Submissions Open for the 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival

The 8th Hainan Island International Film Festival will be held in Sanya this December. It features three competition categories under the Golden Coconut Award: Feature-Length Fiction, Documentary and Short Film. Global submissions are now open and the deadline for both Golden Coconut Award competition and Panorama entries is 24:00 (Beijing Time) on September 24, 2026.

Filmmakers may register and submit entries via the official website of the Hainan Island International Film Festival. The Organizing Committee will announce the shortlisted works for the Golden Coconut Award Competition and Panorama Section in November, with the final winners to be unveiled at the festival’s closing ceremony. Feature-length fiction and documentary competitions follow identical submission rules. All entries must have been completed on or after October 1, 2025, with no prior global theatrical or online release.

Chinese productions must obtain an official screening license issued by the National Film Administration, run for no less than 70 minutes, and have a DCP version that meets commercial cinema standards. For the short film competition, entries must have been completed on or after October 1, 2025, with no public screening in the Chinese mainland, and have a runtime of between 10 and 40 minutes. A standard commercial DCP version is preferred.

Upholding a diverse and open selection principle, the Panorama Section accepts submissions across all genres, including fiction, documentary and animation. Works completed on or after January 1, 2025 are prioritized. The festival’s global submission portal is now officially open. It calls for exceptional audiovisual works from filmmakers across the globe, continuously bringing together high-quality film resources from home and abroad.

Editor: Pegge Peng