X FESTIVAL
Competition Notice 2025
The Call has been launched on the Filmfreeway platform.
Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival is the first International Film Festival that selects and promotes the best videos from all over the world on the theme of rare diseases, disability and social inclusion.
The Festival was launched at a time when the rare disease community was engaged in raising awareness and almost all events were disease-centered. USR-RDIFF pioneered emotional storytelling with the intent of breaking the isolation of the most fragile.
UNO SGUARDO RARO – RARE DISEASE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
10th Edition
COMPETITION NOTICE 2025
PREMISE
Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival is the first International Film Festival that selects and promotes the best videos from all over the world on the theme of rare diseases, disability and social inclusion.
USR is a living project, that grows also through the feedback of the communities with whom it comes into contact and collaborates. This is why the contest is also OPEN to themes related to rare diseases, such as disability, empathy, resilience, and the ability to overcome one’s own limits, in order to celebrate the qualities that people with any kind of handicap put into play in order to live their lives to the fullest.
Learn more about rare diseases:
ORPHANET, website providing information about rare disease https://bit.ly/Journal_on_RD
EURORDIS The European Organisation for Rare Diseases
https://www.eurordis.org/
National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
https://rarediseases.org/
UNIAMO Federazione Italiana Malattie Rare
https://uniamo.org/
OMAR Osservatorio Malattie Rare
https://www.osservatoriomalattierare.it/malattie-rare
ORPHANET ITA, database for further information on rare diseases
https://bit.ly/ELENCO_MR
COMPETING CATEGORIES
You can enter the tenth edition of Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival, which will take place in NOVEMBER 2025, by sending a work that falls into one of the following categories of the THREE sections of the Festival: Play, Lab and Patient Advocacy. Play is the section devoted to the best short films; Lab is the section devoted to creative writing; Patient Advocacy is the section open to all those private institutions, healthcare, public sector and communication organisations that invest their energies in raising awareness of social issues of public interest.
-PLAY SECTION
ITALIAN SHORT FILMS
The competition is open to short films of any genre on the theme of rare diseases and related issues, with a maximum duration of 20 minutes, including opening and closing credits, made in Italy, either published or unpublished.
INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILMS
The competition is open to short films of any genre on the theme of rare diseases and related issues, with a maximum duration of 20 minutes, including opening and closing credits, of any nationality, published or unpublished.
ANIMATED SHORT FILMS
Competition for short animated films with a maximum duration of 20 minutes on the theme of rare diseases and related issues, including opening and closing credits, of any nationality, published or unpublished.
DOCUMENTARIES
Competition for documentaries of a maximum duration of 20 minutes on the theme of rare diseases and related issues, including opening and closing credits, either Italian or international, published or unpublished.
All video contributions in the competition must have English subtitles (it is not mandatory for Lab and Patient Advocacy sections).
Foreign video works that will be chosen among the finalists of the tenth edition and that will be screened in cinemas should possibly provide a version of the video including Italian subtitles.
-LAB SECTION
SHORT STORIES ABOUT RARE DISEASES
Open to all those who want to freely write a story on this theme. All narrative genres are accepted. Short stories must be sent in .PDF format and meet the following criteria: A4 size, font size 12, Courier or Times New Roman font, max 1 page.
-PATIENT ADVOCACY SECTION
VIDEOS AND ADS
Competition open to short videos and adverts of any narrative genre, of any nationality, produced for the third sector, health communication and awareness campaigns in general.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND AWARDS
The Festival promotes and rewards works on rare diseases and closely related themes that narrate the topic with an original approach and high emotional impact.
The works will be pre-selected by a technical jury which will take into account:
Adherence to the themes and the notice of competition;
Narrative quality, technique and communication skills.
A Quality Jury, consisting of film and television professionals, along with members of the rare disease community, the world of communication, sport, health and education, will select the finalists and winners in each category from the works pre-selected by the Technical Jury.
The Quality Jury will choose the winners, which will be announced at the Final Award Ceremony of Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival 2025.
