The 21th Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will be held on May 31st –June 9th 2024. We are looking for creative documentaries which open a fresh perspective on the contemporary world, films which analyze it, making an important contribution to the discussion of human dignity, freedom and equality.

You can submit your film to three sections: the international feature competition DOCU/WORLD, the international short competition DOCU/SHORT and the national feature competition DOCU/UKRAINE, which present documentary films created in Ukraine or in co-production with Ukraine, as well as by Ukrainian filmmakers in collaboration with international production companies.

YOU CAN SUBMIT YOUR FILM* VIA THE FILMFREEWAY PLATFORM. 

There is a fee for accepting and reviewing applications for participation in the festival's competition programmes.  Payment must be made online when submitting your film via the FilmFreeWay service. Films produced in Ukraine or in co-production with Ukraine can be submitted for free. For more information about the discount policy, please see the regulations.

Submission deadlines and payment

The submission will be accepted from 1 August 2023. The final deadline for accepting submissions is 22 December 2023.

*By submitting your film for the festival, you agree to the terms of application and the regulations of Docudays UA.

WHAT KIND OF FILMS ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Creative documentaries of various running times created no earlier than 2022. These are films which open an unexpected perspective on the contemporary world. Which analyze it, make an important contribution to the discussion of human dignity, freedom and equality.

PREMIERE POLICY 

It’s important for films produced in other countries to not have been premiered at Ukrainian film festivals, on Ukrainian television and online resources. They also must not be previously screened at Ukrainian cinemas. For Ukrainian films submitted for the national DOCU/UKRAINE competition or international DOCU/WORLD and DOCU/SHORT competitions, the Ukrainian premiere is also mandatory. However, Ukrainian films which have already had a national premiere can potentially be considered for the festival’s non-competition programme.

HOW DO I SUBMIT A FILM?
We accept films exclusively via the FilmFreeway platform. To do it, you need to register at the platform beforehand or submit your film from an existing account.

CAN I SUBMIT A WORK IN PROGRESS? Although we prefer completed films, you can submit a final cut without colour correction or the final sound mix. However, remember that we only watch each work submitted for our consideration (either a finished film or a final cut) once. This means that you will not be able to submit an updated cut for the second time this year or even next year.

CAN I SUBMIT A FILM FOR THE NON-COMPETITION PROGRAMME?
You can submit a film for the selected competition programme, but not for the non-competition programme. The final decision about the film’s participation in either the competition or non-competition programmes of the festival is made only by the festival’s Selection Council.

ON SUBTITLES

• Films in Ukrainian and Russian can be submitted for consideration without subtitles. If a film in Ukrainian is selected, we ask the authors to provide a film copy with English subtitles for screening. If a film in Russian is selected, we ask the authors to provide a film copy with Ukrainian and English subtitles for screening.

• Films in other languages submitted for consideration must have English subtitles.

SELECTION RESULTS 

All films submitted before 22 December 2023 will receive an email with the selection results by 15 April 2023. It can be an official invitation to the programme or a rejection letter. The festival programmes will be announced publicly starting in May 2024.

Due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022, we do not accept films produced by the aggressor country and its citizens, as well as countries involved in war crimes: Russia, Belarus, Iran.

In some cases, the answer about your participation in the festival can be given earlier. For instance, if the Ukrainian premiere status specified in the form can change or has changed. In this case, we ask you to inform the Programming Department ([email protected]). Should you have any questions regarding the application process, please email us at [email protected].