Short Film Competition

 

International Short Film Competition (Competition) which is organized within the framework of Accessible Film Festival (Festival) aims promoting and circulating short films and encouraging dialogue between the audience, directors and cinema professionals.

 

The 13th Accessible Film Festival will be held between 23-29 May 2025 by Puruli Culture&Art. The competition screenings will be held in Ankara between 23-28 May and the awards will be presented at the Award Ceremony on 29 May 2025.

 

a. Deadline for submissions is 14th of February, 2025. The submissions are only open through filmfreeway.com. Any submission made outside this platform won’t be considered.

b. Submission fees for the international Short Film Competition: 

 

Earlybird: From 9th of September to 29th of November 2024: 5 $
Regular: From 30th of November 2024 to 17th of January 2025: 7 $
Extended: From 18th of January 2025 to 14th of February 2025: 10 $

 

c. In case of cancellation of the submission, or in case the film is not eligible, the submission fee will not be reimbursed.

d. Films whose original spoken language is not English must have English subtitles on preview copies.

e. The following materials must be attached to the online submission:

 

- Synopsis of the film
- High-resolution photos from the film
- Short biography of the director in English
- Photo of the director (in .jpeg, .pdf etc.)
- Poster of the film (in .jpeg, .pdf etc.)
- High-resolution trailer of the film (if available)
- Presskit of the film (if available)

 

a. Film screenings will be held both in screening venues and online. The physical screenings are planned to be held in Ankara. In case of online screenings, they will be held through a DRM protected streaming platform with geo-blocking (only viewers from Turkey will be able to access the films.) The films will be screened in their original language with Turkish and English subtitles. Optionally, Turkish audio-description, Turkish dubbing and Turkish closed captions will be available for those who are vision or hearing impaired.

b. Eligible formats for screening copies of selected films is DCP for the physical screenings and digital file (MP4, .MOV file, h264 or ProRes) with the technical specs same as the DCP copy for online screenings as well as preparing the accessibility facilities of the film. This is extremely important for providing the synchronicity of accessibility facilities. (Turkish audio-description, Turkish dubbing and Turkish closed captions.)

c. The films will be screened max. 3 times at the screening venue/s and may be streamed of the film will be online on the digital screening platform during the Festival. The festival board has the right to screen the films included in the competition programme in different cities and dates until the next festival date, upon prior notification to the director of the film.

d. Applicants are not entitled to claim screening fees for the screenings of their films in the competition.

e. All selected films should have English dialogue list in .srt or .xml format.

 

a. A selection committee, chosen by the Festival team will be appointed to view all submissions for pre-selection. The pre-selection results will be delivered to the applicants by 28th of February  2025.

b. Only one film per director is accepted. 

c. The right holders of the selected films will have to send a file/copy for the screening, as well as a dialogue list in English in .srt or .xml format with timecode to the Festival team until 10th of March, 2025. Failure to send these materials will cause the exclusion of the film from the selection. The directors have the chance to withdraw their films from the competition until 10th of March, 2025. After this date, they will not have this option.

d. The Festival reserves the right to use the promotional materials submitted previously both during and after the Festival. The Festival also has the right to use short excerpt  (clip) from the film if the film doesn’t have any trailer.

e. The materials received from the right holders of the selected films will be used on the outputs  of the Festival (catalogue, website, social media accounts etc.) considering the Personal Data Protection Law in Turkey (Law Number:6698).

 

a. The Festival aims to host one director or representative of each film in competition in Ankara. The facilities that the Festival can afford may depend on various contitions.

b. The director or representative of the film is expected to attend the Award Ceremony of the Festival which will be held either physically or virtually.

c. If the Festival is held virtually only, online pre-recorded Q&A sessions will be held with the directors of the selected films. These videos will be screened through the streaming platform to be used during the Festival as well as the Youtube channel of the Festival.

 

a. The Jury of the Festival awards the following Prizes:

1. Best Film - 1000 $ (USD) and the Award statuette
2. Best Director - the Award statuette
3. Best Script - the Award statuette

 

b. Beside these categories, an Audience Award is given which is decided by the votes of the audience. The winner receives an award statuette.

c. None of the awards may be given to joint winners; only one winner may be chosen by the jury.

d. Best Film Award is given to the producer of the film. 

e. Best Director Award is given to the director of the film. 

f. Best Script Award is given to the script writer of the film. 

g. Audience Award is given to the producer of the film. 

 

a. The Jury is composed by representatives from various fields of film industry, art and academic world. Consisted of 3 persons, the Jury is responsible for awarding the prizes.

b. The producers, directors and other film crews who are involved in the making of a film included in the competition can not be a member of the Jury.

c. The Jury members watch the films at the screening venue and from the preview copies.

d. The Jury makes its decisions with absolute majority (2 votes).

 

The film participating in the International Short Film Competition is called as the WORK whose characters, stories, script and dialogues have already been created by the right holder who signed the regulation. The right holder acknowledges and agrees that she/he has transferred the processing right on the WORK to Puruli Culture&Art for making the submitted film accessible for the disabled individuals, limited to the duration of Accessible Film Festival.

The new processed work whose accessibility applications (audio description and closed caption) have been prepared by Puruli Culture&Art is called the PROCESSED WORK. Puruli Culture&Art keeps a copy of the PROCESSED WORK in it’s archive after the Festival ends. The intellectual property rights of the accessibility applications of the PROCESSED WORK belongs to Puruli Culture&Art. With the acceptance of this regulation, the right owner accepts that Puruli Culture&Art can negotiate and/or make verbal or written agreements with third parties about the screening of the PROCESSED WORK without prejudice to the right owner’s intellectual property rights on the WORK. The decision on the screening of the PROCESSED WORK belongs to the right owner of the film. Also the right owner has a right to request a screening fee for the screening of the PROCESSED WORK.

 

For other issues which are not mentioned in the regulation text, the authorization right belongs to Puruli Culture&Art.

The producers, directors and other film crew are deemed to have accepted this regulation. It is the responsibility of the applicant, the legal owner of the film, to inform the people who contributed to the production of the film about this regulation.