Short Film Submissions are Live | Submit your Short Film at India’s Most Prestigious Award Ceremony​

DPIFF will felicitate with the following Awards & Cash Prizes:

Best Short Film Winner – Dadasaheb Phalke Award with INR 1,00,000 (One Lakh Rupees) Cash Prize 

1st Runner Up – Memento with INR 15,000 (Fifteen Thousand Rupees) Cash Prize 

2nd Runner Up – Memento with INR 10,000 (Ten Thousand Rupees) Cash Prize 

• To be eligible for consideration, all submissions must meet the following requirements:
•  
• • • Films must be in their original language; if the original language is not English, subtitles in English must be provided.

   

  • Short Films made between 1st January, 2020 to 31st December, 2024 are eligible.

   

  • The total runtime of the Short Film, including opening & closing credits, should strictly be a minimum of 1 minute and a maximum of 50 minutes

Deadline to Submit your Short Film is 31st January 2025

RULES & REGULATIONS

Note – This is Version 1.0 of the Rules & Regulations 2024-2025.

Application Form

 ● Please read the rules & regulations carefully before filling the application form. 

● An applicant filling this form can do so only on behalf of the rights holder of the film. The applicant may or may not be the rights holder of the film, but they are solely responsible for the authenticity of the information provided. In case of ANY discrepancies found in the application form, the entry will be disqualified. It will be assumed that the applicant has the requisite authority from the rights holder to submit this film to Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival 2025 and make the film available for screening when required. 

● An applicant should ideally be the Primary Contact Person who will be the main point of contact for all future communications regarding their submission to the festival. The email address and phone number provided by the Primary Contact Person in the first stage of the application form shall be regarded as the single-point contact information between DPIFF and the applicant. The form will ask the applicant to specify their relationship to the film (for example, producer/sales agent, etc). Kindly ensure that the Primary Contact Person is easily reachable at all times. 

● The confirmation email sent to the Primary Contact person upon a successful submission of the application form will also have all the producer/s of the film CCed on it. Hence, kindly provide names and contact details of all the producers of the film in the application form. The same will be applicable if the film is invited by the festival. 

● The contact details of the Rights Holder (who may be the applicant) will be published in the festival catalogue if the film gets selected. This could be the producer/sales agent of the film who will be able to respond to potential future queries by international film professionals. 

● The application form is optimised for a computer screen. Kindly ensure that you fill the application form using a desktop/laptop computer and not a mobile phone. 

● In case, a mandatory field in the application form does not apply to you, please write ‘NA’ (Not Applicable). Do not leave it blank or else the submission process will not move forward.

 ● Word limits are to be adhered to wherever mentioned in the application form. DPIFF reserves the right to shorten and/or edit the text for the purpose of publication of film information in the festival Catalogue. 

● Completed applications need to be submitted by the given deadline. DPIFF will not take responsibility for the exclusion of films if complete information is not supplied by the deadline. 

● The application will be accepted only upon payment of the mandatory application fee.    

● By submitting the application form to DPIFF the applicant hereby certifies, on behalf of all third parties involved, that they have read and understood the rules and regulations listed, that they are legally authorized to submit the film to Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival and that the information given by the applicant is true and correct. The applicant indemnifies DPIFF against any claims to the contrary. 

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

– Short Films made between 1st January, 2020 to 31st December, 2024 are eligible.

– The total runtime of the Short Film, including opening & closing credits, should strictly be a minimum of 1 minute and a maximum of 50 minutes

Completion Stage/Date 

1. The films applying to this edition must be completed after January 1st, 2020. 

2. Films that are work-in-progress at the time of application are accepted under the following conditions – 

a. That the film will be complete by January 31st, 2025. 

b. That the submitted version will be the only version watched by the selection committee. Once submitted as a work-in-progress film and if not selected, the completed film will be ineligible to apply in the following year or for any future editions of the festival, in any other form. 

