The 11th edition of FILMINUTE, the international one-minute film festival, opened this week with a collection of the world’s best ultrashort films, each delivering a complete story in exactly one minute.

From a pool of 1800 submissions, 25 finalists were chosen from 17 countries: Canada, France (2), Germany (2), India, Iran (2), Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Romania, South Africa, Spain (5), Switzerland, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay, and USA (3).

We saw a surge of film submission from Spain and this reflects a pattern we’ve come to expect,” says Filminute Co-Founder and Head of Jury John Ketchum. “Countries that win awards at the festival experience a marked uptick in submissions in the ensuing years. We’ve seen this prior with Romania, South Africa, India, Iran, and France to name a few…Growth in these local markets is important.

“It helps us leverage social media reach and engagement in each market. The response of film fans in each market in turn excites the local filmmakers, animators, and creative producers in each country.” 

The two films submitted from Iran that you can vote for, are: The Fish and The Kite.

“The Fish is about water shortage in our lives. I hope you enjoy the film and [that] from now on we use water in a way that we save it,” says the film’s director, Saman Hosseinpour, alluding to the importance of water conservation. His film albeit, one minute, sends a powerful environmental message with its focus on the looming water crisis.

While the “BEST FILMINUTE” prize and five “Commendations” will be awarded by the Filminute jury, the public is invited to view, share, comment upon, and rate vote for the film they feel deserves the “People’s Choice” award. 

Voting is open until October 25th and the winners will be announced October 28th.

Filminute is the international one-minute film festival that challenges filmmakers, writers, animators, artists, designers, and creative producers to develop and submit the world’s best one-minute films.