Animation Festivals Directory

Submission deadline:
14 April 2025

Entry fee:
FREE! There is no charge for this festival

Categories:

• Best Animated Music Video
• Best Animated Short
• Best Animated Short (for Children)
• Best Animated Short (Student / Graduation Film)
• Best Experimental Animation

Submission methods:

• FilmFreeway

Requirements:
Regulations of the competition of the Insomnia International Animation Film Festival 2025

1. Terms and definitions

1.1. Festival (the Insomnia Festival) – XIII Insomnia International Animation Film Festival intended to be held on July 16 through July 21, 2025, on the territory of Moscow and Yukhnovsky district of Kaluga region (Russia).

1.2. Organizer (Festival Organizer) – Autonomous Nonprofit Organization Animation film development and support center “Insomnia” (PSRN 1167700075641, TIN 7728355788).

1.3. Competition (“Competition of Dreams”) – a competition of works in the field of animation art with the aim to distinguish the most outstanding competitors, among the contenders for victory, conducted by the Organizer of the Festival.

1.4. Applicant – an individual, a creative team or a legal person that has submitted an application to participate in the Competition in accordance with these Regulations. Application for participation in the Competition constitutes acceptance of accession to the present Regulations, without any exceptions.

2. Object and purpose of the Competition

2.1. The object of the Competition: the promotion of animation works of young and professional authors.

2.2. The purpose of the Competition:
— Determining the best works in the animation field among those represented in the Competition;
— Enabling authors to showcase their work for the guests of the Insomnia Festival – the professional community and the jury;
— Creation and development of the community of artistically gifted people;
— Strengthening the cultural relations between the representatives of various countries and Russia.

3. Competitors of the Competition

3.1. The Competition is open to everyone: individuals and organizations (creative groups).

3.2. To participate in the Competition one must contact the Festival Organizing Committee, or to apply through international festival platforms.

3.3. Competitor of the Competition is the Applicant, whose work had been submitted to the Organizing Committee, passed the preliminary selection and was included into the competition program.

3.4. An additional charge might be introduced for the works.

3.5. The Applicant, in accordance with Art. 9 of the Federal Law dated 27.07.2006 №152-FL “On personal data” gives their consent on processing of personal data contained in the application for participation in the Competition to the Organizer, that is, to commit acts referred to p. 3, Article 3 of the Federal Law of 27.07 .2006 №152-FL “On personal data”. Personal data is processed in the Competition and serves to identify the winners. This agreement is valid from the date of application for participation in the Competition and to the date of revocation of the consent filed in a written form.

4. Organization and matters of the Competition

4.1. The Competition includes two stages: pre-selection and the jury session.

4.2. All questions related to the selection of films to the Competition are accepted by e-mail: competition@insomniafest.ru.

4.3. Information on the pre-selected projects is available on the official Festival website Insomniafest.ru, in the Program section.

4.4. Pre-selection of works is performed by the Organizers in accordance with the work requirements.

4.5. Acceptance of works will be carried out from October 21, 2024 through April 28, 2025. For works submitted after this deadline, the participation is not guaranteed.

4.6. Publication of the list of films participating in the Competition will be held on June 16, 2025, or later.

4.7. The Competition is organized in two main nominations:
— “Debyutoriya” (Debut) (an international competition of young animation – works by beginners, students and graduates of film schools);
— “Profnastil” (Professional) (the main international competition of short animated films).

4.8. Participants define the nomination for each work themselves, which they forward to the Competition. As part of the pre-selection stage the Organizers reserve the right to move the work to another nomination.

4.9. A participant may submit a maximum of four (4) works to the festival, of which he can define to no more than two (2) in one nomination.

4.10. Films submitted to the Festival, but not included in the Competition program, may be included in the out-of-competition Official Selection program and will be shown at the Festival.

5. Copyright and related rights

5.1. Competition Participant provides royalty-free non-exclusive license to the Festival for the following use of works submitted (including audiovisual work as a whole, its parts, frames and characters), without special approval:
— Public screening at the Insomnia Animation Film Festival (July 16-21, 2025, Moscow and Yukhnovsky District of Kaluga region);
— Use of parts of the work in the Festival’s promotional video, in a documentary about the Festival, in television reports about the Festival and in other audio-visual products, aimed at distribution of information about the Festival;
— Printing of frames and characters in promotional materials of the Festival;
— Russian translation by subtitles and/or by dubbing.

5.2. Participant provides the Festival with non-exclusive rights to all information about the submitted work (title, the creators, biographical notes about the creators, year of creation, description, etc.), with the possibility of using any of the methods provided by the current legislation, also by inclusion in the electronic and/or printed Festival catalogs.

5.3. Festival Organizer is obligated to conduct screenings only at a designated territory and only in a specified period; Organizer must create conditions for safety of copies of the works and prevent copying of works in amounts larger than necessary to display at the Festival.

5.4. Responsibility for compliance with copyright and related rights when applying for the Competition, upon the submission of the work, while creating an audiovisual work submitted to participate in the Competition, is assigned to the Applicant. In the event of claims by third parties, the Applicant is obligated to settle claims on their own, at their own expense and/or compensate for the damage caused to Organizers of Festival.

5.5. If the Applicant does not have the appropriate rights for the audiovisual work submitted for participation in the Competition, these Regulations apply to the relations between the Applicant and the Organizer in all cases except the Applicant’s omission.

6. Requirements for the works

6.1. Short animated films by any animation technique, created not earlier than 1 January 2023, are accepted. Animated series and trailers will not be accepted for participation in the Competition.

6.2. Along with the work, the following should be submitted:
— Information about the creative team and production studio, a brief description (synopsis) of the film;
— Demo footage illustrating the work;
— The text for the subtitles with timecode.

6.3. Technical requirements for the works:
— screening of works will be done in Full HD. Preferred format – DCP and H.264 (.mov .avi) with a high bitrate.

7. Summing up the results, the election of winners

7.1. To evaluate the works submitted to participate in the Competition, the Organizer forms the jury.

7.2. The works are evaluated by the jury within the nominations.

7.3. The jury determines the winner and laureates in each category.

7.4. The main prizes of the Festival are:
— The INSOMNIA Grand Prix – the best work of the Competition;
— The Profnastil Prize – the best work of the international competition of short animated films;
— The Debyutoria Prize – the best work of the international competition of young animation;
— The Equilibrium Prize – the best non-narrative or experimental work of the Competition;
— The Child Dreams Prize - the best work for young audiences of the Competition;
— The Music of the Night Prize - the best music video work of the Competition;
— The Special Prize of the Jury;
— The Special Mention of the Jury.
Monetary value of awards may be introduced and altered by a decision of the organizing committee of the Festival.

7.5. The Organizer, the jury and the Competition Partners have the right to establish their own prizes for the winners and participants of the Competition.

7.6. The jury is obliged to determine the winner of the Grand Prix and the winner in each category of the Competition.

7.7. The jury has the right not to comment on their decision.

8. Final provisions

8.1. All issues, including those not reflected in this Regulation, will be resolved by the organizer based on the current situation and in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

8.2. In case of discrepancies in the English version of the Regulations, Russian-language version has the advantage.

8.3. The Competition organizing committee contacts: competition@insomniafest.ru.

8.4. All disputable issues are resolved in accordance with these Regulations and the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

Link to Submit