ExpresaFest (1)

Festival start: 17 March 2025      Festival end: 09 May 2025

EXPRESAFEST MENTAL HEALTH is a short film festival aimed at raising awareness on mental health, emotional wellbeing, and youth suicide prevention through audiovisual storytelling. Open to filmmakers residing in the Canary Islands. The festival features public screenings, online educational content with industry experts, and a final awards gala.

Cash Prizes: 3,500€

First and second prize in each category:

Fiction, Documentary, Animation, Music Video → €600 / €300

Reels → €200 / €100
Third place: in-kind prize + commemorative plaque.
Audience Award voted live during the gala.
All finalists will receive a commemorative plaque.

1. Registration
The festival is open to anyone with an interest in the subject of mental health, with no age or prior experience restrictions. Registration is free.

2. Call for Entries
The call for entries is open at the regional (Canary Islands) level.

3. Participants
Participation is open to all adults of any nationality residing in the Canary Islands.

Participants may register individually or collectively (authors, directors, agencies, producers and/or distributors, young filmmakers, the general public, and rights holders of the submitted works).

Participants may not have any direct or indirect professional or commercial affiliation with the festival or with any of the sponsoring or collaborating companies.

4. Submission Process
All participants must register their works through a digital form available on the official website: www.expresafest.com.

The registration and submission period begins on March 17 and ends on April 27, 2025, at 11:59 PM.

All short films must be submitted via a digital platform during the aforementioned dates.

Works that have not been registered through the official form, with binding acceptance of these rules, will not be accepted.

5. Competition Works and Requirements
Each participant may submit as many works as they wish, provided they comply with the conditions outlined in the rules. Each work must be registered individually.

Works must be fully produced according to the published guidelines.

The mandatory theme is Mental health, emotional well-being, and youth suicide prevention.

All submitted works must include the official festival logo at the beginning, which will be provided in digital format by email upon registration.

Participants may create their work starting from the date of registration until the submission deadline set by the organization.

Maximum duration:

Short films, documentaries, and animations: 3 minutes (including credits).

Vertical cinema (Reels): 30 seconds (including credits).

The organization reserves the right to reject any work of poor image or sound quality.

Works must be in Spanish, dubbed into Spanish, or subtitled in Spanish.

Projection formats:

Standard format: 16:9

Reels: vertical format

Content with racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, discriminatory, violent, or animal abuse material will not be accepted.

All works must adhere to the official slogan proposed by the organization:
“BEING STRONG IS ASKING FOR HELP”

Each submission must include:

Title, synopsis, artistic and technical credits

Poster (JPG format)

Place of residence

Contact information of the author(s)

6. Finalist Selection
After the submission period ends, the jury will meet to view the works and select the finalists.

7. Screening and Awards Gala
All finalist works will be screened. The jury will then select the winner in each category.

The audience attending the screenings will vote for the Audience Award from among the finalist works.

Awards will be presented at the end of the gala.

If no members of the winning team are present at the ceremony, the prize will automatically be awarded to the next highest-scoring finalist.

8. Awards
The first and second prizes in each category will include a cash prize and a commemorative plaque. Third place in each category will receive a commemorative plaque and an in-kind prize. The Audience Award in each category will receive a commemorative diploma.

9. Jury
The jury will consist of an odd number of members, including professionals from the audiovisual sector, a prominent figure from Canary Islands healthcare, a representative from an NGO related to the theme, and a member designated by the festival's main sponsor.

The jury is responsible for selecting the finalists and awarding the prizes.

10. Disqualification
Any film that violates these rules will be disqualified and ineligible for any award.

11. Terms of Participation
Participation in the festival implies:

Full acceptance of these rules. In the event of doubt, the organization’s interpretation shall prevail.

Express waiver of any legal jurisdiction, accepting the courts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as competent for any claims.

The organizers reserve the right to suspend the festival due to force majeure or modify these rules if external circumstances affect any structural elements.

Only works produced and edited during the festival period will be accepted. Works that include content created outside this time frame will be disqualified.

12. Licensing Rights for Selected Works
Participants grant the organizers and sponsors of "EXPRESAFEST SALUD MENTAL" the non-exclusive rights to project, reproduce, and distribute their work for promotional and non-profit purposes.

This does not entail the transfer of intellectual property rights, which remain protected under Spanish law (RDL 1/1996). Personal data included in the works or registration process may be shared with organizers and sponsors solely for the purposes described above, in compliance with data protection laws.

By accepting these rules, participants consent to the use of their data for the management of the contest. They may access, rectify, or request deletion of their data by contacting the email provided by the organizers.

13. Copyright
Participants release the festival organizers from any liability related to plagiarism or the use of copyrighted materials (music, images, characters, etc.) without proper authorization.

Each work will be registered in the name of the person listed in the registration form, who will be the sole recipient of any awarded prize.

The organization assumes that the listed person holds all necessary rights. It is not liable for any disputes arising from this.

For any inquiries regarding these rules, a dedicated email address will be provided.