Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival 2023: Call for Short Films

Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival is an audience-focused film festival based in Glasgow. The first edition took place at CCA Glasgow (27 September - 1 October 2022) and online on the streaming platform Klassiki (27 September - 13 October 2022). This year, we are accepting short film submissions to complement our programme of new and retrospective feature films.

We welcome submissions from all filmmakers who identify as Eastern European and/or Central Asian and accept all genres and forms of short films (max 20 mins in length) produced on or after 1 January 2020 EXCEPT the following: music/dance videos; commercial videos (advertising, promotional footage, etc.); purely educational/political videos; highly explicit content; anything that is hateful, hurtful, or -phobic in its messaging.

Why submit? We see this as an amazing opportunity – particularly for early-career filmmakers – to share their short films at Scotland’s first festival dedicated exclusively to Eastern European cinema. Your short film will also be shown on Klassiki, the largest online streaming platform for films from the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Our last year’s edition was attended by nearly 1,000 spectators from all over the UK, and we only expect this number to grow further. As our audience consists of British and Eastern European diasporic attendees who are willing to expand their knowledge of Eastern European culture, this is a chance to present your work to an audience that will truly appreciate it. 

Special notes. We particularly welcome indigenous cinema, activist cinema, and submissions from Ukrainian filmmakers. We don’t accept short films funded by the Russian government or any institutions closely associated with it.

Submission fee. There is a submission fee of £5 per entry, but you can use the code CCASEEFF2023 to submit your work for free!

Awards. If your short film is selected for the festival, you will be paid a £50 screening fee. As we are a new non-profit festival run on a volunteer basis, this amount is not negotiable and should be carefully considered prior to submission. An additional £50 will be issued to the winner of Samizdat Audience Award 2023.

Where to submit. To read further guidelines, submit your film, or request a fee waiver, please visit our FilmFreeway page. The submission deadline is 1 July 2023. If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to contact us at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

https://samizdatfest.co.uk/