Submission of films for the XI Baku International Short Film Festival (BISFF), which will be held in Baku on November 13-17 this year, has begun.

The festival, established by the  Center for Young Cinematographers ”CINEMA”, is supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Among the supporters of the festival are Nizami Cinema Center, The Guild  of Producers, OZ FILM company  and  02 media.

This year, the festival remains committed to the principle of "35 years, 35 minutes." Directors under the age of 35 must submit the film that should not exceed 35 minutes to the festival by September 1.

There are international, local and “Cinemobil” competition sections at the festival.

Foreign and local directors can participate in the international competition with fiction, documentary and animated films.

The festival's programs for local directors are rich. Along with fiction, documentary and animation, social videos also join to the local competition.

The Cinemobil competition, in which mobile phone films compete, is also intended for local authors. Unlike previous years, this year participants can submit a film to the competition which do not exceed 5 minutes.

Each author can submit his film on the festival website (www.filmfestival.az) and on the platform www.filmfreeway.com.

The films are reviewed by the Selection Committee and included in the competition program.

The official program of the festival will be announced on October 20.

Films competing for the main prize of the festival, the Golden Pomegranate, will be judged by a jury of local and foreign experts.

The festival, which always trying to support local directors, will have newness this year. The festival will provides technical and post-production support for the next film project to the winners of the local competition for "Best Short Film" and "Best Documentary Short Film". The winner of the "Best Animated Short Film" nomination will be supported only  by post-production works of the next film project.

Founded in 2004, the Baku International Short Film Festival is the longest-running festival in Azerbaijan, bringing to our country films that have won awards and success at Cannes, Venice, Berlin Film Festivals and Oscar award.

Each year, the most interesting of more than 1,500 films sent from around the world are selected and included in the program of the festival.

In addition, for five days at this festival the audience will have a chance to watch new films of local directors, who try to show the events in a different way and in interesting styles.

The Baku ISFF reflects the growing interest in short films, which are considered to be the foundations of cinema in our country, also encourage and support young cinematographers.

At this festival, which has been held in the fall for eleven years, we are proud to show colorful films that combine cultural, political, social events and different characters in the world and in our country.