Independent Shorts Awards

IMDb qualifier's Independent Shorts Awards (ISA) is an international film festival, with monthly live screenings in Burbank, CA, and an annual live screening and awards event in North Hollywood, CA.

Each month, the submitted projects are judged by a random team of invited experts from academia and film industry, against a high standard of merit. The monthly winners are automatically qualified to compete and be screened at ISA annual event. Some of them are invited to be screened at the monthly event.

Every submission can add numerous additional judging categories.

Awards & Prizes

All entries are promoted through our social media and website with a dedicated page. 

For this purpose, we recommend that projects must be fully entered on FilmFreeway, including downloadable poster and trailer.

All projects officially selected in each month receive the Independent Shorts Awards laurel and certificate and are rated at their IMDb pages (if applicable). Also, some selected works will be reviewed by ISA team. These reviews are published on ISA website and shared at each film IMDb page (if applicable). Some filmmakers, screenwriters and actors/actresses are invited for an interview or to provide ISA with BTS material to be published also in ISA website.

Judges score quality and creativity of entries on a performance scale and winning entries are recognized and awarded monthly at four levels:

Platinum Awards, Gold Awards, Silver Awards, and Bronze Awards. 

It can be given also Honorable Mentions.

The awards by category: 

Best Short Script 

Best Narrative Short 

Best Indie Short 

Best Student Short 

Best Animation Short 

Best Documentary Short 

Best Experimental Short 

Best Microfilm 

Best Music Video 

Best Drama Short 

Best Comedy Short 

Best Dark Comedy Short 

Best Thriller Short 

Best Parody Short 

Best Horror Short 

Best Crime Short 

Best Film Noir Short 

Best Mystery Short 

Best Fantasy Short 

Best Sci-Fi Short 

Best Western Short 

Best Children Short 

Best LGBT Short 

Best Women Short 

Best Web Series/TV Pilot 

Best Web and New Media 

Best Mobile Short 

Best Drone Short 

Best First Time Director 

Best Young Filmmaker 

Best Director (Male) 

Best Director (Female) 

Best Student Director 

Best Acting Ensemble 

Best Acting Duo 

Best Actor 

Best Actress 

Best Child/Young Actor 

Best Child/Young Actress 

Best Cinematography 

Best Editing 

Best Sound Design 

Best Original Score 

Best Original Story 

Best Special FX 

Best Visual FX 

Best Trailer/Teaser

Rules & Terms

All genres are accepted with a maximum length of 55 minutes. 

For student fees, it is mandatory the student status evidence (e.g copy of student card included in the project).

The films must include English subtitles (unless the spoken language is English).

By submitting your film, you agree that: 

1. Independent Shorts Awards can use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster) for promotional purpose. 

2. Entry fees are non-refundable. 

3. You own all the rights to the film.

Independent Shorts Awards does not accept the following:

1. Extremist or propaganda content from religious or political organizations. 

2. Films which are made before 2000. 

3. Films with a poor production standard (bad sound, lack of subtitles/captions for non-English films, or video resolution less than 720p HD).