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About Us
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​ At TINFF, celebrating diversity is paramount to our ways and culture. Every year, local filmmakers from Toronto and across Canada, USA, and Internationally travel to the beautiful city of Toronto to celebrate diversity through film. TINFF's focus is to excel in creative, independent film direction through innovation, multicultural, and uniqueness that captures the series of movements and experiences in a single film. Every year filmmakers will take part in the TINFF Red Carpet, Interviews, and Media coverage event and Winners from each category will be recognized with an award during TINFF's awards and gala event.

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TINFF SHORT FILM FESTIVAL CONTEST COMING SOON

 

The Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) is excited to announce that it will be hosting a short film festival contest that’s open to all short filmmakers. The winners will receive a small cash prize for the first cash prize), be screened at the TINFF festival each year in September 2020 in Toronto, Canada, and receive a special award during the closing gala.  

 

We invite you to celebrate diversity through film as we screen films from across the globe every year at TINFF in the beautiful city of Toronto, Canada.  Some of our goal at TINFF is to present a platform that helps and promotes local and international artists through music showcase filmmakers work from across the globe to build an audience for their projects and work to diversify the music and film industry while maintaining a cultural diversity that the city of Toronto is accustomed to. We will choose our favorite music and films from each year to be screened at the festival and gala event. Judges will choose their favorite and there will be a viewer's choice award and a TINFF trophy will be awarded to the winners. All winners from individual categories will be recognized at the event.   

 

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About Us / Rules

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The Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) is a competition with live festival screening and an annual awards event in the beautiful city of Toronto. Each year between August and October, we will have our festival award and Gala night. After Official Selected Films have been announced and notified, we will proceed to the next stage of the selection process and announce the TINFF's Festival's "NOMINEES" who will now compete for an award to be presented at the live festival event in Toronto, Canada.  All Official Selection Award Nominees will be announced on the TINFF's festival website {http://www.tinff.net/}, TINFF Instagram Page (@tinffestival) and TINFF's Facebook page {https://www.facebook.com/tinff/}.

TINFF is focus-oriented multicultural music and film festival, with an awards night to recognize and encourage filmmakers by appreciating, promoting, challenge, and develops an understanding of equality, social justice, non-discrimination, diversity, and multiculturalism.

 

 TINFF is an IMDb Approved Festival: https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0010686/2020/1/

 

We provide a platform that brings both film distributors and filmmakers together. Providing excellent customer service to filmmakers is key to us as each filmmaker is part of our growing family and we are happy to assist from the stage of submission to the end result at the Annual Event. We will try to be in touch with you within 24 hours to resolve any queries related to your film or submission. We are very excited to review your film and observe the detailed creativity of your work.

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Our Mission:

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Diversity is key to us and as such, our main objective of the Film Festival & Awards Night is to provide support for independent film-makers through reviewing, judging, marketing, and distribution networking, and trying to overcome any other obstacles which potentially hinder the artist’s ability to create.

Submission & Evaluation Process:

We create an opportunity for filmmakers to get their films judged and let them compete with other filmmakers. We perform a comprehensive evaluation process and select only high-quality films.

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The Evaluation Process:

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  • Reviewing for official selection by the jury and selection of Award Nominees.

  • Films Judged by filmmakers and audiences to review and vote the best film from individual categories.

  • Declaration of Festival Award Winners.

  • Films get a screening at the annual event and compete with other films for “The Viewers Choice Award.”

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Awards & Prizes:

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We award the best independent filmmakers after a comprehensive evaluation process. All Finalist gets LAURELS, with an opportunity to contest at a combination of audience and judges vote for a TROPHY at various categories and a DISTRIBUTION OFFER which is optional to you.

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Awards & Prizes

 

TROPHY STATUE or AWARD CERTIFICATES

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  • Best Project and Audience Choice Award

  • InkTip publishing opportunity

  • Silverbird Film Distribution WA (Cinema Distribution Opportunity)

  • FilmOne Distribution (Cinema Distribution Opportunity)

  • Evritfilms Distribution UK (Cinema Distribution Opportunity)

  • True Sail Distribution (Limited Cinema Distribution Opportunity)

 

Video-On-Demand (VOD) is becoming more accessible to the public and is opening doors to independent filmmakers worldwide. All films are being consumed by a paying audience and we believe that our platform can help our filmmakers take a slice of that pie. Allowing our filmmakers to get rightfully paid for the content they produce.

 

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TINFF is proud to Announce InkTip as a sponsored partner for our screenplay awards at the Festival this year in Toronto.

