1. The BOLZANO FILM FESTIVAL BOZEN - BFFB aims to present - particularly in the Competition and in the RealNonReale section - a wide and varied selection of auteur cinema produced or co-produced today in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia. This is intended to include quality cinema that is personal, forward-thinking, and involving risk and independence on a creative level. The Festival will give priority in its selection process to works that have their world, international, European or Italian premieres at BFFB.

2. DATES.- The 38th edition of the BOLZANO FILM FESTIVAL BOZEN - BFFB will be held from 4 to 13 April 2025.

3. MAIN SECTIONS OF THE BFFB 38-

A. Competition BFFB38

The best auteur cinema produced or co-produced today in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia: works of fiction, hybrids, documentary forms and/or animation with a commitment to quality and courage in contemporary cinema. The discovery of young talent will be accompanied by the presentation of the latest works of established directors. Particular attention will be given to hybrid forms, to 'contaminated' cinema, to cinema on geographical, political and formal borders, and to the cinema of minorities and the periphery.

To participate in the Competition BFFB38, films:

- must be Italian, Austrian, German, Swiss or Slovenian productions or co-productions;

- must never have been presented in public in any form in the Trentino-Alto Adige region and must not have been distributed in commercial cinemas in Italy;

- must have a minimum duration of 60 minutes;

- must have been completed after 1 January 2024.

B. RealeNonReale

Section dedicated to nonfiction, and the most diverse hybrid and documentary forms. As in the case of the Competition, attention will be paid to the more non-conformist films of great masters and new talents, but also to works particularly attentive to the contemporary topical issues of their society.

To participate in the RealeNonReale section, films:

- must be Italian, Austrian, German, Swiss or Slovenian productions or co-productions;

- must never have been presented in public in any form in the Trentino-Alto Adige region and must not have been distributed in commercial cinemas in Italy;

- must have a minimum duration of 60 minutes;

- must have been completed after 1 January 2024.

C. BFFB Specials

Special events, films that are in line with the festival's philosophy but, for various reasons, cannot participate in the competitive sections. Fundamental titles of the season, productions of great importance for the area or simply films that intrigue us and have particularly impressed us.

D. Focus

Special attention is paid each year to a geographical area that has distinguished itself for the quality of its recent film productions. Priority is given to countries, regions, border or peripheral areas far from the world's most important political and cultural centres and, in this context, to works that give specific prominence to social, political or linguistic minorities.

E. Honorary Lifetime Achievement Awards

Each year, the BFFB awards a special Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award to figures of particular importance in the world of cinema in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland or Slovenia: professionals who have distinguished themselves over the years for excellence in the development of their work. A selection of some of the most significant films in which they participated in the making of will be screened.

F. Local Heroes

The specific section dedicated to local talent, open to productions from the three territories that make up the EUREGIO Tyrol - South Tyrol - Trentino. Every independent filmmaker, director or producer is a “hero”; at BFFB we want to offer special visibility to those who make films in our region, with the aim of raising awareness of films produced or co-produced in the EUREGIO territories year after year.

To participate in the Local Heroes section, films:

- must have been produced, co-produced or directed by professionals born in or residing in the EUREGIO Tyrol - South Tyrol - Trentino;

- must have been completed after 1 January 2024;

- must not have been broadcast by any regional, provincial, local or national television channel, must not be available for free viewing on online platforms and must not have been distributed in commercial cinemas in the Euregio.

G. Piccole Lingue DOC

In cooperation with the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano and the Association La Fournaise, the BFFB is dedicating a special section to films about linguistic minorities: Piccole Lingue DOC collects works (documentary/fiction/hybrid forms) of any length that deal with issues related to linguistic minorities, i.e. populations that speak a language different from that of the majority.

To participate in the Piccole Lingue DOC section, films:

- must never have been screened in public in any form in the province of Bozen/Bolzano and must not have been distributed in commercial cinemas in Italy; priority will in any case be given to films that have never been screened in Italy and/or in the Euregio Tyrol - South Tyrol - Trentino.

- must have been completed after 1 January 2023.

