Since its foundation the Faludi Ferenc Academy has been concerned with cinematic art through organizing trainings and workshops. In 1996 the Academy created a thematic film competition and festival to promote amateur filmmakers. The festival was later expended with a photo competition and broadened to include professional creators too. The festival has come a long way since its early years and in 2022 it announces its 25th edition.
The Faludi International Film Festival and Photo Competition will be held between 16-19 November 2022.
Every year a certain value or social problem is placed in the focus of the festival to inspire creating and initiate social discourse around the given topics. We attach crucial importance to choosing real values as the theme of the festival and to initiating conversation about them. Every year the institute expects projects that focus on such a topic that puts a social or spiritual need or problem in the spotlight.
This year’s theme is "Gift". The gift is not a reward, not compensation: it is much more of a sacrifice. When we give a gift, it is not from our surplus. If there is no commitment and self-denial in it, there is no value to it. The value is that we give what we are, who we are as a gift to the other person, resulting in both of us overcoming ourselves. It makes it clear that everything is and can be a gift, that there is no such thing that ’I deserve it’. It is a gift to push the man in the wheelchair out into the sunlight, to pack an aid package for those in need, to take the children to the zoo. Moreover, it is also a gift to take a breath, to breathe, to be able to walk, to raise our feet and hands, to see with our eyes, to heal and accept the unchangeable - the beating of the heart, the work of the blood vessels, these are all gifts. Giving a gift is a gift in itself.
Competitors are invited to process this theme in the form of a film or photo in accordance with the terms and conditions of the festival. We are looking for professionally demanding elaborated works that are suitable for creating a forum, in the language of pictures, for a dialogue between different viewpoints and opinions.
One may enter both the film and the photo competition, the two are handled separately.
The prizes are awarded in different categories: short feature, experimental, documentary films. There are also special prizes.
The festival is organized by the laic fellow workers of the Jesuit religious order without any kind of direct religious intentions. Everyone is welcome regardless of race, age or religion. We receive a lot of applications from around the world (e.g. Argentina, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, China, Russia, USA, Japan, Lebanon), around 200-350 films a year. The films entered are first short-listed by a pre-jury.
Competitors are invited to process the theme “Gift” in the form of a film or photo in accordance with the conditions of the festival.
Applicants can apply with the maximum of 2 films with no age restrictions: amateur filmmakers or creative communities (who haven’t had any experience in film or visual studies) OR students from film and visual arts studies with school projects or exam film (which will be evaluated in a special category by the panel).
The production year must be 2017 or after.
The length of the films must not exceed 30 minutes.
