ABOUT
Festival Description
Known as the world's leading online film festival, Top Shorts is one of the best-reviewed festivals on FilmFreeway, with over 200 five star reviews. Top Shorts was recently ranked 8th Best Reviewed Festival out of over 4,000 of the world's best film festivals (and 1st from the online festivals, FilmFreeway May 2016). It was also selected by Motion Array as one of the best short film festivals for up-and-coming filmmakers.
We accept screenplays (up to 40 pages) and short films (up to 40 minutes long) in the following categories: Narrative, Web Series, Animation, Documentary, Indie, Inspirational, Experimental, Music Video and Micro Film.
Top Shorts offers both monthly and annual competitions:
1. MONTHLY COMPETITION - each month, our jury selects the winners through private screenings.
We also select 9 finalists, which are nominated for Film of the Month award. The 15 finalists will qualify for the annual festival (The 6th Annual Top Shorts 2020).
- IMDb - Top Shorts is an official event on IMDb. This means that all winners may add the awards to their IMDb titles.
- Certificate - all monthly winners receive a free digital certificate (in JPG), ready for print.
2. ANNUAL FILM AWARDS - once a year, in May, our judging team selects the BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR.
* We don't showcase the full films online.
Categories
--- FILM/SCREENPLAY AWARDS (monthly) ---
Best Student Film
Best Drama
Best Comedy
Best Horror
Best Thriller
Best Crime Film
Best Romantic Comedy
Best Dark Comedy
Best Mystery Film
Best Parody
Best Western
Best Fantasy Film
Best Film Noir
Best Sci-Fi
Best LGBTQ
Best Animation
Best Documentary
Best Micro Film
Best Inspirational Film
Best Indie Film (budget up to $5000)
Best Web Series
Best Music Video
Best Experimental Film
Best Trailer
Best Commercial/Promotional Video
Best Screenplay
Best Original Story
--- CAST & CREW AWARDS (monthly) ---
Best Director
Best Indie Filmmaker (film's budget up to $5000)
Best First Time Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Actor in an Indie Film (budget up to $5000)
Best Actress in an Indie Film (budget up to $5000)
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Young Actor (13-18)
Best Young Actress (13-18)
Best Child Actor (5-12)
Best Child Actress (5-12)
Best Ensemble
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Original Score
Best Sound Design
Best Visual Effects
Young Filmmaker Award (18 and under)
(see all categories at www.filmfreeway.com/festival/ts).
* The Best of Fest and Best Director ANNUAL WINNERS will receive free Top Shorts statuettes. Other winners may order a statuette for themselves and their team, for $290 including shipping.
** All winners will receive a print-ready digital certificate (in JPG/PDF).
Submission
We accept submissions exclusively on FilmFreeway:
Organizers
Roy Zafrani, Festival Director
Nami Melumad, Festival Coordinator
Rules & Terms
* What we’re looking for? Story-based films, which can be in the form of narrative (fiction), music video, documentary (non-fiction), or animation.
* All films must include English subtitles (unless the spoken language is English)
* By submitting your film, take note that:
- You agree to use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster/screenshots) for promotional purpose. We upload some of the winners' trailers in order to promote the films.
- You must own all the rights to the video.
- Fees are not refundable.
Top Shorts does not accept the following:
1. Amateur videos
2. Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations
3. Films which are made before 2013
4. Political films
5. Films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/captions for non-English films, video resolution less than 720p HD)