I.- Feature Film
Foreign or Chilean high quality full length 35mm. screening format films of artistic merit, with no running time limit.
Foreign films eligible, as long as they have not previously been exhibited in Chile.

II.- Short Film Cinema

Foreign or Chilean fiction films developed in any format with a maximum running time of 30 minutes, credits included.

III.- Animation

Foreign or Chilean animation films in any format with a maximum running time of 30 minutes, credits included.

IV.- Documentary

Foreign or Chilean films, with a maximum running time of 90 minutes, credits included, not format restrictions.

V.- Regional Video from the Southern Audiovisual Pole

Chilean videos totally produced from the VIII region to the south, in the following genders:

a) Fiction: Videos on any subject with a maximum running time of 30 minutes, credits included.

b) Documentary: Video documentaries on any subject with a maximum running time of 50 minutes, credits included. (Audiovisual works in the gender of broadcast report will not be eligible.

VI.- Students of Filmmaking and Audiovisual

Foreign or Chilean productions developed by students from film and audiovisual academies, in the following genders:

a) Fiction: Productions in any format with a maximum running time of 30 minutes, credits included.

b) Documentary: Productions in any format with a maximum running time of 50 minutes, credits included.

Movies and Videos submitted for competition must have been finished no earlier than December 2004.

Acceptable projection formats are:
Cinema: 16 mm. and 35 mm.
Video: DVCAM and MiniDV.
Copies only eligible when presented on NTSC norm.

To promote the national film industry development. To create a centre of distribution, business and discussion to all Chilean and International cinematographic activities. To provide the integration of Chilean Culture to the rest of the world and vice-versa, supporting also several areas such as economic business and tourism, among others.

The Valdivia International Film Festival started as a very successful international film exhibition released in 1993 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Cine-Club of the Universidad Austral de Chile. A competition was included the following year, labeled as "Valdivia Cine & Video". That event became a milestone to cultural activity in southern Chile, promising at that time to become the greatest film event in the country. The early versions of the festival were oriented to ecological issues. From that point the characteristic trophy award emerged: the Pudú (The Pudú is a small kind of deer, typical of southern Chile). In 2001 the feature film competition category started, becoming the Festival into the most important film event in Chile.