WHAT IS THE WHITE DEER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL?
We host of bi-annual celebrations of exciting cinematic experiences, not always featured in the mainstream media. Nestled in the heart of Britain, White Deer IFF welcomes all filmmakers to enter their projects into a variety of award categories, to be judged by industry award-winners & film-loving audiences from across the global community. Films that enter our festival competition are judged in all applicable categories, potentially winning multiple awards with one entry fee.

WHITE DEER IFF & THE EAST MIDLANDS
At White Deer IFF we believe it is essential to foster the potential of filmmakers who are outside the typical “hotspots” within the UK film industry. Our ethos is that filmmakers can, and should, have opportunities in locations across the world, and not only in big cities. In particular, we are committed to promoting the talents of individuals and groups within a region very close to our heart, the East Midlands, UK. It is here where White Deer IFF was formed and is based, but also where not enough filmmakers are given the exposure that they deserve. Therefore, we have decided to give additional awards solely for East Midlands-based applicants, so that many more films from this area can be brought to the attention of global audiences. It is our hope that this will increase the exposure of East Midlands’ production talent. After all, this beautiful part of the UK has many stories to tell, and we will do our best to see them told.

Awards & Prizes

Entrants must select the most accurate runtime for their film and will then be eligible to win any of the appropriate awards listed below:

EAST MIDLANDS AWARDS
Best East Midlands Long Narrative
Best East Midlands Short Narrative
Best East Midlands Microshort Narrative

MAIN AWARDS
Best Long Narrative
Best Short Narrative
Best Microshort Narrative
Best Young Filmmaker
Best Music Video
Best Long Documentary
Best Short Documentary
Best Microshort Documentary

GENRE AWARDS
Best Drama
Best Action
Best Sci-Fi
Best Thriller
Best Comedy
Best Horror
Best Romance
Best Fantasy
Best Western
Best Dystopian
Best Message
Best Experimental
Best Animation

TECHNICAL AWARDS
Best Director
Best Writing
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Ensemble Cast
Best Casting
Best Art Direction
Best Production Design
Best Set Design
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Visual Effects
Best Special Effects
Best Costumes
Best Hair & Makeup
Best Location
Best Colour Grading
Best Sound Design
Best Soundtrack
Best Trailer

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Entrant films that are strong enough to contest one of the award categories will receive an Official Selection laurel.

AWARD WINNERS
Eventual award winners will receive a laurel for the award(s) that they win and a selection of award-winning films will be featured at our bi-annual networking/screening events (held June & December). For more information please see the Event Information page on our website.

'WITH JUDGES FEEDBACK' ENTRY
Long Narrative with Judges Feedback
Short Narrative with Judges Feedback
Microshort Narrative with Judges Feedback

if a 'with Judges Feedback' entry is selected then entrants will receive an in-depth PDF document alongside entry into the festival competition. The PDF document will contain an analysis from the festival's primary judging team who will use their own filmmaking experience to give constructive feedback about the submitted film.

The length of the document will vary depending on the submitted film's runtime. As a rough guide, Microshort Length films can expect to receive between 3 to 6 A4 pages of feedback, Shorter Length films will receive about 6 to 9 A4 pages, and Feature Length films about 9 to 12 A4 pages.

The document will be received by the entrant within one month of submission. All feedback will be bespoke/appropriate to the film being entered. Please note, the feedback is considered a separate service from entry into the competition and will have no direct effect on success in the awards competition.

Please see our website for an example: https://whitedeerfest.co.uk/

Rules & Terms

GENERAL RULES
White Deer IFF hosts bi-annual filmmaking awards which culminate in a screening event. To submit a film to our awards, you must have created the project yourself, own the rights or have permission from the owner of the content to submit the film to us.

All films must be submitted in a digital format.

Non-English films must have English subtitles.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT:
1. Amateur videos i.e. films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/
captions for non-English films, video resolution less than 720p HD).
2. Pornography.
3. We do not currently accept scripts.

We reserve the right to disqualify films that feature a significant political or religious agenda.

FILM ENTRIES & RUNTIMES
Films of any length can be submitted to our festival, however, they must be entered into the appropriate runtime.

Longer Narrative/Documentary: this category is for all films above 30 minutes in length.

Short Narrative/Documentary: this category is for films between 5:00 and 29:59 minutes in length.

Microshort Narrative/Documentary: this category is for films 4:59 minutes and below in length.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE RUNTIMES. FILMS MUST BE ENTERED INTO THE CORRECT RUNTIME OR ELSE BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED.

EAST MIDLANDS SPECIFICATIONS
To qualify for the ‘East Midlands’ awards, your principal production crew must be based in an East Midlands, UK location (i.e. Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland).

16 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Mery Stein

    The team of the festival are very nice and professional. We hare very honored to have been part of the annual edition 2020 with our venezuelan film "Two autumns in Paris". We wish to you many editions more and success

    December 2020
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  • TIS Films

    We'd like to say a massive thank you to White Deer Film Festival for selecting our film "I Scream on the Beach!" and awarding it "Best Horror". Really good communication and online presence.

    November 2020
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  • 4AM Pictures

    We were lucky enough to have our film Cheeseburger selected for the first year of the White Deer International Film Festival. The communication for these guys was great and being a local festival to us made it just that extra bit special to be featured!

    Thank you so much for having us, we will certainly be back with more films in the future :)

    October 2020
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  • Lone Pine Pictures

    Thanks to White Deer International Festival for selecting our documentary 'The Butcher Baronet.' We wish you all the best for your future festivals and we hope to submit more in the future.

    September 2020
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  • Teddy Tenenbaum

    Without question, White Deer is one of the best festivals we’ve been part of. Their bi-monthly and annual structure provides more opportunities for films to be shown and win awards, and they truly stand out when it comes to promoting filmmakers. Being a part of their incredibly professional podcast was a fantastic experience. This is a festival that is on its way up, and fast. We will most definitely be entering our next short film in the festival and look forward to a very bright future for them.

    September 2020
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