The Dark Hedges International Film Festival will be returning in October 2024!
Our festival is now seeking submissions of shorts and features from filmmakers throughout the world
We only accept entries via FilmFreeway! Please ensure when submitting your work to our festival you’ve checked our Terms & Conditions.
Closing Date
The closing dates for submissions this year is the 1st of September 2024. Email the festival teams for possible extension date waivers.
Best Feature Competition
Within the ‘New Cinema’ strand of our festival, we will be awarding a ‘Best Feature Film Award’ based on the features (60 minutes plus) that have been submitted to our programme.
This will consist of no more than five finalists, other features that have been submitted, but not been selected as a competition finalist may still be screened out of competition (This category will be judged by our festival’s Jury).
The Dark Hedges International Film Festival’s New Cinema’ strand is open to films made by filmmakers from around the world of all production techniques, forms and budgets that fall within the horror/sci-fi/ fantasy/thriller genres.
Short Film Competition
Our short film programme remains a key aspect of our new festival, we will continue to provide a platform for Irish filmmakers to screen their horror/Sci-Fi/fantasy shorts to audiences in Belfast, but our festival is also open to international entries.
We have two separate competition categories, our Irish filmmaker showcase (See eligibility) and our International Filmmaker showcase (Open to non-Irish entries).
Submissions for both categories will be shortlisted down to a maximum of 10 finalists and given a physical screening within our festival’s programme.
Awards
- Best Irish Short Film (Voted for by the Festival‘s Jury)
- Best International Short Film (Voted for by the Festival‘s Jury)
- First Time Filmmaker Award [International + Irish combined] (Voted for by the Festival’s Jury)
- Women Make Horror Award (Irish and International)
* Any shorts made by a first-time filmmaker that enter into the final shortlists of both our international and Irish categories will automatically be considered for this award).
Offical Online Selection Showcase
In 2020 due to the Covid Pandemic, we created a Digital Player for our festival due to the enforced closure of cinemas across the UK and Ireland. Going forward we plan to use this digital player to showcase a maximum of 20 shorts (Irish & International completion combined) on our digital player.
This Digital player is geo-locked to viewers in the UK and Ireland and will be behind a paywall to protect filmmakers who have their work in consideration at our festivals.
Our online official selection showcase will consist of a maximum of up to 20 short films submitted to our festival’s Short Film Competition (Excluding competition finalists).