H. LiLi - Little Lights

BFFB's section dedicated to films for children and young people, open to feature films, documentary forms and animations. At the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen, we believe that it is of fundamental importance to work and invest in the film education of future generations: it will be a continual source of entertainment for young people, it will contribute to the formation of critical personalities who are attentive to the social and cultural reality around them, and it will be one of the most effective ways of contributing to the development of a new audiovisual audience. In addition to the organisation of the screenings, teaching materials will be developed for teachers based on the themes addressed in the feature films, which will be worked on in class before and after the film screenings.

4. MODES OF PARTICIPATION.-

The participation of films in BFFB 38 can take place in two different ways:

a. through invitation by the artistic direction of the festival for the Competition BFFB38, RealeNonReale, Honorary Lifetime Achievement Awards, Focus, BFFB Specials and LiLi - Little Lights sections;

b. through selection by the artistic direction of the festival by means of a specific call for entries for the sections Local Heroes (here you can find the full regulations and you can register your films here), with a submission deadline of 15 December 2024, and Piccole Lingue DOC (here you can find the full regulations and here you can register your films), with a submission deadline of 15 December 2024.

5. SELECTED FILMS.-

a. Once a film's submission has been accepted and its selection confirmed by the person or company holding the corresponding screening rights, the film may not be withdrawn from the Festival and, prior to its screening at BFFB, it may not be screened in the Trentino-Alto Adige Region for the Competition BFFB38 and RealeNonReale sections, in the EUREGIO (i.e. in the Tyrol in Austria and in the provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino in Italy) for the Local Heroes section, and in the province of Bolzano for the Piccole Lingue DOC section.

b. Films that have confirmed their South Tyrolean, Italian, European, international or world premiere at BFFB 38 may not compete in other festivals (in presence and/or online) on Italian territory whose starting dates are the same as or before the opening date of BFFB 38.

c. The Festival will decide on the date, location and order of screening of each film; the Festival does not undertake to announce the date, time, location and final screening order before 24 March 2025.

d. The selection of each title by the Festival will be strictly confidential between the Festival team and the representatives of the invited films until the official announcement by the BFFB. In the event that a film whose Italian, European, international or world premiere has been confirmed at BFFB has been selected by other festivals based in Italy, the person or company holding the screening rights to the film must ensure that the film is not announced by any other festival before BFFB does so.

e. In the case of online exhibition, the Festival will ensure that the commissioned VoD platform uses high-quality services and reputable companies for digital compression processes. In addition, it will require the application of the necessary technical systems and protocols to guarantee the security of streaming.

f. The person or company that has confirmed the film's participation and/or entered the film in the BFFB will provide the Festival with the following information/material by 15 February 2025:

synopsis of the film (max. 500 characters),

short biography and filmography of the director (max. 200 characters),

2/3 film stills (300dpi),

1 photo of the director (300dpi),

full pressbook / all credits,

digital playbill (300dpi),

trailer,

viewing link.

g. Screening copies.-

- The only permissible screening format will be DCP (technical specifications here).

- The person or company that registered the selected film must have the final screening copy in DCP format sent to BFFB by 5 March 2025.

- Before being sent to the Festival, DCP copies must be tested on a server approved by the company or person who registered the film, who will enclose a written certificate stating that the copy was tested correctly.

- The copy can be sent via link to dcp@filmfestival.bz.it or on hard disk by courier to FILMCLUB | Dr. Streiter-Gasse 8/D | 39100 Bozen/Bolzano (delivery details: title, delivery method, date of delivery and tracking number must be attached by e-mail to dcp@filmfestival.bz.it), the copy can also be delivered in person to the Festival offices.

- The shipping costs of participating films are borne by those who have registered the film.

- The participant will provide the necessary KDMs for each of the servers of the theatres where the film will be screened; the participant will bear the costs of generating these KDMs.

- Screening copies must remain in the possession/disposal of the Festival until the end of the event; once this period has expired, the DCP copies on hard disk will be sent to the address indicated in the corresponding section of the entry form, unless the owner of the copy provides other instructions on where to return it in writing before the screening date of his/her film at BFFB.

