Ural Shorts

International Short Film Festival on the border of Europe and Asia

About

Now open: Submissions for 2025 Winter Ural Shorts!

Ural Shorts is an International Short Film Festival with a quarterly Official Selection, Live Screenings every summer, autumn, winter and spring, and an Annual Award Event.

Our mission is to seek out and unearth fresh talent in the art of filmmaking from across the globe. We aim to showcase and endorse top-tier independent short films, regardless of their origin, production year or budget. Our ultimate goal is to encourage and inspire auteurs everywhere.

Four times a year we conduct live screenings of the season's winning films in cinemas and on television for all to see. Once a year, we welcome the creators of winning films, who contend for the coveted top honors, with competitive screenings and an esteemed award ceremony.

You can submit your film in any of the Main Categories and automatically your film will be considered for all Technical and Performances Categories with no extra cost. You don’t need to pay any additional category fee!

Main Categories: Fiction Short, Documentary Short, Docudrama, Animated Short, Experimental Short, Student Short, Debut Short, Micro Film (up to 180 sec), Music Video, New Media (mobile and drone-video, web-series).

Technical and Performances Categories: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing.

Every Season the selection committee watches privately the submitted short films and chooses the Official Selections. All selected films enter the competition for the Season Awards. Within 10 days after the Official Selection list is published the jury announces the Season Winners. The winning films enter the Screening Program in cinemas and on television for all to see.

All Season Winners enter the competition for the Annual Awards in 18 nominations corresponding to the Main and Technical and Performances categories. And receive an invitation to the Annual Award Event.

The Ural Shorts Annual Event takes place in early September in the 300-year-old city of Nizhny Tagil, on the border of Europe and Asia, which is called the "Russian Manchester" in the middle of the Ural Mountains. Annual Award Event consists of a cultural and educational program, the annual awards ceremony, screenings, TV interviews, workshops, and other activities.

Awards

All selected films receive the Official Selection laurels and enter the competition for the Season Awards.

All Season Winners receive the Winner laurels, the Certificate of Achievement (digital format) ready for printing, and get the opportunity to be screened in a cinema theatre and / or on television.

All Season Winners enter the competition for the Annual Awards and receive an invitation to the Annual Award Event.

The winners of the annual awards receive the Ural Shorts Trophy. To award special prizes and diplomas from the jury, the festival directorate, partners and sponsors is possible.

Rules

We accept international short films up to 40 minutes in length.
There are no restrictions on genre, production year, country of origin and premiere status. Your film may be available online and/or be shown earlier at other festivals.
An entrance fee is required for all the Main Categories. All Technical & Performances Categories are free of charge and are included by submitting your film in any Main Category. Each short film must be entered for at least one of the main categories.
Multiple entries in Main Categories from the same submitter are accepted. The same film can be submitted in several Main Categories and qualify for several prizes.
Films with spoken dialogues in languages other than Russian and English are accepted only with English subtitles.
Entrants are responsible for securing all rights and permissions from copyright and other holders relating to their short.

The applicants of submitted films that have been selected will be notified via e-mail. The Official Selection list will also be published on our website https://uralshorts.com and on our social media. The Winners list will be published no later than 10 days after the official selection notification.

Premiere Requirements

No premiere requirement

Documents

Submission Наши фестивали

Submission Festhome

Submission FilmFreeway

Entry Form (online)

Place

Russia
Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region

Official Website

uralshorts.com

Contacts