Besides the technical and artistic qualities, the Quality Jury will give a particularly positive assessment to works that:
– will address the issue of rare diseases in an in an original, exciting and resilient way;
– will promote knowledge and, above all, appreciation of the theme, overcoming any prejudice;
– will highlight the clichés and stereotypes of the collective imagination;
– will promote the rare disease community as a richness, expressing it with imagination and irony;
– will identify an integration and inclusion pathway for isolated people.
UNO SGUARDO RARO IN SCHOOL award will be decreed by students and teachers voting in the movie theater.
SPECIAL PRIZES will be decreed by the Special Jury in collaboration with the partners.
- BEST ITALIAN SHORT FILM
- BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
- BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
- BEST DOCUMENTARY
- BEST ACTOR
- BEST ACTRESS
- BEST PHOTOGRAPHY
- BEST DIRECTION
- UNO SGUARDO RARO IN SCHOOL AWARD
- BEST SHORT STORY
- BEST SPOT
- SPECIAL PRIZES WITH PARTNERS 2025
The Artistic Direction and/or the Quality Jury may award SPECIAL PRIZES OUT OF COMPETITION, ex-aequo prizes and/or special mentions.
General Rules:
Entry to the competition is through the Filmfreeway platform by filling in the form and uploading your work on https://filmfreeway.com/Unosguardoraro by September 15, 2025 at the latest. There is a registration fee only for the Play category.
Films selected as finalists can no longer be withdrawn from Uno sguardo raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival.
Please read carefully the terms and conditions before submitting your work to Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival. Please note that by submitting your work you agree to and accept all the clauses of the regulations below.
REGULATION
- This agreement (“Agreement”) is between you (“You” or “Filmmaker”) and Associazione Nove Produzioni, the organiser and promoter of Uno Sguardo Raro – Rare Disease International Film Festival (“Festival”).
- You hereby grant permission to show your video/short film submitted to the Festival.
- In submitting your work, you agree to be bound by the following:
- You grant all rights, licences, authorisations and releases required for the exploitation of your work and/or the screening of your film;
- You state that you have the authority to conclude this agreement;
- You undertake responsibility for the material you have written or filmed. The contents of the works presented in the competition must be compliant with SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) rights and with the applicable copyright laws. Associazione Nove Produzioni declines any responsibility in this regard.
- You will not receive any compensation for the use of your work and/or the screening of your film;
- You grant the Festival the right to use your work and/or to screen the film at any of the Association’s events linked to the Festival with the purpose of making these works known to the public. You authorize the distribution in initiatives, events or other free events not organized by Nove Produzioni, but in combination or collaboration with it;
- I consent to the use of the work uploaded on the Filmfreeway platform for montages and screenings made and/or to be made on the occasion of and for the promotion of the Festival and for the publication of the written works on the Uno Sguardo Raro website and social networks;
- You give your consent for publication and/or dissemination in cinemas, on the web and/or in any other existing media, including social networks.
- You also give permission for the communication and/or diffusion of the video or the written work in discussion to the media and/or press organs for the promotional and advertising purposes of the Festival and of the various initiatives organised by the cultural association Nove Produzioni on the subject, in conjunction or in collaboration with the same;
- You declare to indemnify the cultural association Nove Produzioni from any possible claim coming from third parties concerning the lawfulness of the contents of the video or written work in question;
- You grant the Festival the rights to use clips, posters, photographs and trailers of the film, and excerpts and/or performed products of your written work as well as your entry, name, image, photograph and video, for purposes of programming, promotion and publicity in all media, without compensation and without notice and approval;
- You release the Festival, their respective advertising and promotion agencies, their respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and representatives, from liability for any injury, loss and damage of any nature whatsoever to persons, property, or otherwise, resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from your participation in the Festival or any activity connected with it;
- In the case of underage participants, the application form must be completed and signed by a parent or guardian, indicating the name and surname of the minor participant below;
- The choices made by the founders and organisers of the festival, the Artistic Direction and the Juries are definitive;
- By participating in the competition, you accept and comply with all the rules of this competition notice;
- Any dispute arising from the application and/or interpretation of these regulations shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Rome.