Submissions are now open for Depict 2018 – our ultra-short film competition that asks filmmakers from around the world to create an original short film under 90 seconds long. Committed to uncovering emerging filmmaking talent, we’re looking for your mini-masterpieces to be in with a chance of being selected for this year’s shortlist.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a big budget or a teeny tiny one; whether you specialise in documentaries, animation or live-action; whether you live for sci-fi, horror or rom-coms; or hail from Mexico, Japan or Hungary – as long as your film is less than a minute and a half in length, you can submit your short film to this year’s competition for free!

We’re interested in seeing as many original, imaginative and engaging films as possible and giving the best of these works and the talent involved the support and exposure they deserve via the Depict competition, which provides a platform to showcase and valuable industry networks. If your film makes the Depict 2018 shortlist, you’ll be invited to showcase your film at Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival (25 – 30 Sept 2018), the UK’s longest running competitive short film and animation festival.

Distributors, producers, funders, exhibitors, fellow filmmakers, and enthusiastic fans of the short film format – not to mention our stellar judging panel, which last year included twice Oscar® and BAFTA nominated Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey – will all be there, so it’s the perfect opportunity to get some priceless exposure and industry experience. You’ll be in with a chance of winning up to £2500 prize money thanks to sponsors including The Royal Photographic Society and Aardman Animations as well as other exclusive prizes and opportunities to help you get to the next stage of your career courtesy of partners such as Channel 4’s Random Acts.

New this year, we are delighted to partner up with BFI NETWORK, a UK wide initiative with a mission to discover and support talented writers, directors, producers and artists at the start of their filmmaking careers. They join long-standing industry partners BAFTA, NFTS and Shooting People to provide the Depict 2018 British Special Mention Award, a tailored package of industry support which will both promote the winning 90-second film and further develop the filmmaker’s skills including exposure on the BFI NETWORK industry platform, a one to one with BFI NETWORK’s Talent Development Manager Matimba Kabalika and a discounted pass to the BFI London Film Festival.

Previous Depict winners have had their work screened at international film festivals, been picked up by commercial distributors, carved themselves successful careers in the film industry and beyond.

The Main Depict 2017 Award of £1,500 and a lifetime membership to our friends at Shooting People went to Vudù from Mexico, made by Alejandra M. Perrusquía, who had the following to say about her experience:

“It was wonderful to be part to be part of Encounters and Depict I felt very lucky to be there for the showcase screening. There’s nothing likeshowing your film in a foreign country and getting the reaction you expected from the audience, even when it is in a different language. It reminded me that film is a language that all of us can speak.”

Previous Depict ’17 British Special Mention Award winner Edwin Mingard (Walk, 2017) has benefited from mentoring c/o BAFTA by British filmmaker, opera director, and screenwriter Penny Woolcock as well as access to a Short Course at the National Film & Television School. Reflecting on his Award Edwin said:

“I was so thrilled to have won the Depict Special Mention Award. It was a real vote of confidence in my film and my film making, and a fantastic opportunity to see all of the other films on a cinema screen and meet filmmakers from across the globe who’d been shortlisted. For a film as short as mine, the award was incredible – I think Depict is one of the easiest to access development opportunities out there and I couldn’t recommend entering highly enough.”

Sound like your kind of challenge? As long as your film is under 90 seconds or less, you can enter your film to Depict – it is always totally free to enter your movie and you can submit your movie using either Vimeo or YouTube, making it easy to get your work to us!

Submissions close on Mon 2 July 2018 so there is plenty of time to read the rules and get some more inspiration by checking out our archive of nearly 20 years of teeny, tiny shorts. So pack your tiny film with masses of creativity and send it to us – good luck!

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