Films sub­mit­ted for the short film com­pe­ti­ti­on must meet all the fol­lo­wing seven cri­te­ria. PLEASE NOTE: All ques­ti­ons of the cus­tom form must be ans­we­red. Please refer to the regu­la­ti­on details below for fur­ther info.

1. The film has to have its GERMAN PREMIERE at LUCAS: It has not been pre­sen­ted befo­re in a German fes­ti­val or at other public events in Germany.
2. The film is not available for free or paid public vie­w­ing on the Internet, social media included.
3. Only films which have been pro­du­ced bet­ween 2021 and 2023 are eligible.
4. Only ent­ries that can pro­vi­de a DCP scree­ning copy with English sub­tit­les will be accepted.
5. The sub­mis­si­on link must also pro­vi­de English subtitles.
6. The run­ning time of the film may not exceed 30 minutes.
7. Only ent­ries with ans­wers to the cus­tom form will be taken into consideration.

The ent­ry fee for all short films is 10$. Productions from count­ries lis­ted as Least Developed Countries by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy are eli­gi­ble to app­ly for an ent­ry fee wai­ver (ref. to the list here: https://unctad.org/topic/least-developed-countries/list). To app­ly for the ent­ry fee wai­ver code for pro­duc­tions from LDC, plea­se cont­act lucas-entry@dff.film and pro­vi­de pro­duc­tion details. Entry fees will not be refun­ded, neither in case of the film being ente­red on dif­fe­rent plat­forms, the film being sel­ec­ted nor not selected.

REGULATIONS DETAILS

1. LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers high­lights in its pro­gram inno­va­ti­ve films both in form and con­tent. We are loo­king for out­stan­ding pro­duc­tions which appeal to young film lovers of various ages. This includes films made spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for young audi­en­ces as well as films on account of their form and con­tent. LUCAS is orga­ni­zed by DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (Schaumainkai 41, 60596 Frankfurt).
2. The 46th  LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers will take place in Frankfurt and the Rhein-Main regi­on, Germany, from Oct 5 to 12, 2023. The fes­ti­val is open for a wide ran­ge of fic­tion, docu­men­ta­ry, ani­ma­ti­on, expe­ri­men­tal and hybrid films. The films will be shown in com­pe­ti­ti­on, out of com­pe­ti­ti­on and in spe­cial programs.
3. Films sub­mit­ted for the short film com­pe­ti­ti­on must meet the fol­lo­wing criteria:
   + The film has not been pre­sen­ted befo­re in a fes­ti­val or at other public events in Germany and is not available for free or paid public vie­w­ing on the internet.
   + Only films which have been pro­du­ced bet­ween 2021 and 2023 are eligible.
   + Only ent­ries that can pro­vi­de a DCP scree­ning copy with English sub­tit­les will be accept­ed. The sub­mis­si­on link must also pro­vi­de English subtitles.
4. A sel­ec­tion com­mit­tee choo­ses films for the com­pe­ti­ti­on. The sel­ec­tion pro­cess will not be public and the­re is no legal right to enter the competition.
5. Filmmakers will be noti­fied per mail and the plat­form if their film is sel­ec­ted, films that are not sel­ec­ted will be noti­fied via film­free­way only.
6. The awards are deci­ded upon by various inter­na­tio­nal juries. The juries in the com­pe­ti­ti­ons 8+ and 13+ con­sist of child­ren and teens as well as film pro­fes­sio­nals. The jury 16+ | Youngsters con­sists only of ado­le­s­cents and young adults. The jury’s decis­i­on is final, and the jury does not need to jus­ti­fy their decisions.
   Awards:
   + Awards for Best Feature Film in the age cate­go­ry 8+ (5.000 €) and 13+ (5.000 €)
   + Awards for the Best Short Film in the age cate­go­ry 8+ (2.000 €) and 13+ (2.000 €)
   + Award for an Outstanding Cinematic Achievement | age cate­go­ry 13+ (2.000 €)
   + LUCAS Youngsters Award | age cate­go­ry 16+ | Youngsters (5.000 €)
   Moreover, LUCAS bestows the unen­do­wed Audience Award as well as the award of the European Children’s Film Association (ECFA).
7. Awards and pri­ze money will be dona­ted to the direc­tors of the win­ning films.
8. After a film’s ent­ry into com­pe­ti­ti­on has been publicly announ­ced, a with­dra­wal of the film is no lon­ger possible.
9. Films will only be scree­ned in their ori­gi­nal lan­guage with English sub­tit­les. Selected short films in com­pe­ti­ti­on may be trans­la­ted into German for voice-over by the festival.
10. The fes­ti­val ack­now­led­ges that for each film the LUCAS regu­la­ti­ons aut­ho­ri­ze a total of no more than 400 viewers.
11. The dead­line for ente­ring short films is May 1, 2023. By then the sel­ec­tion com­mit­tee must have recei­ved the film via FilmFreeway or online link, as well as the com­ple­ted online form.
12. A DCP/print of the film is to be sent only after an offi­ci­al invi­ta­ti­on. The DCP/film print of the sel­ec­ted film must arri­ve at least 10 days befo­re the fes­ti­val starts.
13. Unless nego­tia­ted other­wi­se, licen­se pro­vi­ders of sel­ec­ted films will take care of the ship­ping cos­ts (trans­port, insu­rance and cus­toms) of the DCP and/or QT ProRes to LUCAS. LUCAS will take care of the cos­ts for the ship­ment to the next desti­na­ti­on (eit­her ano­ther fes­ti­val or return to the licen­se pro­vi­der). The fes­ti­val reta­ins a copy of the film in the fes­ti­vals archive.
14. The fes­ti­val covers the insu­rance of the DCPs/film prints while they are on loca­ti­on in Frankfurt, from their arri­val until they are given back to the shipper.
15. Only the rights hol­der or his repre­sen­ta­ti­ve can enter a film.
16. Entering a film equ­als the accep­tance of the festival’s regulations.
17. The manage­ment of the fes­ti­val is aut­ho­ri­zed to chan­ge the festival’s regu­la­ti­ons in spe­cial cases.