IFMC Winter 2023 Registration

For several reasons explained below, we unfortunately can’t show you the films before registering.
However, if you honestly don’t like any of the films after registering, you can just contact us within five days and we’ll be happy to send you a refund! Therefore there’s no risk for you.
Just send us an email with your order number at: films@indiefilmmusiccontest.com and we’ll send the refund within 24h.

We had the experience that many people just use the preview film to work on their score. The problem with that is that they are technically not allowed to do this by the people who give us the rights to use these films. These rights holders are generally very protective of their rights and were not exactly happy about the films being used by non-participants so we want to avoid this from happening again. Since we are dependent on cooperating with them to keep providing you with good quality films to score we, unfortunately, can’t show the films before you register anymore.

Moreover, as the contest is growing in numbers and attention, we just need to be generally more careful in legal matters especially concerning copyright which is a very complicated topic that we’re no experts on. So we’re rather a little bit too careful than to be liable for any copyright infringements which could cause the contest to end permanently.

However, we spent a lot of time handpicking these films for you and we are sure that there is at least one film in our selection that you’ll be able to work with. Moreover,  it’s only realistic to not be able to choose what project you work on, and trying something you haven’t done before can push you in new creative directions. Also, our surveys said that a big part of the participants actually likes the surprise.

Yes. We use PayPal for all our payment processing so whether you use a PayPal account to pay or a credit card you can pay using any currency which will then be converted to Euro. PayPal will show you the exact amount it will be in your currency when you click on “Complete Registration” or the PayPal button.

The fee is split into three parts the Base Fee which you only have to pay once, the Entry Fee for each Entry you want to submit, and the Feedback Fee for each feedback you want to receive.

Entry and Submission basically mean the same thing. For each additional entry, you can submit one more film with your music. For each additional feedback, one of your submissions will get feedback so if you have 2 entries for example and 1 feedback, one of your submissions will get feedback but the other one not.

When you later submit your film there is a box that you can check to decide if you want to receive feedback for that submission and you can also see on that page how many entries/submissions you have left and how many you can still use.

You can also always add other entries and feedback later.

This time we have a total of four films for you available. There is one live-action and one animated short film for each of the Young and the Standard divisions. This means you can only compete with two of them but you get access to all four so you can practice. There is also the possibility that we use one of the films again in the other division in case it is very popular and there are enough people who also want to use it to compete and not only to practice.

The films for the two divisions are not the same anymore to better distinguish those two competitions. This way the evaluation of a Young submission can’t be compared to and therefore possibly influenced by a Standard submission.

After the competition, you will now receive a verifiable certificate with your placement in the competition.
Verifiable means that there is a code on the certificate that can be entered on our website which will then verify its authenticity. So you can easily prove that you successfully entered the competition and achieved a specific placement and anyone who sees your certificate (if you put it on your website for example) can confirm that it’s real.

The reason why we can not make it free for you is that there are 5 Judges and our team that put a lot of time and work into this and we think everyone in this industry agrees that working for free is not cool. Especially our highly qualified judges deserve appropriate compensation.

In addition to that, there are costs like website hosting and development, marketing, the cash prizes, etc. All of this is quite expensive and there is no other company behind this that can use it as marketing for their brand/products or something. 

The money needs to come somewhere so we have to charge everyone a fee to participate but because of this, we are only dedicated to making this contest the best possible experience for everyone that we think is worth the cost and we don’t have to pursue any other goals under which the quality of the contest could suffer like any free competition!
This for example also allows us to offer you opportunities like the personal feedback which you won’t get in any other competition. Moreover, we guarantee that every submission is evaluated by our judges and not by any other inexperienced panel which is done in most competitions to lower the costs.

If you can not afford it that’s ok and we understand that. We just hope that you can also understand that we too can not afford to make it free even though everyone deserves to compete.
We’re also trying to find ways to lower our costs so we can lower the fee for you in the future. So if you can’t participate this time maybe it will be possible the next time.

If you are currently 23 years or older, join the standard competition. If you are currently under the age of 23 you can choose which one you would like to join. The young one has fewer participants and therefore less competition but the standard one has slightly better prizes. In the rare case that you are 22 now but turn 23 until the winners are announced you are also allowed to choose and the moment you register will count.

You can find the winners of our previous contests on this page: https://indiefilmmusiccontest.com/previous-competitions/

We’re hosting the competition twice a year with one summer and one winter edition.

The “Indie” is short for independent. The contest is for independent film composers and it also is independently organized which means that there is no other company behind this. We’re hosting the contest just for its own sake with no other motives.

After you registered go on your account page and click on the “Contest” button. Then you will be redirected to your contest page. There you’ll find instructions for the contest including the download link. This is also where you can submit your composition and find the results after the competition ends.
You can also just click on this link (https://indiefilmmusiccontest.com/submission/) but be aware that if you’re not logged in and haven’t registered already you’ll be redirected to the registration page.

Everyone who registered with the feedback option will be able to see the feedback in their accounts the moment we announce the winners of the competition.

Currently, our system only allows it to get one feedback for each submission.