- For films not in Italian or German, the screening copy must have Italian, German or English subtitles.

h. The selection of a work implies authorisation to use its promotional material and to broadcast extracts on the BFFB's communication channels. Extracts will have a maximum duration of three minutes and, in any case, less than the total duration of the work.

i. Each participant grants the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen - BFFB the rights of reproduction and public communication of their works for public exhibition as part of the Festival. Similarly, the Festival is authorised to use the name, voice and/or image of the people who are part of the work, fragments and/or stills of the selected works, as well as their promotional material for broadcasting by any local, regional, national or international media. Selected works will appear in the BFFB 38 catalogue and/or in subsequent collections or catalogues.

6. JURIES AND AWARDS.-

> An International Jury, appointed by the Festival's artistic direction and consisting of five people, will award the following prizes from among the films selected for the Competition BFFB38 section:

- Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano Award for the Best Film of €7,000, to be shared by the director(s) and main producer(s) of the winning film;

- Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio Award for Best Artistic Performance of €5,000 in the categories: direction, screenplay, editing, photography, sound, acting and music; the cash prize will be awarded to the person responsible for the winning category;

- Special Jury Prize of €3,000, to be shared by the director(s) and main producer(s) of the winning film;

- Trentino-Alto Adige Autonomous Region Award for Distribution Support of €10,000, also open for the films of the section RealeNonReale. The distribution company receiving the Award undertakes to commercially distribute the film in Italy within twelve months of the closing date of the 38th edition of the Festival. This prize is cumulative, i.e. a film can receive it together with any other award given among the titles participating in the Competition BFFB38 or the RealeNonReale sections.

> A City of Bozen/Bolzano Audience Award of €2,000 will also be presented to one of the films selected in the Competition BFFB38 and RealeNonReale sections. The prize money will be received by the director(s) of the winning film.

> In addition, the Special Prize "Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site", worth €1,000, for which a selection of feature films from the BFFB 38 sections particularly linked to the values promoted by the Dolomiti UNESCO Foundation will be eligible. The prize money will be received by the director(s) of the winning film.

> The Euregio YOUNG Jury, composed of students aged between 16 and 18 from South Tyrol, Trentino and the Austrian Tyrol, will also award the prize for the Best Film for a Young Audience at the BFFB from a selection of feature films.

> A Filmclub Jury, made up of seven people selected for this purpose by the artistic direction of the Festival by means of a specific call for entries and accompanied by an expert in the field, will consider during BFFB 38 the IDM Film Commission Südtirol Award to the BEST EUREGIO FEATURE FILM, endowed with €2,000, and the IDM Film Commission Südtirol Award to the BEST EUREGIO SHORT FILM, endowed with €1,000. Cash prizes will be awarded to the company/person who enters the film and/or confirms its selection at BFFB 38.

These prizes correspond to a transversal competition open to audiovisual works produced or directed by professionals born in or resident in the EUREGIO Tyrol - South Tyrol - Trentino and selected in the following BFFB sections: Competition BFFB38, RealeNonReale, Local Heroes, LiLi - Little Lights and Piccole Lingue DOC, for feature films, and Local Heroes and Piccole Lingue DOC for short films.

> The BFFB will award two Honorary Lifetime Achievement Awards each year to two figures of particular relevance in the world of cinema in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland or Slovenia.

> Cash prizes will be paid, once the relevant requirements have been met, exclusively by bank transfer to the accounts designated for this purpose.

7. OBLIGATION TO RECOGNISE THE BFFB AWARD.-

Films that win prizes in the various sections of the BFFB must specify, obligatorily and without fail, the award obtained at the Bolzano Film Festival Bozen on all playbills, notices, advertisements and in the credits of all copies distributed in Italy, both in their theatrical screening and in their release for the national format (streaming platforms, DVD, BluRay, etc.).

8. Participation in BFFB 38 implies acceptance of these rules and the Festival Organisers will be responsible for resolving any issues not covered by these rules.

Bolzano Film Festival Bozen – BFFB

Waaghaus | Laubengasse 19 A | 39100 Bozen – Italien

Tel.: +39 0471 058891 | info@filmfestival.bz.it | www.filmfestival.bz.it