Competitions

Welcome to IMDb qualifying NEW YORK INDIE SHORTS AWARDS, TOP 30 most popular and 100 best reviewed festivals.

Our main goal is to find talented filmmakers from all around the world who stand out for having something to communicate through art and help them promote their work.

Some of our former contestants include Iggy Pop, Pauline Chalamet, Julie Pacino, Kevin Bacon, Oscar nominees Jude Law, Brenda Blethyn, Golden Globe winner Kyra Sedgwick and a new wave of talented directors like Student Academy Award Winners Akanksha Cruczynski, De’Onna “Tree” Young, Curry Sicong Tian, Pilar Garcia-Fernandezesma, Kristen Hwang, Murad Abu Eisheh, Simon Denda, Tribeca winning award director Peter Sluszka and so many more.

You can submit your film in any of the Main Competitions and automatically your film will be considered for all Technical & Performance Categories with no extra cost and participate for Cash Prizes up to USD 6000 per year.

You don’t need to pay any additional category fee! Just submit your film in any of the Main Competitions where you feel your project fits better.

Official Selection

Once you submit your film, our international screeners team will watch and review your project. Quarterly, the highest scored films will become finalists and automatically will join the Official Selection with +100 films to be screened at our live event.

The entire Official Selection films will receive the festival laurel. At the end of the live event we will announce all Main Competitions and Technical & Performance winners chosen by our industry jury.

Winners will receive the corresponding Certificate of Achievement and Laurel.

Moreover, we will announce the winner of the AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD who will receive a cash prize.

Semifinalist

SEMIFINALISTS

In addition, the festival will distinguish a selection of films as semifinalists. All semifinalist projects will be invited to be part of our online event and will receive the corresponding laurel.

All films at our Online Event will participate for cash prizes.

“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet”

NARRATIVE SHORT

FOREIGN SHORTS

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

ANIMATION SHORTS

NEW FILMMAKERS SHORTS

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

STUDENT SHORTS

HORROR SHORTS

MUSIC VIDEOS

COMEDY SHORTS

By submitting in any of our 10 MAIN COMPETITIONS, your film will be considered for all TECHNICAL & PERFORMANCE CATEGORIES at no extra cost.

Best Producer

Best Female Director

Best Male Director

Best Female Student Director

Best Male Student Director

Best Actress

Best Actor

Best New Actress/Actor

Best Acting Ensemble

Best Cinematography

Best Editing

Best Production Design

Best Sound Design

Best Original Score

Best Screenwriting

All these categories are complimentary. When you submit a film in a MAIN COMPETITION, it is automatically considered in all Technical & Performance Categories. Tick all the free categories you want to be considered and add the names of the artists for that specific category in the Custom Form.

The jury

Your film will be reviewed by our Screeners Team and the highest scored ones will be selected as Official Selection receiving the corresponding Laurels. Then our international jury made up by artists from different areas of the film industry like Actors, Directors, Art directors, Sound Designers, Producers, Editors, and Cinematographers from all over the world including United States, France, Austria, Canada, Argentina and Sweden, will choose the winners in each category and they will receive the Official Laurels and Certificates of Achievement.

“Already when I was very young, I was a “fabulador”. I loved to give my own version of stories that everybody already knew”