Rules & Regulations

1. INTRODUCTION

Friss Hús Budapest ISFF (established in 2013) gives the floor to fresh talents to present their films and ideas to the audience. Part of our mission is to help emerging filmmakers reach their two main goals: to find audiences and to get the chance to create their next projects. Therefore we promote our screenings to a broad audience, from local cinephiles to international film professionals, which results in full house screenings during the festival week with over  15,000 admissions and 4000 online views. 

We find it increasingly important to put spotlight on sensitive and important social issues, such as those of the LGBTQ+ community, minorities etc. within the frames of screenings and constructive panel talks. Our other main objective is to organize industry events that help talents find new professional opportunities: pitching forums; networking events; workshops, and masterclasses by accomplished directors, and producers. 

  • Max. 40 minutes length for live-action and documentaries, and 20 minutes for animation
  • Any countries
  • Any genres (Live-action / Documentary / Animation)
  • For LGBTQ+ and Horror projects: please submit through the special categories!
  • Completed after January 2024.

The 14th edition of the festival will take place between 28 May - 3 June, 2026 in Budapest, with sidebar screenings in selected Hungarian cities.

Friss Hús Budapest ISFF holds competitive sections, non-competitive sections, as well as special thematic (non-competitive) screenings.

The festival is organized by Friss Hús Budapest Kft.

Email: info@frisshusbudapest.com

Official website: https://frisshusbudapest.com/en

2. PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

The Friss Hús Budapest ISFF programme includes three competitive sections and various non-competitive sections for short films.

2.1 OFFICIAL SELECTION COMPETITION

The Official Selection Competition has the following sections:

  • Hungarian Competition (for live-action fiction and animation shorts)
  • International Competition (for live-action fiction and animation shorts)
  • International Documentaries

The international competition is without geographical and thematic borders, presenting shorts (max. length is 40 minutes for live-action and 20 minutes for animation) films from around the world completed after the 1st of January 2024.

2.2 AWARDS PRESENTED

Hungarian Competition

  • Best Hungarian Live Action Short Film - monetary prize, Oscar-qualifying category
  • Best Hungarian Short Animation - monetary prize, Oscar-qualifying category
  • Award for the Most Promising Hungarian Director under 30 years - monetary prize
  • Best Actor
  • Best Actress
  • Special Mentions
  • Awards by the Association of Hungarian Film Directors

International Competition

  • Best International Short Film Award - monetary prize
  • Special Mentions
  • Audience Award

International Documentary Competition

  • Best International Short Documentary Award - monetary prize

Horror / LGBTQ+ / Weirdcore / Genre Fever! (non-competitive) sections:

  • Audience Award

3. COUNTRY IN FOCUS

Each year, Friss Hús has a country focus as a thematic frame for the festival, showcasing the freshest, most diverse shorts from a selected country, accompanied by networking events and roundtables, representing the country’s short film culture to its fullest. 2026's country in focus will be announced by the end of 2025.

4. JURY

The Festival Director appoints all the members of the juries for the international and national competition programmes. No jury member can be involved in the production or promotion of any of the films in the competitive programmes.

5. FILM SUBMISSION ENTRY PROCEDURES

Applicants for Competitive and Non-Competitive Programmes are requested to submit through Filmfreeway or Shortfilmdepot.

Entry applications submitted by post, e-mail, or any other form except the online submission form are not considered eligible for selection, unless with prior agreement with the Festival Programming Committee.

The earlybird submission deadline is July 30, 2025

The regular submission deadline is September 30, 2025

The extended submission deadline is October 31, 2025

The final deadline is December 15, 2025

The submission fee varies according to category and deadlines.

The Festival Director and the Programming Committee reserve the right to waive submission fees for selected applicants, to not comment on their decisions regarding waivers. Our policy is to give waivers to alumni filmmakers and Hungarian student projects.

The Festival reserves the right to select films received at any time and through any means, or process and to refuse late submissions.

If you have questions regarding the regulations or submissions process, please send an email to info@frisshusbudapest.com

By submitting a film to the Festival the applicant agrees by the submissions deadline to:

Fill in and submit the entry form via the Festival’s submission form.

Provide a screening link and password via the submission form (the link needs to be visible for at least five programmers or more if needed).

Acknowledge that “selected” status on the online submission or any kind of automated letter from the submission platform form does not guarantee confirmation of the submitted film to the Festival.

Person submitting the film is also responsible for the information provided: in particular, the length of the film, its premiere status, the country of production, the names of the authors, the year of production.