3. Films submitted in any form to earlier editions of the festival are still eligible to apply again to this edition. A film that has been withdrawn from participation in earlier editions can be re-submitted to this edition. 

Selection 

1. All films have to be submitted directly to Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (www.dpiff.in/nomination) only through the online application form. No requests for private screenings to selection committee members will be entertained. No film links sent via email without filling the application form will be considered for selection. 

2. The festival has a policy of no fee waivers. All the submitted films will have to pay the application fee. 

3. The festival will not provide feedback on films or share specific reasons for rejection of any film. 

4. DPIFF accepts submissions and payment of fees only via the online application form. No individual/s claiming to be a part of the DPIFF team can be offered or can accept any payment to program the film in the festival. If any individual/s approach you with any such offers, kindly do keep us informed so that we can verify the work claimed to be carried out by the individual/s. 

5. The Primary Contact Person will be notified about the selection of the film for Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival at the end of the selection process. No information will be divulged before that. 

6. The Artistic Director of Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival reserves the right to settle all cases not covered by the guidelines and to grant exceptions in special cases. All cases will be governed by and construed in all respects in accordance with the laws of India and settled under the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Mumbai. The Artistic Director also reserves the right to remove any film from the selection in any special cases as deemed by the festival. 

Media Accepted for Selection 

1. The festival accepts the submission of the project via YouTube/ Vimeo/ Drive/ etc. 

2. If the Project is password-protected then the link must be active at least till 10th February, 2025.

3. In case the online film screener shared is not password protected, the festival cannot be held responsible for the security of the film screener. 

4. Please note that we require the film to be played in its entirety and therefore require a link to a single video. Multiple links for the same film will not be accepted. 

5. All online film files will be destroyed / deleted immediately after the selection process of the festival is completed. 

6. All films have to be submitted in their original version with English subtitles. If the original version of the film is in English, English subtitles are not required. The cost of subtitling is the sole responsibility of the Producer. 

7. Dubbed versions of films in other languages are eligible for submission with English Subtitle. 

Deadline and Payment 

1. A submission fee is applicable to all entries submitted to the festival. Payment can be made online after the form has been completed. The applicants from India can make payment in INR and the applicants from the rest of the world can pay in USD. Details of this are mentioned below:

2. This fee is non-refundable and includes all transaction charges of the payment gateway. 

3. A submission is considered complete when ALL (2) the following criteria are met. Only on acknowledgement of receipt of all three criteria is the submission considered complete. 

i. A correctly filled online submission form 

ii. Realisation of payment of submission fees 

4. The deadline for completed entry forms, payment of submission fees, and submission of the online film screener to the festival must be strictly observed. The last date of completing submission is 31st January, 2025. 

Official Laurel, Participation Certificate and Publicity 

All selected films will receive a Laurel and Participation Certificate. This should be displayed in all advertising and promotional material of all the films selected in the festival. 

Award-winning films will receive the appropriate Trophy with the Cash Prize, following are the specifications to the same:

Winner of the Best Short Film Award will be honoured with Main Trophy of DPIFF alongwith a Cash Prize of INR 1,00,000 (One Lakh) 

1st Runner Up – Memento with INR 15,000 (Fifteen Thousand) Cash Prize 

2nd Runner Up – Memento with INR 10,000 (Ten Thousand) Cash Prize 

3rd Runner Up – Memento with INR 5,000 (Five Thousand) Cash Prize 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

● I hereby declare and affirm that I am the producer, owner and rights holder of the Film and its content, and all rights associated with or relating to the Film and its content which I am submitting for the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (the “Film Festival”). OR I declare and affirm that I have obtained necessary permission from the producer, owner and rights holder of the Film to use the content relating to the Film to submit it for the Film Festival.

● I further declare and confirm that Film and its content do/ does not (i) infringe any copyright, patent, or other right or constitute the misappropriation of any trade secret, trademark of any third party proprietary rights, and/or (ii) violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation. 

● I acknowledge that I have obtained necessary consent, permissions, and approvals relating to the Film and its content including without limitation promotional materials, synopsis to be submitted and screened at the Film Festival. 

