Spark Short Film Festival

Overview

“A short and sweet cinematic balm for acceptance, healing connection, and joy” Building on the lovely success of our 2026 grassroots program, Building on the profound warmth of last year's showcase, our festival serves as a vital, healing tonic for an increasingly taxed and fearful world. Our 2026 lineup brought together 18 international stories that illuminated the invisible bonds connecting us all. For our 2027 event, we are once again seeking short films that soothe global, societal, and interpersonal anxieties with stories that celebrate growth, service, intergenerational wisdom, self-care, and the pure joy found in simple human relationships. If your film explores the themes of acceptance, emotional renewal, our messy human paths to wholeness, or what it means to belong, we invite you to share your story to help us cultivate a collective sanctuary of love and light. We're looking for shorts that expand consciousness, celebrate our shared humanity, and envision daily lives, communities, and systems of governance aligned with the best of who we can be. We welcome bold, hopeful, and creative visions of the future—films that show us what it looks like to live in harmony, to thrive, and to dream the new earth into being. Selected films play to diverse audiences at our free events which screen up to 1.5 hours of content at venues accessible to eveyone. ***CRUCIAL COMMUNICATION INFO*** We notify through FilmFreeway. If your film is selected we message you with instructions by posting notes to your FilmFreeway project page which generates an email to you. If we don't hear from you, we will mark your film as 'incomplete' and reach out again. If we never hear from you, your film will be remain an official selection but will not screen. **If your film is over 8 minutes due to credits - enter your runtime as 8 min. SELECTION PROCESS Films are selected by our programmer. Who determines which films will screen and compete for our award during our festival event or events. Films are selected for finalist status based on impact and how they fit into the allotted time of our program. IRANIAN, PALESTINIAN, UKRAINIAN, KURDISH FILMMAKERS - HOW TO REQUEST AND OBTAIN A CODE 1. Scan evidence of nationality (photo id - passport, or driver's license) showing your name and address 2. Scan a postmarked and dated bill or another official document showing your current residence place 3. Send both via email to micromania@sparkfilmmakers.org 4. Once we confirm your eligibility, we will send you a code. 5. Once you have received your unique code from us, you may submit via this category and upload your documents to the docs section of your application. I request per submitter per year. EVALUATION Films are rated on a scale from 1-5 based on adherence to festival theme & impact first and production quality second. Our 2026 award winner is the film that has received the best overall (averaged) rating. Our event will take place on June 20, 2026. May all your days and nights be filled with joy and love!

Last updated Sep 4, 2026

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Festival Details

FilmFreeway communityGold festival

• Filmmaker

  I am honored to participate in this year's Spark Micro-Short Film Festival with "Resurrection under the Ocean" short film! - 😃😃😃🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏

• Filmmaker

  Thank you for your efforts I wish you could send a certificate to the selection

• Filmmaker

  We were so honored to be selected as a Finalist at Spark Micro-Short Film Festival with our film John Riordan, Matamaiticeoir. Your festival is so special in its focus on micro-short films, and this makes the Finalist laurel even more special to us. Thank you from the whole team.

• Filmmaker

  It was an honor to be selected for the Spark Short Film Festival, and to have "My Mother is the Moon, My Father is the Sun" be the opening film. Festival Director Lukia Costello runs a fantastic event, and I was delighted to have my film recognized among the noteworthy selections from across the globe. Thank you for the honor, Spark Short Film Festival!

• Filmmaker

  We thank the Festival director Lukia and others for very warm reception of our films, and wish you all best of luck in making your Festival a great inspiring tradition.

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