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Terms of Participation – 17th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival

Terms of Participation

17th Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival

“Shift your gaze to the unseen”

  1. Period for admission of films: 30th of March to 30th of May 2026
  2. The theme: Shift your gaze to the unseen (Check our website for more information on the theme).
  3. Age: Eligible to participate with their film are filmmakers under 35 years of age, or over 35 under the condition that their submitted film is their debut.
  4. Origin: The origin of the filmmakers should be from a Balkan country or/and their film should be a Balkan production or co-production.
  5. Films’ duration: Maximum 30 minutes.
  6. Film genres: fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, video art.
  7. Filmmakers should apply through the FilmFreeway platform.
  8. The files of the films should be in one of these formats: AVI, MP4 or MOV and high quality (frame size 1080*1920).
  9. Production must be of the last 3 years.
  10. The film should be uploaded in its original format without English subtitles embedded but with an SRT file with the english subtitles attached.
  11. In case the filmmaker has the subtitles captioned for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people, they must attach the file in their application.
  12. Regardless of the number of submitted films only one film per filmmaker will take part in the competition programme
  13. Optional: Participants can send all relevant information about the film as well as photos of their film for promotional reasons for the festival.

 Film Festival Terms

  1. Balkans Beyond Borders (BBB) is a non-profit organisation based in Athens with the purpose to promote intercultural dialogue and an innovative way of learning through the Art of Filmmaking and Image. To this extent, BBB organises a film festival every year, with a different theme which travels to a different Balkan city.
  2. Τhe 17th Edition of Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival will take place in Athens, Greece in November 2026. The exact date will be announced in due time.
  3. The main title of the festival is: Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival.
  4. The number of films that will be projected during the festival in Athens depends on the number of participants and the final decision of the organising team.
  5. The final films will be selected by the International Jury of the Film Festival until the end of August 2026.
  6. The jury consists of 3 well-known film experts from three Balkan countries.
  7. The selection of the projected films, the order of projection and the programme are decided by the organisers, based on the technical specifications, the duration and the grouping of the films.
  8. The finalists will be informed in August-September about the acceptance of their film in the competition section.
  9. BBB Film Festival organising team reserves the right to screen part of the final films whenever it is needed, for reasons of promotion of the Festival and under no circumstances for commercial causes.
  10. The finalists must inform the organisers whether they are going to attend the festival in Athens, so that the organising team can coordinate their travel and accommodation.
  11. There will be a prize from the Jury and a prize from the audience attending the Festival. The organisers will decide about the possibility of giving special prizes regarding the amount and the characteristics of the finalist films.
  12. The award ceremony will take place in Athens, in a special ceremony right after the end of the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival.
  13. BBB Best Film Award (monetary prize), BBB First Entry Award (in kind) & BBB Audience Award (monetary), three Special Mentions. For the second consecutive year, Balkans Beyond Borders continues to explore the creative possibilities of Artificial Intelligence in filmmaking giving the BBB Creative AI Award (in kind). The 17th edition introduces the BBB Gen Alpha Award (in kind) inviting filmmakers to bring the magic of cinematic storytelling to the Gen A (4-15 y.o.) The Festival also gives three Special Mentions.
  14. Participants agree to give interviews to the communication sponsors and to be photographed if asked.
  15. Parts of the Festival will be filmed for the BBB archive and for its promotion to the public. Members of the audience and participants that may appear in these parts cannot claim anything from the organising company.
  16. During the Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival parallel events will take place.
  17. BBB Film Festival organising team reserves the right to cancel the Festival if it is necessary.
  18. The application of the film through filmfreeway entails the complete and unconditional acceptance of the above terms of participation.
  19. The Festival will take into consideration the protection of the films’ copyrights.
  20. The festival has the right to cancel the participation of a successful submission if it will not have received the film file one month before the festival organisation.