International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) 2025: Call for submissions announced

KUDZAI CHITSATSO 

COMING off a highly successful 21st edition, the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) has hit the ground running for its 2025 edition, by recently announcing a call for submissions.

Scenes from the 2024 edition of the International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF)

Founded in 2002, International Images Film Festival for Women (IIFF) is an annual festival held in Harare that is an exhibition platform for films that portray a woman in at least one major role, thus providing role modeling for African women to observe other women in film being active, displaying agency and impacting positively on their own lives, in their communities and their nations. The festival is hosted each year by the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust.

The theme for IIFF 2025 is ‘Women make the world a better place,’ a profound statement that acknowledges women’s significant contribution to society’s equilibrium through; social progress, economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, cultural enrichment, political representation, and emotional intelligence.  

The festival shall be held from 22 to 30 August 2025 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

IIFF is calling for long fiction, documentaries and short films in all genres and durations for the main competition as well as non-competition and special competition categories. The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2025.

To be eligible, films must feature a female in a leading role or a male in a leading role as a gender champion for women. IIFF's film selection takes an intersectional approach to women's social, economic, and personal issues, exploring how gender, race, class, colonization, patriarchy, neo-fascism, globalization, digital technology, and climate change all impact women's lives. The International Images Film Festival is also concerned with long-term peacekeeping challenges. 

Additionally, the festival explains the female community to the male community. IIFF's many segments, such as New Man and World View, provide story lines with global perspectives that extend beyond the African context. In all of these ways, IIFF promotes tolerance, understanding, and democratic development.

HOW TO SUBMIT

If you are interested in having your work shown at IIFF25, firstly download and complete the entry form on the official ICAPA Trust website. You must also provide a password-protected preview of the film, as a Vimeo or Dropbox link. Alternatively, you can make your film submission through Film Freeway.

Make sure to include your digital press kit as part of the submission. The press kit should include three high resolution colour stills, full cast and crew list, directors’ statement, and the film synopsis. Posters are welcome, but they cannot be substituted for stills.

Filmmakers must note that their work must not have been premiered or screened in Zimbabwe six months prior to the festival. Films must have been produced between January 2022 and August 2025, and must not be available on other video-sharing platforms like YouTube. All non-English language films must have legible English subtitles.

Once completed, the submission form should be emailed to awfh@icapatrust.org. If you’re submitting your work through Film Freeway, be sure to activate your press kit on Film Freeway. 

Non-Zimbabwean filmmakers will have to fork out a non-refundable entry fee, which can be paid via PayPal.

The entry fee for African films is US$10, while non-African Films will pay US$20. Zimbabwean films are free.

If you're a filmmaker passionate about empowering African women with your work, then IIFF25 is the film festival where you deserve to shine.