Person submitting the film agrees to the fact that in case the selected film wins an award or special mention, the rightholder gives permission to screen it at Best Of screenings in Hungarian cities following the festival, and also as part of the Best Of selection on a secure Hungarian VOD streaming platform for the duration of 15 days following the festival, geo-blocked and restricted only to viewers in Hungary.

In case of any international interest in the Friss Hús Best Of screening block, additional negotiations and consent will be needed.

Furthermore, rightholder(s) of selected projects agree to authorize the Festival to use an excerpt of its work (up to 2 minutes / in case of animation 15 sec.) and film stills on the festival’s marketing-communication channels.

6. CONFIRMATION OF FILMS

Upon selection of a film, the Festival will contact the applicant via email and will request to fill out an entry form and a consent form.

The applicant agrees that confirmed titles may not be withdrawn from the Festival programme after their participation has been officially confirmed and the producer or producer’s authorized representative has verified the confirmation of the film to the programme.

The invoices for the film rights or print loans should be issued and delivered for payments no later than one month after the end of the Festival. The Festival does not accept or reimburse invoices issued after that date.

Upon confirmation of the film to the Festival’s competitive or non-competitive sections, the applicant agrees to:

Deliver additional promotional materials (as requested in the notification email sent to selected films).

The materials required by the Festival for its press releases, catalog, website, and other information/promotion channels (synopsis, technical and artistic credits, bio-filmographies, pictures of the director/s and film stills) and materials for local translation need to be provided to the Festival within 5 days of confirmation of the film.

7. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES FOR FILM FORMATS

The accepted screening format for all films in competition and non-competition sections is DCP.

7.1 Technical parameters for DCP

Accepted FPS: 24 FPS

Preferred sound: 5.1 (stereo is also acceptable, but the theatre is set to 5.1, so stereo sound is not ideal)

The useful image content must be 2048×1080 (2K) at 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s, or 4096×2160 (4K) at 24 frame/s (the quality of the image might get deteriorated if the edges remain black)

Unencrypted (open) DCP with switchable subtitles (not burnt in)

English subtitle file (Avid text or SubRip or XML, 'frame-perfect' file) Captions or dialogue lists are not accepted

Submission format: file transfer service (FTP, FileMail, WeTransfer etc.) MyAirbridge links are not accepted.

7.2 Parameters for other (non-DCP) formats:

Preferred sound: 5.1 (stereo is also acceptable, but the theatre is set to 5.1, so stereo sound is not ideal)

Preferred resolution: 2048×1080 (2K) at 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s, or 4096×2160 (4K) at 24 frame/s (the quality of the image might get deteriorated if the edges remain black)

The given file for making a DCP must be DPX sequence, or minimum Prores 422 HQ MOV / DNxHD 220 (it must be full range / data range), with uncompressed audio (PCM WAV 24 bit, 'frame-perfect' file if arrives separately)

Clean / international version, no burnt in subtitles

English subtitle file (Avid text or SubRip or XML, 'frame-perfect' file) Captions or dialogue lists are not accepted

Submission format: file transfer service (FTP, FileMail, WeTransfer etc.) MyAirbridge links are not accepted.

IMPORTANT: DCP copies made by the festival will be converted to 24FPS, which might change the film’s length if the original had a different frame rate.

Friss Hús created an FTP platform for easier file transportation. Access details will be provided to the selected films.

7.3 Subtitles

All films selected for the Festival must be provided with English subtitles unless they are already in English (see technical parameters above). All of the films from the International Competition Section, International Documentaries section, and Queer Dreams section will be translated into Hungarian.

8. GENERAL RULES FOR ALL ENTRY SECTIONS
  • Max. 40 minutes length for live-action and documentaries, and 20 minutes for animation
  • Any country
  • Any genre
  • For LGBTQ+/ Horror / Animation / Documentary / Weirdcore / Genre Fever! films: please submit through the special categories! (These films will also be considered for our International Competition!)
  • Completed after January 2024
  • We do not accept films that have already been screened on television or the internet.
  • No genre restrictions, but films advocating hate speech/hate crimes, negative discrimination etc. are automatically disqualified.
  • Re-submissions are not accepted

Due to the overwhelming number of submissions, the festival cannot provide feedback on unselected projects.

8.1. Hungarian Competition specifications

The director has to be Hungarian. Entries are accepted from Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia (provided the director of the film is Hungarian).

8.2. International Competition specifications

The film must be made entirely outside of Hungary or the director has to be non-Hungarian.

The 14th edition of the festival will take place between 28 May - 3 June, 2026 in Budapest, with sidebar screenings in selected Hungarian cities.