Leuven International Short Film Festival is the yearly place to be in December for film lovers and professionals in Belgium and abroad. As Academy Award Qualifying festival since 2012, BAFTA recognised since 2016 and European Film Award nominating since 2017, it's the main Belgian gateway to the most renowned award ceremonies worldwide.
Every year, the International Short Film Festival Leuven, founded in 1995, presents a selection of short films - fiction and animation, documentaries as well as non-narrative films.
The Flemish and European short film competitions are an essential part of the festival. Annually, around nine jury and audience awards are handed out. In addition the festival always offers a series of retrospectives and specials. And ever since 2007 the Flemish Audiovisual Fund awards its Wildcards at the festival.
The International Short Film Festival Leuven, which has been taking place at Art Center STUK since 2002, usually presents around 120 screenings over the course of eight days. Every year, the festival screens over 200 short films from around the world, presented in over 25 different programs. In addition, the festival also hosts fascinating masterclasses, workshops and panel discussions for film fans and professionals from here and abroad. In 2014 the festival hit a new milestone of 10.000 visitors.
The festival has been Academy Award Qualifying since 2012, which means that the short films that are awarded the jury prizes in the European and Flemish competitions automatically end up on the Academy’s long list for Best Short Film. In 2016, the festival also became BAFTA Qualifying and in 2017 it nominated a short film for the European Film Awards for the first time.
Beside the film programme, the festival organises film concerts, live music, parties, dinners, masterclasses, workshops and panel discussions, giving film professionals from Belgium and abroad inspiring moments of learning and networking possibilities.
_____Why Pay a Fee? Return for filmmakers_____
With our fee at only €7-10, its sole purpose is enabling us to treat your film fairly. Without this fee, we would have too many submissions and we would not be able to give them all our full attention.
As a festival, we're proud to say our competition is 100% selected from paying submissions. We don't go prospecting for films at other festivals and give every film the same fair chance. We don't look at the festival screening history of the submitted films or the previous works of the directors. Everyone starts with a blank slate and we only judge the films based on their own merits.
Waivers are only given to filmmakers that were previously selected at the festival.
Directors selected for competition are invited and receive travel (depending on the country of origin), three nights of hotel, meals and accreditation for the complete festival. Films outside of competition are payed a screening fee, or can request accommodation (places are limited), meals and accreditation at the festival.
All selected directors receive fee waivers for next editions of the festival.
The festival's focus on directors makes it a great place to get to know colleagues and present your film to the broad audience present in Leuven.
ALL COMPETITIONS
- One short film in competition will be nominated for the European Film Awards
EUROPEAN COMPETITION: FICTION
- Jury Award: €1.000 donated by the festival + Academy Award™ Qualifying
- Audience Award: €2.000 purchasing prize from CANVAS
FLEMISH COMPETITION: FICTION
- Jury Award: €12.500 shooting kit hire from Camalot + Academy Award™ Qualifying
- Audience Award: €2.000 purchasing prize from CANVAS + €10.000 post production support from Mikros Image and A-Sound.
- Jury Award for Best Debut: €1.500 donated by SABAM
- Jury Award for Best Actor/Actress: €1.000 donated by Playright+
- Jury Award for best Cinematography: €1.000 donated by Camalot.
FLEMISH COMPETITION: ANIMATION
- Audience Award: €1.000 purchasing prize from Dalton Distribution
FLEMISH COMPETITION: DOCUMENTARY
- Jury Award: €7.500 shooting kit hire from Camalot + La Guarimba 10 day residence programme in southern Italy