2026 SUBMISSIONS

*** PLEASE READ OUR RULES AND CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY ON OUR FILM FREEWAY PAGE ***

Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) is Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival, celebrating its 71st edition in 2026. Our mission is to present Ireland’s most exciting, diverse, and ambitious annual film festival, connecting and stimulating audiences and artists through a carefully curated selection of the best films, to create a unique shared cultural experience, rooted in Cork, open to the world.

CIFF welcomes submissions of features and shorts, and all forms of film production – fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, etc. We champion new voices and celebrate excellence in filmmaking throughout our programme. We also recognise filmmakers’ achievements through our 15 Awards, three of which are Academy Award® qualifying.

The Festival requires Irish premieres for most of its strands, please contact us at info@corkfilmfest.org if your film receives another invitation for Irish or Cork city premiere and you need guidance to ensure that your film remains eligible for CIFF.

Please note that all submitted films are watched by a network of Festival previewers based in Ireland and across the world.

If selected, applicants to the 2026 edition will be notified by September 2026.

Submission Deadlines 2026:

• Wednesday 14th January – Submissions open
  
• Friday 27th March – Early Bird Deadline
  
• Friday 5th June – Regular Deadline (extended from Friday 29th May)
• FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST – *EXTENDED DEADLINE* (Features, Feature Documentaries, International Shorts, International Documentary Shorts) 
• FRIDAY 14TH AUGUST – IRISH SHORTS *EXTENDED DEADLINE* (Irish Shorts, Irish Documentary Shorts, Cork Shorts, Cork Documentary Shorts)

Terms And Conditions

Entries are invited in the following categories:⁣

• Feature films⁣ (Fiction)
• Feature films (documentary)⁣
• Short films (International – Fiction)⁣
• Short films (International – documentary)⁣
• Short films (Irish – Fiction)⁣
• Short films (Irish – documentary)⁣
• Short films (Cork – Fiction)⁣
• Short films (Cork – documentary)⁣

Form and Premiere Status:⁣

• The Festival welcomes all forms of film production – animation, experimental, etc. However, promotional films (e.g. films promoting tourism, charitable appeals, etc.)⁣⁣ and music videos are not eligible.
• All short films selected for competition will be Irish Premieres.
• All short films selected for screening will be at a minimum Cork City premieres.⁣
• All feature films in competition will be at minimum Irish premieres.⁣
• Films that are available to purchase are NOT eligible; this includes DVD/Blu-ray/VOD formats.
• Films that have previously been publicly screened, broadcast or otherwise made publicly available (including online) in Ireland will NOT be considered.⁣

Conditions for Entry⁣:

• To be eligible for the short film competitions, films must have been completed after 1 July 2025 and be 40 minutes or less in duration⁣.
• To be eligible for the feature film competitions, films must have been completed or premiered after 1 December 2025 and be 41 minutes or greater in duration⁣.
• For in-cinema screenings, the screening format eligible for inclusion is DCP. If a DCP is not available, please contact the Festival to arrange for the creation of a DCP for screening purposes from a ProRes or similar digital file.⁣
• For digital online screenings, the screening format eligible for inclusion is h264 1080p digital file.
• Films should be presented in their original versions with English language subtitles or commentary where necessary.⁣
• Please note that films submitted through the incorrect category will not be considered.
• Please note that refunds will not be issued for submitted films.
• For full Terms & Conditions, please check our Film Freeway page.

Criteria for Cork Shorts⁣:

• Filmmakers who are based in Cork.⁣
• Filmmakers from Cork but based elsewhere.⁣
• Films shot by non-Corkonians throughout Munster. ⁣

Non-English language films⁣:

To qualify for selection, all non-English language films must have an English-subtitled screening copy available.⁣

How to send your film⁣:

Please submit your film via the online submission platform, FilmFreeway. WE DO NOT ACCEPT FILMS OTHER THAN VIA FILMFREEWAY

Unsolicited submissions, waivers and discounts⁣:

• The Festival respectfully requests that entrants do not send unsolicited screener (Vimeo etc.,) links to Festival staff, and do not appeal for fee waivers. 
• Submission fees are necessary to finance a fair and thorough review process of the hundreds of submissions we receive each year, as well as to support the costs of curation and film exhibition.⁣ If you wish to request a waiver regardless of the above, please email info@corkfilmfest.org with ‘WAIVER REQUEST’ in the title. Your email should clearly explain why you are requesting a waiver and why CIFF is the festival where you specifically want your film to premiere. We will review these requests in a monthly internal meeting.
• If you are a cultural institution or college or have a number of films you would like to enter at once, the Festival may be able to offer a discount; please email info@corkfilmfest.org to request. 
• A fee waiver may be granted if the submitter has previously had their work in the Festival.

Notification:

Filmmakers with work selected will receive an invitation by September 2026. Rejected films will receive notification through FilmFreeway at the end of September.

Unfortunately, it is not possible for the Festival to offer feedback regarding films that are not selected for the programme. Please don’t be discouraged if your film is not accepted to Cork International Film Festival. There are often many influencing factors on why your film may or may not be accepted or be suitable for the Festival.⁣

Screening File Delivery:

Please note: The preferred method of receiving screening materials for the festivals is via digital online transfer. If you are selected for CIFF2026 but are unable to send your film digitally, please do not send your film without contacting the Print Traffic team first.

If selected, DCPs and screening files must be received by the Festival by Friday 2nd October, latest.