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In Addition to Winning a Trophy, “Top Three Screenplays” Winners from our ScreenPlay Categories will receive an InkTip Script Listing to promote themselves and their scripts to InkTip’s entire network of producers, managers, and agents. Companies who are InkTip members include ABC, Anonymous Content, APA, CBS Films, HBO Films, ICM, Paradigm, Paramount Pictures, Hallmark Channel, FX, Universal, WME, Echo Lake, Zero Gravity, Bad Robot, 20th Century Fox, and much more. Producers have made more than 315 films from scripts and writers found through InkTip.  {InkTip: Where producers go for scripts and writers.}  https://www.inktip.com/

 

Filmmakers will have access to festival Screenings, Red carpet Interviews, Awards Ceremony and Networking opportunities in Toronto, Canada.

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Rules & Regulations:

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The competition is open to films from Canada, Nollywood, Bollywood, USA-Hollywood, and International entries. Please check individual categories and submit suitable categories to your project.

 

Feature films are 30 minutes in length or longer. Short films are under 30 minutes in length. All non-English speaking films must be presented in their original version with English subtitles.

 

All Entries with or without distribution deals are welcome.

 

Films previously entered and screened at our festival are eligible for one additional re-entry in subsequent years.

 

Entries must be submitted for pre-screening online. See our submission section If you use a secured link, you are REQUIRED to keep us updated with passwords.

 

Works in progress are accepted. We cannot promise that we will be able to watch re-edited submissions. Please only submit works in progress if submitting close to the final deadline.

 

TINFF confirms that the festival has permission to exhibit your film(s) during the festival and /or at any other Festival event. Submission of a work implies that the Festival can employ moving image excerpts and reproduce stills of exhibition promotion. Credit will be given to any filmmaker or screenwriter of such material is used in Festival promotion. The original copyright holder retains all rights to their work.

 

You may submit multiple entries but must pay an entry fee for each.

If the movie has nudity or sex. The movie should have a strong storyline; however, we are strictly not accepting any movies about porn, animal cruelty.

 

 To submit a Film for Festival consideration, Applicants must complete the registration process at FilmFreeWay and pay the required fee by the deadlines. Submissions must be postmarked or online submitted via FilmFreeWay. Submitted DVDs must contain one version only of the Film, in the original language of production, with English subtitles if the original language is not English.

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DVDs must be labeled in the following manner: Title. Production company name, phone number, and address. Director’s name. Length in minutes and FilmFreeWay tracking number.

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Where the applicant chooses to forward a DVD instead of an online screener, the Applicant is responsible for ensuring that the submitted DVD screener plays in its entirety on an industry-standard DVD player. If TINFF is unable to view the DVD, TINFF is under no obligation, to contact the Applicant to obtain a replacement DVD.

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TINFF will not review multiple versions of a submitted Film. Only one version of the Film may be submitted. If multiple versions are submitted, TINFF will view only the version that was received first.

Note! DVD screeners will not be returned.

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All Films must be sent by way of prepaid shipping. TINFF will not accept cash-on-delivery shipments or be responsible for duties, taxes, or customs brokerage. Charges are to be billed to the sender. TINFF is not responsible for and will not accept shipments incurring expenses for terminal charges, duties, taxes, or customs brokerage. Shipping and customs charges are to be billed to the sender. Any shipping charges incurred by TINFF will be billed back to the Applicant.

 

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About our Waiver Policy:

 

We believe in a fair policy for every filmmaker. We try to keep reasonable fees for all submissions, and we offer regular discounts to students and new filmmakers, however, no waivers at this stage.

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS

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COMPETITION CERTIFICATION

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  • I/We have read all the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival (TINFF) rules.

  • I/We understand and have complied with these rules.

  • I/We warrant the submission of my/our original work and there are no disputes regarding the ownership of the submission.

  • I/We also warrant the submitted material does not defame or invade the rights of any person living or dead and I/we fully indemnify the Festival against any claim made for such violations of law.

  • To the best of my/our knowledge, all the statements herein are true and correct.

  • I/We understand that failure to adhere to the Festival rules will result in disqualification and forfeiture of the entry fee.

  • I/We agree to hold TINFF harmless from and defend them against all claims, demands, losses, damages, judgments, liabilities, and expenses (including legal fees) arising out of or in connection with any and all claims of third parties, whether or not groundless, based on any film submitted to the Festival. I understand that the festival projection format may change and I will be notified of the required format once my film is accepted.

  • All selected films must be available to screen, we will inform you of the appropriate screening format.

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