Terms & Conditions
St Kilda Film Festival 2025 - Terms and Conditions
1. The St Kilda Film Festival short film competition only accepts Australian-made short film entries.
The Festival also accepts Australian co-productions where:
- a significant proportion of key crew are Australian, OR
- significant pre and postproduction occurred in Australia, OR
- the film received significant funding from Australia
Australian co-production eligibility details must be detailed at the time of submission and the Festival has final decisions on eligibility. If you are unsure of eligibility, please contact the Festival office at FILMFEST@portphillip.vic.gov.au
If you are an Australian Producer-Director, but your film does not meet the Australian co-production criteria above, you may submit to the Festival via the separate submission category ‘Australian Expats (out of competition)’. If programmed, your film will appear out of competition and will not be eligible for any awards prizes or Academy accreditation.
St Kilda Film Festival accepts all fiction and non-fiction film genres including music video and experimental works.
As per Academy guidelines, films submitted must be no longer than 40 minutes, inclusive of credits.
The submitter grants St Kilda Film Festival the rights to:
(a) Screen to a physical audience in a programmed session (dependent on public health restrictions). Screening locations are to be determined but are likely to include both traditional and non-traditional screening venues. Some special programs outside of those selected in this process may take place online. Permission from filmmakers will be sought prior to these being scheduled if indeed they are.
(b) Utilise a portion of the entered film for promotional purposes such as the festival trailer.
(c) For selected films, exhibit the film for an extended period (the week following Closing Night) available for streaming in the Encore Showcase, which may be paywalled. Selected films will be screened at the Victorian Regional Tour that follows the festival.
Please note: all of the above opportunities may not apply / are not guaranteed to all selected films.
2. The Producer (submitting filmmaker) warrants to the St Kilda Film Festival that they have obtained all the necessary permissions to enter this film and that the film does not infringe the rights, including copyright, of any third party. This includes use of music and literary material.
3. All films screened at 2025 St Kilda Film Festival Top Short Competition must have been completed within 2 years of the entry closing date.
4. Entries cannot be withdrawn after Saturday 1 March 2025. By submitting your film to the St Kilda Film Festival for consideration, you acknowledge this condition of entry and waive your right to withdraw your film from the Festival after this date.
5. If your film is selected for the Festival, you will be sent an email confirmation by Monday 12 April 2025.
6. The Festival strongly requests that selected films are removed from public viewing on other platforms and do not appear at other public screenings for the duration of the Festival campaign. This does not apply to existing agreements to other Festivals or with streaming platforms.
7. The St Kilda Film Festival has a commitment to ensuring equitable participation and inclusion. The Festival offers film submission waivers for films where the Director and/or Producer identify as being:
• First Peoples
• A person with disability
If this applies to your submission please email filmfest@portphillip.vic.gov.au to receive your waiver code prior to completing your submission.
8. Selected films will be required to provide sidecar closed caption files (usually .srt files) along with their film prior to screening. (Filmmakers can generate these files automatically via Adobe Premiere Pro Speech to Text or Vimeo).
9. The festival also requires that if selected, films should be supplied as hi-quality digital file (Pro-res or similar quality). If selected, the Festival may ask for a copy of the submitted film in other formats as well (such as DCP) depending on the film's screening location.
10. All submitted films will be assessed by an independent panel of industry professionals, including alumni from previous iterations of the Festival and the Festival Director. This panel will shortlist the Top Short Films, which will be screened at the 2025 St Kilda Film Festival.
11. If Shortlisted, award-eligible films will be judged, nominated, and awarded by a jury of three screen industry professionals independent of the Festival (the Festival Director is not included on the jury). Nominations will be publicly announced during the Festival, and Award Winners will be announced on Closing Night.
