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MIDPOINT Shorts 2026-2027

Shorts
Open Call

Take your short-film idea and make it a reality.

Benefits Fee & how to apply Program Structure Successful Shorts References FAQs Contact Partners Archive
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Benefits

Get closer to realisation of your creative idea

A comprehensive program dedicated to script and project development for short films with a strong connection to the European film industry. The combination of in-depth script analysis and professional project development guides projects on their path to the cinema.

 

For teams of writers, directors and producers 

  • it will bring your project to the next level and prepare for entering the industry world (from one-pager to treatment, from treatment to script, from the first draft to final one, from scratch to pitch)
  • chance to get a deeper understanding of the creative aspects involved in the work, as well as insights into financing, sales, festival, and distribution strategies
  • showcase at When East Meets West
  • networking & meeting new industry partners
  • front gate to the Short Film Corner | Rendez-vous Industry at the Festival de Cannes

Fee & how to apply

OPEN CALL

MAY 5, 2026 - JUNE 15, 2026

Online Feedback Session

50 EUR
per project

Workshop 1+ 2 

1 000 EUR
per participant
The fee includes accommodation (2 rooms per team), board, and tuition during the residential workshops. Travel costs are NOT included.

Who can apply

  • teams of writers, directors and producers (2–3 members in one team)

  • open to professional or graduation short film projects, fiction and live-action only

  • eligible countries: open to projects from all around the world

Application materials

To apply for the program, please create an account on the MIDPOINT Visitor Page and follow the instructions within the submission form, where you can also find detailed information about application materials. 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUESTED MATERIALS
Submit application

Program Structure

Comprehensive project-development program for short-film projects

Successful Shorts

Selection of our successful alumni

Pithead

Amidst an icy dreamscape, a woman braves a blizzard to seek refuge in a black metal bar, only to discover a penguin stranded in a nearby tree separated from its colony.

Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2026, section: Directors’ Fortnight.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Pol De Plecker , Jules Mathôt, Wannes Vanspauwen
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts: 2024-2025
Genre: Drama

Ice Break

Sixteen-year-old Alex is the only girl on a boys’ ice hockey team coached by her father Michal. She is a tough player who feels little affinity for the world of women. But this all begins to change when she falls in love with one of her teammates and yearns to be seen more like a girl.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Rozalie Brozkova, Elvira Dulskaia
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama

Rites

A twelve-year-old Michal was born with a cleft lip.
He feels inadequate because of his deformed face.
His only friend Ondra convinces him to join a street gang to finally break free from a position of an outsider.
Two friends have one afternoon to show they have what it takes to pass the admission to the gang. Michal desperately wants to prove he is good enough, but the tempting adventure suddenly turns into an initiation ritual into adulthood. 

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Damian Vondrasek
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts
Genre: Drama

Magic Moments

Parents struggle to earn money, so sisters basically take care of each other alone.

-Why do we walk on the grass?

-So that we step into dogshit and are lucky.

Thanks to the bond they have, they might have already won over life´s shit.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Martina Buchelova, Erika Paulinska
Developed at: MIDPOINT Intensive Early Melons 2013

Atlantis, 2003

2003, four years before Slovakia entered the Schengen Area. Martin and Denisija, a young couple from Ukraine, are trying to get illegaly to Germany through Slovakia, like many people before them. The border between Slovakia and Ukraine will be in a couple of years one of the most secured borders in Europe, but in 2003 it is still open for smugglers and for people hoping to find a new life in Western Europe. Martin and Denisija both dream about getting to Germany, a place they’ve never been to, both ready to sacrifice everything they have to reach this destination.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Michal Blasko, Jakub Brychta
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts 2015

Inversion

A film about the complicated friendship of three adolescent girls, two swimming pools, and one malicious act of revenge.

Status: realised
MIDPOINT participants involved: Lucia Kajankova
Developed at: MIDPOINT Shorts Dresden 2017

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References

A motivational experience that elevates your project

We grew as young film professionals and will hold dear the valuable connections we made during the workshops.
Jules Mathôt
Producer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2024-2025, Alumnus
MIDPOINT Shorts program is a very valuable course to take the next steps in the development of a short film. It is very well organised, with enough variety. The mentors are lovely and understand the needs for each project. The program balances creative needs and more practical needs. I would recommend it to everyone.
Bao Van Hoe
Writer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2025-2026, Alumna
MIDPOINT Shorts helped us move our project from a treatment idea to a fully developed script that works. Thanks to the feedback and encouragement from MIDPOINT tutors and other teams, this process would be much more challenging.
Matěj Paclík
Producer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2025-2026 Alumnus
The progress made within MIDPOINT has been extremely helpful for our project. Being able to work so extensively with people from the industry is a very enriching experience.
Julián Lona
Writer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2025-2026 Alumnus
Intense, precise, friendly and very useful.
Petar Lakic
Director, Writer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2024-2025, Alumnus
The MIDPOINT SHORTS was a great experience. Our project was developed a lot, we got very useful feedbacks from our tutors and the other participants. And the program was also a good opportunity to connect to professionals and show our project to the industry's relevant members.
Anna Toth
Producer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2024-2025, Alumna
MIDPOINT Shorts is an invaluable experience, that brings together people and stories.
Markela Kontaratou
Writer, MIDPOINT Shorts 2024-2025, Alumna
MIDPOINT Shorts met and exceeded my expectations with great organization, thorough and dedicated involvement in our project on all the important levels, from the concept and story development all the way to the promotion, marketing and sales, enriching it and teaching us along the way.
Nikola Kupresanin
Writer, Shorts 2020–2021 Alumnus
We have managed to achieve almost final version of the script in three months. All the workshops were very wisely chosen and inspiring.
Elvira Dulskaia
Writer, Director, Shorts 2020–2021 Alumna
MIDPOINT gave us great support from the development stage to the final edit. Apart from that, it was a very pleasant personal experience.
Damian Vondrasek
Writer, Director, Shorts 2021-2022 Alumnus
I believe that this program is a giant leap forward for anyone who is serious about his short film.
Patrik Svehelka
Producer, Shorts 2021-2022 Alumnus

FAQs

You may ask...

Contact

Did we forget something? Don't hesitate to ask

Sona Morgenthalova
Program Coordinator
sona.morgenthalova@midpoint-institute.eu
Marketa Spatenkova
Production
marketa.spatenkova@midpoint-institute.eu

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