OPEN Short Film
Under 15 Minutes
Our 5 Main Categories
2025 prizes TBA
OPEN - Documentary
Under 10 Minutes
OPEN - Super Short Film
Under 3 Minutes
STUDENT Short Film or Documentary
Under 10 Minutes
This category is for films or documentaries created by individual students or groups of students who are at the time of submission enrolled in tertiary, secondary, or primary education, whether or not they were produced at campus or for any projects.
Local People & Places
Under 10 Minutes
This category is open to storytellers who are not earning an income at any stage throughout the year from producing video or film work — for those who are, you may enter the OPEN Short Film or OPEN Documentary categories. Local People & Places are stories that celebrate local lives, culture, traditions, and landscapes. These short films or documentaries may feature community figures or personal stories, highlight local challenges or triumphs, explore significant regional events, or showcase the area's unique natural beauty and defining local landmarks.
Season 4 Opens 1st March, 2025
Prizes are yet TBA. There will also be Awards of Recognition to be announced at a later date and awarded at our Gala Awards Night.
To be eligible, your project must have been filmed, animated or produced within one of the regions of the festival in Western Australia (anywhere between SOUTH of the Swan River and WEST of Albany Highway). If it does not visibly depict or feature a locally recognisable landmark from any of these regions, then please include in your submission the place(s) it was filmed, for us to verify.
A REQUIREMENT FOR 2025:
To make this film festival as accessible as possible, we require you to provide us with a text document with a transcript for all English and non-English dialogue, so that our editor can add subtitles. Please either attach this transcript document with your submission or email them to our RTBFF address (which you can find at the bottom of the FilmFreeway Confirmation of Entry email). We prefer receiving the transcripts so that we may standardise the subtitles (for consistency and accessibility), however, if you choose to subtitle entries yourself, please contact us to ensure that they’ll be legible for audiences and will fit within safe margins for the big screen.
Submissions Open 1st March and Close 31st July. Film submission entry is free!
For Terms & Conditions, Click on our Film Freeway Submissions Button (below).
We reserve the right to make amendments to any aspect of the festival at our sole discretion.
We acknowledge the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which our office stands. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters, and community. We pay our respects to their cultures, and to Elders past, present, and emerging. We extend this respect to all Indigenous language groups.