THE MIFF
History
In 1983, five festivals for fantastic film joined forces and founded the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation, with the aim to promote European fantastic cinema throughout the world. Renamed the Méliès International Festivals Federation in 2019, we now have 30 members from 21 countries, reaching a worldwide audience of more than 800.000 each year.
Founded on the initiative of five film festivals!
Our mission is to promote European fantastic film productions throughout Europe and the world, by enhancing their visibitily and their standing both among the public and within the industry, and encouraging their circulation.
The Federation works to fulfill this mission through our festival network in Europe, its supporting members in Asia, North and South America and the Middle East.
With the Méliès competition, the Federation supports the creative wealth and diversity of filmmakers from across Europe.
In addition to our own competition, the Federation also awards Asian films at our member festival BIFAN in Bucheon (South Korea) and Latin American films at our partner event Blood Window in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Since 2018, the Federation presents a Career Méliès for outstanding contributions to European fantastic cinema. Recipients were Álex de la Iglesia in 2018, Asia Argento in 2019, Paco Plaza in 2020, Lucile Hadzihalilovic in 2021, Claudio Simonetti in 2022 and Jorge Guerricaechevarría in 2023.
The largest film festival network in the world!
Facts & Figures
The global outreach of the Federation today has made it a vital economic and cultural player on the fantastic film scene worldwide. It enhances the visibility and standing of fantastic cinema with the industry and public, and encourages its distribution and production.
The Federation’s internationally renowned awards, genre-film screenings drawing audiences in four continents and networking capacity have made it a global player in the promotion and production of genre film worldwide.
Today’s Federation:
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Consists of a network of 30 film festivals, representing 21 countries
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Covers the four corners of Europe, with strongholds in Asia, North America, and South America
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Draws a combined audience of more than 800000 people
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Screens more than 1 800 genre films annually
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Awards 30 prestigious Méliès d’argent (Silver Melies) prizes for feature and short films each year
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Awards the Méliès d’or (Golden Melies) prize annually for the Best European Fantastic Film (feature and short)