CONTEST RULES AND REGULATIONS CIFF2024
ORGANIZERS
The Caorle Independent Film Festival is run by the Cultural Association CAORLE FILM under the patronage of the City of Caorle and by the Veneto County.
The fifth edition will take place from 17 to 21 September 2024 in Caorle, Venice.
APPLICATIONS
The competition is open to feature films, short films, web series, documentaries, pilots and animation films/shorts.
All feature films, short films, web series and pilot episodes selected compete indiscriminately for the technical awards.
1- Submissions for Caorle Film Festival 2023 will open on November 15, 2023 and will close on June 2, 2024.
1.2- The charge will differ according to the submissions period as follows:
November 15, 2023 – Submissions Opening
Early Deadline | January 15, 2024 – 20€
Official Deadline | May 11, 2024 – 30€
Extended Deadline | July 2, 2024 – 40€
2- Submissions are accepted exclusively online from the following website: www.filmfreeway.com/CaorleFilmFestival;
3- The competition is open to feature films, short films, documentaries, animation movies, pilots and webseries produced since 1st January 2022 until the present day. Works carried out before this date will not be considered;
3.1 Works that have participated in past editions of the Caorle Film Festival are not allowed;
3.2 School works are not admitted;
3.3– Works made and/or in which CIFF collaborators and staff members took part are not allowed;
3.4- Are not allowed works of political propaganda, religious, incitement to violence and hatred towards any ethnic group, culture or religion. Also not allowed are works against the laws in force in Italy and against human rights.
3.5- No amateur works will be considered.
4- Works from all over the world are admitted. Foreign works must be subtitled in English or Italian at the time of registration; works in Italian must be subtitled in English;
5- To be eligible to register for the Festival, attendees must be at least 18 and must provide all the rights to economic and visual use of their own work. They also have to declare that the work is original and that does not infringe or violate the rights of any third part;
In case of a false declaration, and in case of recourse by the real copyright holders, the authors relieve the Festival and the organizers from any legal and economic responsibility, and undertake to answer entirely for the consequences connected with the fraud;
6- Every author can subscribe more than one work, provided that the respective registration fee is paid;
7- To be eligible for the Festival, web series must have at least 3 episodes published; In the absence of this requirement will be eligible to participate in the competition with the pilot episode;
7.2 – Each web series episodes must not exceed 15 minutes.
7.3 – Pilot episodes must not exceed 40m.
8- The following files must be uploaded on Filmfreeway at the time of submission, with download enabled. Otherwise, they will not be considered.
STRICTLY COMPLYING WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS LISTED BELOW:*
– Digital copy of your work in .mp4 h264 format (720p or 1080p)
– A4 vertical Film poster, minimum 300dpi (29.7 x 21 cm / 3508 x 2480 px) in JPG or PDF format: the file must be uploaded to filmfreeway in the attachments section.
– Work synopsis of minimum 200 / maximum 350 characters.**
Important: when submitting please remember to carefully fill in the technical form of the work, indicating all the names and roles of the main artistic cast and the complete list and roles of the crew: Director, Screenplay and Plot writer, DOP, Lead Actor and Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress, Editor, Sound Designer, VFX Supervisor, Production Designer, Make-up Artist, Composer.
It is your only responsability to ensure that you have properly filled in the required data and that the necessary files are not malfunctioning.
* If these conditions are not met, the Festival reserves the right to exclude the work from the competition, or to re-encode the video to make it conform to the parameters indicated. In the latter case, the authors will have no right to make any complaint, even in case of loss of audio/video quality or alterations of color palette, color spectrum, etc..
** The Festival reserves the right to edit synopses if they are written in incomprehensible and/or grammatically incorrect vocabulary.
9- By entering the contest, you grant the Festival permission to use your work and the material that will be requested for advertising, media and promotional purposes, as well as permission to screen your work during the days of the event;
10- The author agrees to provide a valid and working email address, to which all communications will be sent. In the case of works entered by festival distribution companies, the author’s direct email contact must be provided at the time of entry.
It is his responsibility to contact the organizers at info@caorlefilmfestival.com for any questions before submitting his work to the 7th edition.
Eligibility
11- The works submitted will be initially evaluated by a technical committee to certify that they meet the requirements of the regulations;
11.1- The official selections will be announced on July 6, 2024. A total of 75 works are selected.
11.2- Afterwards the works will be evaluated by an external jury made up of professionals of the sector who will decide the winners of the various categories according to their unquestionable judgement.
12.3- The Festival will not cover or reimburse travel and accommodation expenses for selected participants, but will offer conventions with partner hotels and restaurants.
The awards will be presented during the final evening of the festival on September 21, 2024.
Exclusions
Caorle Film Festival reserves the right to decline submissions for any of the following reasons:
– where failing to meet contest requirements;
– where required files are not received by expiration date, or contain wrong or missing information;
– where works violate the existing laws, incite racial and cultural hatred or violate human rights. In addition, political propaganda will not be allowed.
– where the minimum number of participants (3) is not reached in any of the following categories: Animation and Documentary. In this case, the registration fee will be reimbursed.
DISQUALIFICATION
– Any attempt to obtain information on the final results of the competition before the grand prizegiving evening’s final announcement and/or the spreading of misinformation about your participation, will be punished with disqualification and the entry fee will not be refunded.
– Unseemly, violent and/or disrespectful behavior manifested within and during the festival, including damaging and/or using any material and equipment owned by and the responsibility of the Caorle Film Association and its collaborators.
– Untrue statements regarding the submitted work.
If your work will not be selected for the competition, the entry fee will not be refunded.
If the Festival decides, at its sole discretion, to screen works out of competition, the authors of such works must fully accept the clauses indicated in these Regulations.
By entering the Competition, you confirm that you understand and agree to accept all Terms, Rules and Regulations.
AWARDS
The winners will be awarded with an original trophy created specifically for the festival, during the awards ceremony that will be held in Caorle, Ve (Italy), on September 21, 2024.
Best Work – Caorle Film Award –
Best Feature Film
Best Shortfilm
Best Webseries
Best Comedy
Best Drama
Best Thriller
Best Sci-fi / Fantasy
Best Pilot
Best Documentary
Best Animation
Best Actor in a leading role
Best Actress in a leading role
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Directing
Best Cinematography
Best Feature Film Screenplay
Best Shortfilm Screenplay
Best Webseries Screenplay
Best Story
Best Production Design
Best Editing
Best Sound Design
Best Original Soundtrack
Best Make-up
Best Visual Effects
People’s Jury Award
Additional Special Mentions may be awarded to the most deserving works.
If a winner is not present at the awards ceremony to collect the prize, it will be possible to receive it by express courier service or postal delivery at the expense of the recipient within 6 months after the conclusion of the same edition.