zizanio” - European Meeting of Young People’s Audiovisual Creation: a film competition consisting of a selection of around 250 films in each edition, made by children and youth in European schools and independently.

4. Industry Events and Facilities: Olympia “Creative Ideas” Pitching Lab, Screening Room,
professional meetings etc.

Awards & Prizes

The International Juries, consisting of professionals in the field of Children Films, Education and Filmmaking, awards the following Prizes:

Best Feature Film
Best Short Fiction Film
Best Short Animation Film
Best Feature Documentary
Best Short/Medium Length Documentary

The Juries may also decide on additional special mentions and distinctions.

The Children and Youth Juries (National and International) also award prizes for best films in each category and each age group (8 awards in total).

The Festival also holds three European Children’s Film Association (ECFA) awards: Feature fiction film, Short fiction/animation film and Documentary film. The winning films are nominated for the overall ECFA yearly awards, that are voted by film professionals, members of the ECFA.

Other independent Awards:

CIFEJ Prize for a Feature Film
The Hellenic Parliament “Human Values Award”
Greek Film Critics Association
Greek Film Clubs’ Association

Rules & Terms

The 27th Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People will be held at the cities of Pyrgos and Amaliada from November 30th to December 7th 2024, while other special programs will be held in other cities of Western Greece and in Athens.

OIFF is specialized in Children and Youth audiences. It has four competition sections: feature fiction films, short fiction live action films, short animation films and documentaries (all durations). The festival accepts films completed during 2023 and 2024. Films up to 50 minutes are considered medium/short. Films 51 minutes long and longer are considered features.

Submissions are processed through FilmFreeway. The Entry Form should be completed by July 12th, 2024 in full, according to the instructions. Submissions are not accepted after that date.

For selected films, the DCP print of the selected films should reach the Festival offices by October 30th 2024, along with the dialogue list in English and an identical low resolution digital copy of the film for subtitling purposes.

The Festival prefers electronic copy submission via Aspera links or similar services. Otherwise the festival will cover one-way transportation and insurance costs for the period starting from dispatch, through viewing and up to return of the films. In case of loss or damage, the Festival is responsible only for the value of the film copy.

Film excerpts submitted for television broadcasting must not exceed three minutes.

Request to participate in the Festival implies acceptance of these Regulations. The Artistic Director of the Festival will determine on any misinterpretation concerning the present Regulations.

PRIVACY INFORMATION
Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People keeps a film submission archive for internal use. If your film is selected for the festival, part of the submitted information will be published in the festival catalog and online and may be used in press releases and other marketing strategies. The technical information will be shared for screening quality reasons with our technical staff and subcontractors. Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People may share some film information with other festival and/or film education institutions as part of its policy of supporting a knowledgeable network of children film professionals.