Using extracts of the films and film stills for promotion⁣:

The entrant agrees that up to three minutes of their film may be used by the Festival in promotional activities including screening a clip on television, inclusion in the Festival’s trailer, and on the Festival’s website. Please ensure that uploaded stills and headshots are of print quality and that you have permission to allow the Festival to use these for promotional and press purposes in perpetuity. ⁣

General⁣:

Acceptance of the Terms and Conditions detailed above implies that the entrant will abide by them in their dealings with the Festival and also that the entrant is legally entitled to submit the film for consideration. Entry to the Festival implies that the entrant has the right to do so, has pre-cleared all materials that comprise the film, and is an authorised representative of the team that holds the intellectual property in the film.⁣

CIFF’s Artistic Policy is available to view here.

Entering a film to Cork International Film Festival implies the acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.⁣

Cork International Film Festival reserves the right to withdraw an invitation if the Terms and Conditions are found later not to be met.

The Festival reserves the right to change the Terms and Conditions at any time.⁣

The Festival wishes all potential entrants the best of luck with their submission and their film.⁣

Updated January 2026

Awards Academies Accreditation:

Cork International Film Festival is accredited by the following Awards Academies:

• Academy Awards®: winners of the Grand Prix Irish Short, Grand Prix International Short and Grand Prix Documentary Short categories qualify for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film/Live Action Short Film and Documentary Short categories.
  
• BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television): filmmakers whose British shorts are selected for competition in the Festival’s Grand Prix International Short competition may enter their films for BAFTA consideration
• BIFA (British Independent Film Awards): filmmakers whose British shorts are selected for competition in the Festival’s Grand Prix International Short competition may enter their films for BIFA consideration.
• European Academy Awards: Cork International Film Festival submits a short film nomination to the European Short Film Awards.

Awards & Prizes

In competition, Cork International Film Festival makes the following awards:

• Grand Prix Irish Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film / Live Action Short Film category.
• Grand Prix International Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Animated Short Film / Live Action Short Film category.
• Grand Prix Documentary Short Award, with the winner eligible for the long list of the Academy Awards® for the Documentary Short category.
• Best New Irish Feature Award, celebrating the best of new Irish fiction and documentary feature works, supported by the Irish Examiner.
• Spiorad na Féile / Spirit of the Festival – Best Film and Best Screenplay (two awards) – championing feature filmmakers (European first- and second-time directors) and scriptwriters.
• Gradam na Féile do Scannáin Faisnéise / Award for Best Documentary, recognising documentary filmmakers who push cinematic boundaries.
• Cork International Film Festival Lookout Award (formerly Youth Jury Award), with jury representation from University College Cork, MTU: Munster Technological University, and Cork College of FET Douglas Street Campus, supported by the Arc Cinema.
• Best Director Irish Short, supported by Screen Directors Guild Ireland.
• Best Cork Short Award (Cork Shorts may also be eligible to compete for the Grand Prix Irish Short Award if they are Irish premieres).
• European Film Awards, Cork’s nomination for Short Film Candidate for European Short Film Award, European Film Awards 2027.
• Redbreast Unhidden Short Award – championing emerging Irish and International filmmaking talent, in partnership with our Whiskey Partner, Redbreast Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey. (Cash prize: €1,000)

Out of competition, the Festival makes the following awards:

• Audience Award (Features) – chosen by the audience from all feature films shown in Irish premiere at CIFF2026.
• Audience Award (Shorts) – chosen by the audience from all short films shown in Irish premiere at CIFF2026.

REFLECTIONS FROM SOME CIFF ALUMNI:

“A very special memory is when Lenny Abrahamson’s first short, 3 Joes, won the prize for Best European Short in 1991 — it was really our first proper production and lots of us who worked on that film are still working together now.” Ed Guiney, Co-CEO Element Pictures

“All of my films have screened at the Cork International Film Festival and I have so many great memories over the years. The Cork audiences are wonderful and the Q&As are always lively and memorable. It’s a hugely important and very special film festival.” Frank Berry, filmmaker and screenwriter

“Last year’s Cork Film Festival was our first time sharing Blue Road — The Edna O’Brien Story with an Irish audience. We had enjoyed a good world premiere at Toronto and our hope was to release the film in Irish cinemas a few months afterwards, so it was important to have a strong Irish premiere. I don’t think we could have dreamt of a better screening. It was a huge audience — about 450 people — and it felt like everyone shared a very emotional experience.” Sinéad O’Shea, filmmaker

“We loved being at CIFF with Ballywalter, as part of a wonderful festival journey in 2022 and 2023. The audiences were busy, vocal, and warm, and the reception for the film was glorious. Filmmaking can feel quite lonely sometimes — it was wonderful to come to such a homely place and share the film with so many people in Cork.” Prasanna Puwanarajah, filmmaker and actor

Cork International Film Festival’s mission is to present Ireland’s most exciting, diverse, and ambitious annual film festival, connecting and stimulating audiences and artists through a carefully curated selection of the best films, to create a unique shared cultural experience, rooted in Cork, open to the world.

Cork International Film Festival is rightly positioned and valued at the forefront of Ireland’s film culture. By curating and presenting a programme of exceptional films, our vision is for a film festival recognised and respected around the world for its record of launching and nurturing the careers of the filmmakers of tomorrow. We celebrate award-winning films alongside emerging talent, providing a unique festival experience in Ireland, delivering a depth of engagement for audiences through the medium of film in all its diverse forms, and the opportunity to see these films first in Cork.

The Festival showcases the latest and best international and Irish features, documentaries and shorts, and includes programmes for schools, families, and specialist Industry Days such as Doc Day, cementing the Festival as the destination festival for documentary in Ireland. Programme strands also include Culinary Cinema (film and food), Screen Green (film and environment & climate activism), Disruptors (maverick filmmakers past and present) and Illuminate (film and mental health).

CIFF’s Artistic Policy is available to view here.