CineMart: submitting a project

The opportunity to launch a film project to the international film industry and to find the right connections to get your projects financed. CineMart is not a fund, and does not provide financing itself. Selected projects get the opportunity to present themselves via pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings and many facilitated informal networking events, to potential co-producers, sales agents and financiers. In addition, four awards are handed out annually to projects from the CineMart selection.

In most cases, CineMart applications are submitted by the producer of the project. An application submitted by the director of the project will be accepted as long as there is a second person involved in the production of the project.

Please make sure to check the regulations and selection criteria first.

The selection process for CineMart takes place in two phases:

Phase 1

You can now submit your project through our CineMart project entry page. Applications can only be processed if all necessary information has been submitted online via your personal account. The CineMart application entry form allows you to submit detailed information about your project. A summary of what you need to fill in:

1. Project information: Title, production country/ies, type of film, production status, goals at CineMart, logline (max. 60 words), synopsis (max. 1,500 words), director's statement (max. 1.500 words), recent festival selections or awards for director and producer.
2. Film credits: name and contact details for director, producer and if applicable: writer, co-producer, financier, sales agent
3. Technical info: Running time, shooting format, colour/b&w, languages.
4. Financial info: Total budget (in euro), Financing already secured (amount as well as explanatory overview).

Early in October, the CineMart selection committee will reach a decision on all submitted forms. The contact person will receive the decision by email.

Phase 2

If your project is pre-selected, you are given one week to submit your full dossier (PDF) by email that includes links to previous work. It is not possible to extend this one week period. Read more about what materials will be required if you are pre-selected here.

The selection committee will reach its final decision on all pre-selected projects by early December.

Application materials (and subtitles) should be in English.

No. To CineMart, the vision and the talent of a director are essential when making choices. The same goes for the industry attending CineMart.

CineMart is there to facilitate looking for co-producers and financiers. If you have no producer yet, most likely it is too early for you to apply to CineMart.

Presenting a project at CineMart, means launching it internationally and creating a very tangible awareness about your project. If you are not ready yet to provide the people you meet at CineMart with a script or when there is no financing in place yet, the industry attending CineMart will most likely not be in a position to come on board of your project yet.

At the same time when you are shooting already at the time of CineMart, or shooting is planned immediately after, be aware that you allow potential co-producers with very little opportunities to become a part of your project.

Artistic quality: The selection committee looks specifically at the coherence between personal motivation and artistic principles, and the way these are aimed to be expressed in the final work. What is the cinematic vision? What drives the filmmaker? Through previous work the overall style and mastery of storytelling through audio visual elements is assessed. Originality and imagination are important elements.

Relevance: The selection committee takes the urgency of the project, and to what level the project is distinctive and unique into account.

Potential: The selection committee assesses if the project fits the editorial line-up of International Film Festival Rotterdam, has market potential and if the project is at the right stage and in the right shape to be presented to potential (financial) partners.

The full CineMart selection should form a balance of distinct voices, different subjects & cinematic styles, debut features to established filmmakers, gender and representation (of everyone in the project involved), where each project can uniquely shine.

The main focus of CineMart is the support of fiction features. Shorts, documentaries and films made for television will not be taken into consideration. In some cases, CineMart selects so-called creative documentaries. These projects always have a strong cinematic approach and are films that play with fiction or have a more experimental approach. Please keep in mind that the professionals attending CineMart mainly focus on fiction features.

The Rotterdam Lab is organised by CineMart in close collaboration with various partner organisations involved in the training of young producers as well as funding bodies. In order to take part in the Rotterdam Lab, it is necessary that you get in touch affiliate yourself with one of these partnering organisations that are relevant to you, because, instead of organizing an open selection procedure, potential participants in the Rotterdam Lab are nominated by these partners.

Please be aware that it is highly unlikely that more than one project by the same director or producer will be selected at once. We advise you to carefully think about the project that has the most priority for you.

The project should have at least national (development) funding or third - party financing secured. It is strongly recommended to have approximately 20% of the budget in place.

Due to the number of applications that CineMart receives, it is not possible to submit the same dossier twice. Applications can only be submitted more than once when the project has made substantial progress and has been invited to re-apply.

The application form requires you to include information about previous accomplishments of the director and the producer. It is important for us to know more about your previous work. In these fields you can summarize three important awards, selections or premieres of your work. For instance: 3 different awards for 1 film, 3 festival selections for 3 different films, 1 scholarship and two grants for 1 project, you decide!