12^th Chania Film Festival:

FILM ENTRY Rules and Regulations

The 12th Chania Film Festival will take place from the 16th till the 27th of October in Chania, Crete.

The 12th Chania Film Festival includes a Competition Section and/or a general screening program with committee and audience awards.

Awards will be granted for the following categories :

1. Best Short Fiction Film [duration up to 30 minutes]
2. Best Medium Length Fiction Film [duration between 31 and 60 minutes]
3. Best Full-Feature Fiction Film [duration over 60 minutes]
4. Best Short Documentary Film [duration up to 30 minutes]
5. Best Medium Length Documentary Film [duration between 31 and 60 minutes]
6. Best Full-Feature Documentary Film [duration over 60 minutes]
7. Best Animated Fiction Film
8. Best Animated Documentary Film
9. Best Student Film

The aforementioned awards are granted to films of Greek and international production accordingly.

Chania Film Festival holds sole responsibility for the voting procedure and award granting, in regards to audience awards.

All films in the Competition Section and/or the special awards categories mentioned below, will be assessed by a jury composed exclusively for this purpose.

The jury members will be announced after the submission period and before the start of the 21th Chania Film Festival.

The 12th Chania Film Festival will also present the following awards:

1. A) The “Mikis Theodorakis” Award, in collaboration with the Cretan Association of Friends of Mikis Theodorakis
2. B) The “Walter Lassally” Educational Creation Award, established and granted by the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication – EKOME
3. C) The “#ThisisEU – European Values” Award, established and granted by the Representation of the European Commission in Athens
4. D) The ‘’Film Clubs Association’’ Award (OKLE)
5. E) The “History and Culture of Crete” Award
6. F) The “Right to Life” Award
7. G) The ‘’Podcast Documentary’’ Award
8. H) The ‘’Cretan Visual Artist’’ Award

Films will be included in the Festival’s screening program either as ‘’Nominations for the 12th CFF Award’’ or as ‘’12th CFF Official Selections’’, as well as in the special awards categories. The classification will be determined by the Chania Film Festival. Part of these films is included in the parallel and/or online program.

Participation in the Chania Film Festival screening program does not entail exclusivity in screenings or a Greek premiere.  However, it is required for the films to have been produced within the last three years (2021 – 2024) as well as the premiere of the film in Chania..

The film submission period starts on the 1st of February, 2024 and runs till the 28th of May, 2024. Qualified filmmakers will be informed via e-mail by the end of July 2024.

Filmmakers participating in the 12th Chania Film Festival agree to the screening of their film either in physical space at the Festival’s venues, or in a secure online platform with controlled access.

The screening program of the Chania Film Festival includes fiction films, documentaries and animation films. Films less than 30 minutes of duration are considered short films, films between 30 – 60 minutes are considered medium length films, while films over 60 minutes are feature films.

Entry forms are submitted ONLY online in the platform https://filmfreeway.com/CHANIAFILMFESTIVAL-931525

For the preliminary stage of selection, all film submissions must include a link on YouTube or Vimeo, along with the password.

Selected films must be sent via snail mail in USB stick or hard disc (will be returned, if required, after the Festival) to the following address: Cultural Organisation of Crete / Chania Film Festival / Demokratias and Chali Street, Vamvakopoulo / 73135 Chania Crete / (Other forms of electronic delivery may be discussed in certain cases.)

Greek speaking films must have English subtitles applied (hard-coded).

Non-Greek speaking films must have Greek subtitles applied (hard-coded). Non-Greek speaking films that do not have embedded Greek subtitles must be sent without any subtitles, accompanied by a separate SRT file with English subtitles.

A trailer with English subtitles should be sent along with a full press kit (film stills, summary, cast & crew credits, poster etc.) for promotional purposes.

The final copy that will be screened in the Chania Film Festival should be available in:

DCP or
File Format: mp4
Codec: H.264
Resolution: 1920×1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Scan type: Progressive
Bitrate: 10000 – 12000 Kbps
Frame rate: 25 fps
Audio: AΑC, 256 – 320 Kbps, 48000 Hz

All material must be received by August 20th, 2024.

Chania Film Festival retains the right – with the agreement of the creators – to screen part of the participating films in parallel CFF events after the end of the Festival and for the following months.

Films participating in Chania Film Festival can be included in the educational programs by CFF Edu, developed and presented by the Festival throughout the year, as material for research and reference. In this case, the Chania Film Festival will contact filmmakers to discuss this possibility.

Special features and thematic selections can be part of the CFF screening program.

The Festival will cover hospitality expenses of participating filmmakers [or other representatives of each production] for two (2) overnights.

The Festival retains the right to reject any submission on the following conditions: a) the submission is incomplete, b) the submission is sent overdue, and c) the content of the film is offensive and promotes hate speech.

The Festival retains the right to reject any material not compatible with its identity, character and mission.

The Festival solely decides and schedules the screening program (day and hour, as well as zone) during its running period.

The Festival has the right to use the trailers or parts of the participating films for promotional purposes.

Participants are expected to give interviews to the Festival’s communication team and to media sponsors, and to be available for photo shootings, if asked.

Part of the Festival and the parallel events will be filmed for archival and promotional purposes. Participants and the audience, whose presence is obvious in the audiovisual documentation, have no rights or demands toward the Festival, as far as this footage is concerned.

Podcast section

• Chania Film Festival includes a special unit / section for documentary podcasts.
• The podcasts submitted will be included in the Competition Section or the general one, correspondingly.
• The podcasts could entail narration, interviews, soundscapes, music and other elements of creative expression.
• Each podcast can be 10-30 minutes long. The podcast file types are: MP3, M4A, WAV, MPG, MOV, MP4. Each podcast file must not exceed 250 MB.

Participation in the Chania Film Festival implies acceptance of all above regulations.

For any questions or further information please contact: [email protected].