European Short Film 2021

Short films allow for creative experiments and provocation and invite artists to play with cinematic styles – for many filmmakers the starting point of their career, others stay and explore the format's possibilities. It is important for the European Film Academy to support and promote young and talented newcomers and to celebrate this variety in European film culture.

The short film selection and nomination procedure is organised by the European Film Academy and EFA Productions in co-operation with a series of film festivals throughout Europe. At each of these festivals, an independent jury presents one of the European short films in competition with a candidacy in the short film category of the European Film Awards. Once the list of candidates is complete in September 2021, the participating festivals will nominate five short films from this list.

Afterwards, the more than 3,800 EFA Members – film professionals from all over Europe – will vote for the overall winner that will be presented at the 34th European Film Awards Ceremony in Berlin.

How to submit …

To be considered for a candidacy, a short film has to screen in competition at any of the participating festivals (see list). Eligible are directors born in Europe or with a European passport* whose films were produced in 2020 or 2021, do not exceed a running time of 30 min. and match the genre regulations of the respective festival. At each of these, a jury selects a single candidacy for the award 'European Short Film 2021'.

* European, in the sense of the European Film Academy, means both EU and non-EU, and shall include Israeli and Palestinian.

European Short Film Candidates 2021