The festival

The Beijing International Short Film Festival (BISFF) is a beloved short film festival in China. During ten festival days, hundreds of filmmakers and artists present their latest works to a large audience. The festival is a hub where our visionary team organises and stimulates film-related activities to accompany a quality program—robust, eclectic, adventurous—and where emerging talent meets prestigious guests. This is what makes BISFF unique: every year it attracts distinct personalities from the field, who rediscover the magic of cinema at the heart of one of the world’s most dynamic cities.

BISFF 2024 will be held in Beijing at different festival venues from November 3rd to December 1st, 2024. For more information about BISFF, please visit www.bisff.co, and wechat platform ID:bisffest

At BISFF, we represent the strength and impact of short films, filmmakers and film-related art, contributing to a culture built on foundations of mutual respect and dignity. BISFF aspires to create an environment where everyone has the freedom to express themselves, without fear of harassment, intimidation, discrimination, sexism, or other disrespectful behaviors.

Program

The Festival is composed of competitive sections and non-competitive sections. The corresponding requirements for films are as follows:

Competitive Sections

Eligible for the competitive sections of BISFF 2024 are fiction (with evident narrative-driven structures and intention of portraying figures or events), non-fiction (depicting non-indirectly reality and beyond), and experimental (hybrid and limitless, representing the most up-to-date and daring in cinematic creativity), in live action, animation and/or any other forms which explore innovative film languages. The Competitions embrace all genres, styles and subject matters that stretch the boundaries and lay down new tracks in the vast field of cinematic possibilities.

The maximum length of submission is 45 minutes (including credits).

International Competition presents a stimulating panorama of contemporary short film landscape, which reflects our aim to cross and blur boundaries and encourage conversions.

Chinese Language Competition presents films that meet at least one of the following conditions: The primary production country are Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan; the main film language is Chinese; the director(s) of the film is(are) Chinese. This section opens up various perspectives on Sino-phone cinema, showcasing various genres, styles, and subject matters.

* The primary production country is the one with more than 50% of the funding for the submitted film, and the secondary producing country is the one with less than 50%. If the above conditions cannot be met, the festival organisers reserve the right to redeploy the selection to the competition.

Nova Competition is a thematic competition that spans across different countries, and aims to showcase short film creations under the theme of “coming-of-age “, the films participating in this competition are not restricted by regions and languages.

Non-Competitive Sections:

Echo is dedicated to the development process of moving-image. It offers works from historical filmmakers to whom the Festival pays special tributes, presents newly restored works in film history, and also explores untraditional representation and multiplex context.

Astro is a selection of highlight works of one major filmmaker or group. This section is designed to honor auteurs who achieve heuristic influence on the modern moving-image, to enable the audience to (re)discover an important auteur and inspire academic discussion.

Neutron is a special program reserved for medium-length films from 46 minutes to 75 minutes (including credits). All genres are eligible. This section is dedicated to recent outstanding films, all of which have received critical acclaim and/or awards at other international festivals.

Other ad hoc sections and special screenings.

Entry conditions

A Selection Committee made up of film experts will assist the Artistic Directorship in the scouting and selection of works for the Festival.

The selected films of competitive sections must have been completed after June 1st, 2023.

Films selected for International Competitions must not have been previously released or shown, commercially released, or broadcasted in the Chinese mainland before the Festival (this includes festival selection, theatrical release, TV broadcast, and VoD release). World/International/Asia premieres are favored. For any previously planned screenings of selected films, please contact the programming team with a written explanation.

* Films submitted for previous editions of the Festival may not be submitted again, not even in a new version.

Participants declare that they hold all of the copyrights, intellectual property rights or authorizations required for the film to participate in the Festival. Consequently, participants guarantee the Festival and its representatives against any and all claims, demands, suits, and actions taken against it by third parties on any grounds whatsoever.

* The festival reminds that participants without holding the rights and authorizations required for the film to participate in the festival, may result in the application of criminal and civil penalties as provided by the law.

Submission of Films

All films sent to the festival must be submitted by completing the online form, via platforms:

FilmFreeway

Festhome

Please do not submit the same project on more than one platform.

Submission is subject to a registration fee to be paid during the online submission process. Films must be uploaded during the submission process.

For submitters who cannot use the platforms above, please email to contact@bisff.co (international films), or contact@bisff.cn (Chinese films).

The submission form can only be filled with English or Chinese.

All films must be submitted in their original language with English or Chinese subtitles.

Screeners can be private (password-protected) downloadable links (Vimeo, YouTube, etc.) or DVDs (-R if possible), Blu-ray discs, USBs, hard drives, if the submitters choose physical storage medium that ought to be sent to the address assigned by the festival, please email to contact@bisff.co (international films), or contact@bisff.cn (Chinese films) for more details.

The festival keeps the viewing material for the sole purposes of documentation, promotion and viewing by professionals on its premises for a maximum period of 30 days after the festival, and will only return the viewing material upon formal request by the sender.

Deadlines

Films completed between June 1st, 2023 and June 1st, 2023: Online submission should be completed and viewing material be sent with a postmark on August  23rd, 2024 at the latest.

Films completed from June 2nd, 2024 onwards: Online submission should be completed and viewing material be sent with a postmark on September 27th, 2024 at the latest.

* There is no guarantee that films registered or sent and postmarked after the above-mentioned deadlines will be previewed.

Source: bisff.co