● I hereby covenant that it is my sole responsibility to clear the Film and its content from any and all actual or potential legal claims and issues, including, without limitation, claims based upon theories of libel, racism, blasphemy, defamation, invasion of privacy, violation of rights of publicity, theft of trade secrets, breach of confidence, breach of confidential relationship, and breach of express or implied contract (“Third Party Claim(s)”). I accept that the Film festival disavows any responsibility for, and will not be held responsible for, any unauthorised inclusion of any content or materials within or relating to the submitted Film that are or may be the basis for any Third Party Claims based upon any of the foregoing legal theories or others.

● I confirm that I have not done or caused to be done or omitted to do or caused to be omitted to be done, any act that has resulted or might result in the abandonment or impairment of such right, title, interest, intellectual property right including copyright, permission, or approval for the Film and its content. 

● I acknowledge that the selection of the Film for the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival2023 is at the sole discretion of DPIFF and DPIFF reserves the right to disqualify any Film, with or without any reasons, and without refund of any or all submission fees or entry fees. 

● I agree and accept that the Film, its content including without limitation promotional materials, synopsis shall be rendered accessible to third-party partners and evaluation committees associated with the Film Festival as well as to consultants of the Film Festival. 

● If the film is selected and thereafter upon accepting the invitation from the festival, I hereby irrevocably grant to DPIFF and the Film Festival the right to screen the Film and exhibit the stills and posters of the Film on digital and physical platforms of the Film Festival, and to screen, publicize, advertise and promote the Film on digital and physical platforms of the Film Festival; in connection with any advertising and promotional efforts of DPIFF during the Film Festival. 

● I hereby affirm and declare that all rights granted hereunder are and will be free and clear of liens, encumbrances, or claims of every kind and all royalty and license fees required now or in the future to be paid in connection therewith are or will be paid by me. 

● I hereby irrevocably grant to DPIFF the right to sublicense any or all of the foregoing rights to one or more third parties (as may be required) only for the purpose of promotion, advertising and/or publicizing of the Film and for editorial coverage of the Film Festival.

● I agree that the stills, posters or other promotional materials of the Film could be used as per the Film Festival’s requirements to advertise and promote the Film solely for the purpose of Film Festival. 

● I agree that the Film Festival reserves the right to shorten and/or edit the text of the synopsis for the purpose of publication of Films in the Film Festival catalogue

● I undertake not to hold DPIFF or the Film Festival liable for any loss or damage caused to Film, its content including without limitation promotional materials, synopsis that I may upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available with the Film Festival. 

● I agree that I have no rights to make use of DPIFF’s intellectual property (including, but not limited to trademarks belonging to DPIFF) to which I may access during the Film Festival. 

● I hereby indemnify and hold DPIFF, the Film Festival and its sponsors and third party licensors and suppliers and each of their trustees, members, directors, officers and employees; harmless against any claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, cost and expenses (including legal cost) obtained against, imposed upon, suffered or incurred by DPIFF due to or arising out of (i) necessary clearances, permissions, approvals not obtained by me, and/or (ii) screening of the Film at the Film Festival, the platform, the software, the website, and/or (iii) any breach of the Rules & Regulations and this Acknowledgement provided by me and/or (iv) claims relating to piracy, theft or infringement of any third party intellectual property rights, and/ or (v) any Third Party Claims. 

● I hereby covenant that DPIFF, the Film Festival and its sponsors and third party licensors and suppliers and each of their trustees, members, directors, officers and employees shall not be liable for any special, punitive, consequential, incidental, or exemplary damages (including lost or anticipated revenues or profits relating to the same or attorneys’ fees) arising from any claim relating to the Rules & Regulations or any of the rights granted hereunder, or Applicant’s failure to perform any obligation under this Rules & Regulations or for the use of the Film and its content at the Film Festival. 

I agree to have read and accepted the Rules & Regulations for participation in the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival.