With so many awards, you have more chances to win! No budget? No problem. We know how painstakingly difficult it is to make a movie. Heck, we even know how hard it is just to write a good script (it's one of the biggest, most horribly unappreciated but crucially important parts of the entire process) so don't worry if your budget was tiny (or non-existent). The fact is we're sick of Hollywood. They only care about brands and marketing. Forget originality, passion, or vision. It's all about cashing in on a built-in audience so they don't have to take any risks. This is why we respect independent filmmakers. We know what it takes, and we're here to reward you so you can get real recognition for your work. We want to help indie filmmakers find success by celebrating their achievements with a plethora of different awards.
We will screen 2021's best entries with a live audience next year in late January/early February in Tokyo, Japan, at the Hatchobori Zero One Building. In between showings of the top films, we will do Q&A's with attending filmmakers and ask the audience their opinions of the entries. We will have free coffee, free tea, and free snacks. In addition, by our notification date of January 31st, we will give a $100 cash prize to the Best Overall Film of the Year (only one film will receive this, can be a short or a feature, the submitter must have PayPal to receive the $100 or we will have to give it to the runner up). We used to only be an online competition but since 2019 and continuing now through 2021, we've changed to have a live screening of our specially chosen award winners along with a nice cash prize. **VERY IMPORTANT** Not all selected films will be screened to the public, only the best award winners as decided by our jury. A lot of award winners will not be screened to the public so please keep that in mind. Only a small number we pick will be publicly screened in Tokyo (this is pretty common for most festivals where only a tiny percentage of submissions end up being screened but we select a whole lot more entries and evaluate each selected entry for awards).
Every four months (used to be every two months but we've changed now), we choose nominees and winners so filmmakers don't have to wait an entire year for results. This enables you to quickly build buzz for your project. Winners and nominees will be announced by the end of the following month after the final four-month deadline. For example, the results for Spring (entries submitted in January, February, March, and April) will be posted by May 31st. For the Summer deadline (entries submitted in May, June, July, and August), the results will be up by September 30th. For the Winter deadline (entries submitted in September, October, November, and December), the results will be posted by January 31st.
If you have a horror film, our sister competition is the Independent Horror Movie Awards. We have the same overall management in one location but a different group of judges and different specialty awards.
Contacts
