FESTIVALS
One of Europe’s most prominent film events, RIFF champions cinema as both an art form and an industry. The Official Selection is open to unreleased feature films (fiction and documentary), with priority given to world premieres. Includes a €10,000 BNL People’s Choice Award and a film market component.
Key Details:
Regular Deadline: July 31, 2025
Festival Dates: October 15–26, 2025
Location: Rome, Italy
A beloved “filmmaker’s festival” set in the scenic town of Durango, Colorado, DIFF is known for its warm hospitality, packed screenings, and genre-diverse programming. Categories include shorts, features, Native stories, LGBTQ, music, nature, comedy, and K–12.
Key Details:
Regular Deadline: September 1, 2025
Festival Dates: March 4–8, 2026
Location: Durango, Colorado, US
FUNDING & LABS
This competitive LA-based short film grant provides a powerful production package for one standout project: including a Panavision camera kit (up to $60K value), $13,500 in post services from LightIron, a $2K cash grant. Open to filmmakers worldwide, but the final film must be shot in Los Angeles.
Key Details:
Extended Deadline: August 31, 2025
Grant Value: Over $75,000 in gear, services & support
Fee: Free for members; $50 for non-members; $35 for students
A production grant aimed at supporting narrative or documentary shorts filmed in Idaho. Open to emerging US-based filmmakers, this opportunity offers a $5,000 cash grant, hands-on support from SVFF, and a guaranteed world premiere at the 2026 Sun Valley Film Festival.
Key Key Details:
Regular Deadline: August 31, 2025
Grant: $5,000 + production support
Premiere: 2026 Sun Valley Film Festival
TOOLS & RESOURCES
LightCalc is a free browser-based tool for cinematographers and gaffers to simulate lighting setups and calculate exposure. Choose from dozens of popular fixtures and modifiers, then adjust distance, ISO, frame rate, and aperture to get instant output in lux or footcandles.
Best For: Cinematographers, gaffers, lighting designers, and students planning studio or location shoots.
Shot Cafe is a free, community-curated library of film stills searchable by genre, framing, lighting, and more. It includes over 21,000 high-res frames across features, commercials, and music videos.
Best For: Directors, DPs, editors, and designers building moodboards, lookbooks, or pitch decks.
JOBS
Amazon’s in-house AV Creative Studio is hiring a full-time Video Editor to create promos, sizzles, trailers, and social content for Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios.
Key Details:
Location: Los Angeles, CA (on-site)
Type: Full-Time
Salary: $108,400–$185,000/year (plus benefits & equity)
The New York Times Magazine is hiring a Deputy Photo Editor to co-lead its visual department across print and digital. The role includes managing special issues, commissioning original photography, overseeing budgets and contracts, and contributing to photo essays and cover features.
Key Details:
Location: New York, NY
Type: Full-Time
Salary: $130,000–$160,000/year
INDUSTRY PULSE
Celine Song’s romantic drama Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans, is now available for digital purchase at $24.99. While reviews are mixed, the film has passed $50M domestically. A fall HBO Max release is expected.
Estimated read: 3 min
RJ Balaji confirmed that the teaser for Karuppu, starring Suriya, Trisha, and Swasika, will debut today (July 23) on Suriya’s birthday. The courtroom drama is gaining buzz in South India for its socially charged storyline and Suriya’s return to a lead role.
Estimated read: 2 min
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