Welcome to the New Season of the Druk International Film Festival!

Druk International Film Festival (DIFF) is a monthly live screening of film, music, and screenwriting competition with a live Annual Screening & Awards Show Event in the land of natural paradise Paro in Bhutan.

The yearly live screenings take place at the below-mentioned venue.

GSPARK HALL,
Paro, Bhutan

Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom on the Himalayas’ eastern edge is at the top of the happiness index considered by the United Nations. It is known for its monasteries, fortresses (or dzongs) and dramatic landscapes that range from subtropical plains to steep mountains and valleys. In the High Himalayas, peaks such as Jomolhari are popular trekking destinations. Paro Taktsang monastery (also known as Tiger’s Nest) clings to cliffs above the forested Paro Valley. The picturesque undulating grassland, bordered by the Tibetan plateau this incredible kingdom itself has been a cinema. Today’s urban life has separated us from nature. But sometimes we all need to go back to nature to feel the essence of life. So to get the touch of the murmuring glacial river of Paro chu, the hereditary enriched Bhutanese culture, we are going to organize cinema, our film festival in the paradise town of Paro, in the lap of unlimited nature at our venue.

The sole purpose of DIFF is to celebrate the joy of creation in the lap of nature. DIFF showcases an outstanding presentation of independent filmmaking, while also building a strong sense of community around the art of visual storytelling.

DIFF honours films from around the world with a vast array of awards in different categories and genres. Our mission is to discover diverse new voices & to promote artists’ work through numerous platforms.

In each edition, Filmmakers can submit their projects to have them judged by award-winning industry professionals against a high standard of merit and compete with other filmmakers across the globe. Every submission can add numerous additional judging categories but MUST submit to the MAIN CATEGORY to be considered for additional consideration. Please include the names being credited in your cover letter.

All monthly winners will be automatically nominated for the prestigious GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS (the best of the best). There will be an announcement for the prestigious GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS (the best of the best) winners every year. The FINAL WINNERS will receive the prestigious GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS.

The officially selected project in each month receives DIFF laurel and certificate. All monthly Award Winners receive laurel and customized certificate and are rated on their respective IMDb pages (if applicable). Each month, most representatives of monthly award winners are screened in Paro.

The awards are given in the following categories:

Best Director

Best Young Filmmaker (under 18)

Best Debut Filmmaker

Best Cinematography

Best Editing

Best Sound Designing

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Bhutanese Narrative Feature

Best International Narrative Feature

Best Documentary Film

Best Experimental Film

Best International Short Film

Best Student Film

Best VR/AR and 360º Film

Best Drone Film

Best Web and New Media Film
Best Mobile Film

Best Horror/Science Fiction Feature Film

Best Women’s Film

Best Film on Women

Best LGBT Film

Best Animated Film

Best Family/Children Film

Best Educational Film

Best Film on Disability Issue

Best Film on Religion

Best Film on Nature/Environment/Wildlife

Best Travel Film

Best Silent Film

Best One Minute Film

Best Postmodern Film

Best Free Speech Film

Best Television/Pilot Program or Series

Best Commercial/Advertisement

Best Music Video

Best Film Score/Soundtrack
Best Trailer/Teaser

Best Film/Video Poster

Best Photography

Best Treatment/ Synopsis

Best Short Script

Best Feature Script

Besides the BEST OF THE CATEGORY AWARDS, there are also OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS, CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS, AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS and HONOURABLE MENTION AWARDS, which are given, in all categories.

Each year we select the Best of the Best (From the pool of all award winners from all
Seasons) and the FINAL WINNERS receive the prestigious GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS and are screened in the theatre at Paro in front of live audience.
2021 Winners will have a chance to meet with the audience and participate in the Q&A session after the screening.

Please read these Rules & Terms carefully before you submit your film. By submitting your film into competition in the Druk International Film Festival (DIFF), you expressly acknowledge and agree that you shall be bound by the terms of these Rules & Terms.
DIFF is open to any film completed after January 1, 2000, regardless of content, subject, or origin. Submitting your film to the DIFF is not a guarantee of selection. All the official selection, nominees and the winners will be listed on our website permanently. All the winning films will receive a trophy, award or certificate. Please note that we do not offer application fee waivers. We treat every filmmaker equally.

1. Films made in languages other than English must have English subtitles otherwise they will be summarily rejected.
2. The film submitted to the DIFF for a particular month can be re-submitted at any time for a second chance, considering that we have different judges' panels for each season.
3. A director / producer may submit more than one film in a category and more than one category at a time.
4. The DIFF is hereby granted the rights to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted for promotional purposes of the festival within India only. The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening, and understands and accepts these requirements, rules and regulations.
5. The DIFF reserves the right to refuse entries.
6. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the DIFF, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits and publicity.
7. The DIFF will not refund any fees if the filmmaker fails to submit the film in the correct category. Films submitted without the correct fees or proper submission media may be deemed ineligible at the discretion of the DIFF programming director or executive director. The festival does not cover any of the expenses incurred by the filmmaker.
8. After a film has been an official selection, the filmmaker will be notified, and eventually the film will be listed on the festival website under Official Selections. The Official Selection status doesn’t mean that your film will be screened at the festival. It means that your film has been appreciated by our judges of panel and you can use the festival logo on your poster.
9. A nominee will be privately screened for the DIFF judging panel, and will not be screened initially to the public.
10. “Best” films of each category will receive a laurel & certificate.
11. A filmmaker’s submission fee will not be reimbursed if they decide to withdraw their submission. All entry fees are non-refundable.
12. We require an official trailer or poster, synopsis and a link to your film. Please select the correct category while submitting to avoid disqualification. We reserve right to re-assign films to the appropriate category.
13. DIFF may without advance notice amend these Rules & Terms from time to time. Each and every such amendment shall become effective immediately. It is your responsibility to periodically check for updates of these Rules & Terms.

DISCLAIMER:

All filmmakers understand and accept that if their film is accepted for presentation and screening at the film festival, they grant full and unrestricted permission for DIFF to screen the film/video at times of the festivals choice and to charge an admission fee for the presentation of the digital video program. All the presented film/videos do win GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS from the festival, DIFF only screens winners.
The Filmmaker understands and accepts that they do not participate in receiving any funds from the Box-office proceeds which are fully retained by the festival to help cover the overall cost of the festival presentation. It should be noted for the record that box-office proceeds never cover the cost of presentation of the Features and Short Film Programs. The filmmaker releases the festival (DIFF) from any and all liability for dam-ages or destruction of the entered DCP. The Filmmaker understands that the entered DCP will be retained in a secure facility by the festival, and every effort will be taken to protect and control the viewing of this production. The festival assumes no liability whatsoever for theft, copyright violations or piracy of the entry.
The Filmmaker accepts and understands that the festival will do everything possible to present the video in the best possible manner but the festival (DIFF) is not responsible for any and all malfunctions during the presentation of the production at its festival screening. We use Professional Pioneer International playback systems, all formats, all regions, including Region 0. All entries are carefully pre-screened prior to the public showing to assure that the DCP does perform to industry Standards. The Festival (DIFF) assumes no responsibility for any technical difficulties in the presentation of this video at the actual event.
The Film Festival (DIFF) reserves the complete right to make changes in the program dates and times and to possibly not screen the video, despite its being selected for screening.
The filmmaker will endeavor to present to The Festival (DIFF) a new and pre-checked Hard disk / DCP for the actual presentation of the video at the festival.