About the NSI Online Short Film Festival
Film Festival > About the festival
The NSI Online Short Film Festival is the National Screen Institute’s year-round short film festival.
I want to submit my film. Is there a deadline?
We call for films four times a year. The call is currently closed.
How does the NSI Online Short Film Festival work?
We add new films to our website every week of the year.
Once a film has finished its NSI festival play, filmmakers can opt to leave it in our online festival archives.
What kind of films is NSI looking for?
We want short films and videos no longer than 30 mins. in length (
the shorter the better!) produced after January 2006.
Your film can be
drama,
comedy,
experimental,
animation,
sci-fi,
horror, music video or a
short documentary but it must be Canadian.
A&E Short Filmmakers Award
Four times a year, NSI presents the
A&E Short Filmmakers Award to the best film from the NSI Online Short Film Festival as chosen by a jury. This award comes with a cash prize of $2,500. One filmmaker is chosen from each of our four selection periods per year.
How are the films selected?
All film festival entries are screened by an NSI selection committee led by NSI’s Director of Programming.
Is the NSI Online Short Film Festival competitive?
Four times a year NSI presents a 'best of' award of $2,500. The award is made by an independent jury comprised of filmmakers and industry members.
Can I submit my film to other festivals at the same time as yours?
If you are simultaneously submitting your film to other festivals and believe it may be accepted at a festival that does not permit online screening of the film in advance of that festival play, please wait to submit your film to us until it has completed its primary festival run.
Reviewing and evaluating submissions to the festival is not something we take lightly, and when films are withdrawn once they are accepted by us it wastes everyone’s time – including yours.
We would much rather have you wait several months and submit it then. We put out a call for new films four times a year.
Will NSI pay me for showing my short film?
No. NSI does not pay to show your film. There is also no submission fee.
The selected films are streamed only - not downloaded on to your computer.
What do I need to submit?
- A DVD copy of your film (sorry, no VHS, Beta or 35 mm copies accepted)
- The completed submission form
- A press kit (if you’ve got one) or bios of the key creative people
- Any info you want us to know about the film (festivals, awards, etc.).
If my film is selected do you need anything more from me?
The NSI Short Film Festival is all about promoting Canadian films and the people who make them. If your film is selected you are invited to give us the following materials electronically for our website:
- Logline
- 25-50 word synopsis
- 50-100 word filmmaker bio
- Artistic/personal statement about film
- 1-3 still images from film (hi-res, 300 dpi or higher, JPEG or TIFF format preferred)
- Optional - filmmaker headshot (hi-res, 300 dpi or higher, JPEG or TIFF format preferred)
Do I need to have the rights cleared?
Yes. You need to think very carefully about all the possible rights involved in your film: music, title, story, copyright, life rights, trademarks, logos, etc.
Your signature on the festival submission form indicates that you own and/or have acquired the rights in your film and have cleared copyright, trademarks and logos of other parties and obtained their authorization.
NSI exercising its rights to stream your film shall not violate or infringe the copyright or any other rights, including, without limitation, the right of privacy and/or publicity of any person or entity.
It further indicates that you accept full responsibility for any legal outcomes that may arise from the exhibition of your film on the NSI website and that you waive any moral rights you have in and to the film, as such rights now or hereafter exist, by legislative enactment, or otherwise.
What are my “moral rights”?
Under the
Copyright Act, you have (i) the right to have your name associated with your film (the “authorship right”), (ii) the right to restrain any modification of your film (the “integrity right”), and (iii) the right to restrain any use of your film in association with a particular product, service, cause or institution (the “right of association”), all of which together are known as “moral rights.”
With regard to NSI’s online film festival this may pertain, for example, to such things as NSI’s methods of promoting your film or its placement on the festival website.
What format are films presented in?
All films are presented in
Flash video.
Your signature on the submission form indicates your agreement to have your film or video converted to an FLV file for presentation on the NSI site.
Please do not send your submissions as a Flash file.
Only available in Canada
We’ve had to confine viewing of our film festival to Canada. We’re a non-profit training school and bandwidth is expensive. You'll notice some of our industry centre video interviews are on YouTube - this is to help keep down the cost of bandwidth by hosting our video elsewhere. The National Screen Institute pays a third party to stream video for our film festival only.
Remember to visit our
updates page and subscribe for free to news from NSI to get important online film festival information.
How will I know when NSI is accepting future film submissions?
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