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).