The 49th edi­ti­on of LUCAS – International Festival for Young Film Lovers will take place from September 24 to October 1, 2026 in Frankfurt and the Rhein-Main regi­on and pres­ents out­stan­ding cur­rent inter­na­tio­nal cine­ma for young audi­en­ces. In addi­ti­on to pri­ze money, the films in com­pe­ti­ti­on are also vying for the cove­ted LUCAS tro­phies fea­turing magic cubes.

For the short film com­pe­ti­ti­ons »Kids« and »Teens«, we accept pro­duc­tions with a maxi­mum length of 30 minu­tes. The sub­mit­ted short film should pre­fer­a­b­ly have its German Premiere at LUCAS. Please use FilmFreeway to enter your shorts.

Please read the Short Film Submission Rules as well as the cus­tom sub­mis­si­on forms careful­ly befo­re sub­mit­ting your short film to LUCAS #49 on FilmFreeway until April 27, 2026.

Please note for fea­ture-length films (more than 60 minutes):

Feature films may only be sub­mit­ted upon request. Unsolicited sub­mis­si­ons are accept­ed only in excep­tio­nal cases. The films in the fea­ture film com­pe­ti­ti­ons »Kids«, »Teens« and »Youngsters« are scou­ted by a sel­ec­tion com­mit­tee at fes­ti­vals and indus­try events. The films must not have had a German thea­tri­cal release, but may alre­a­dy have been scree­ned at indi­vi­du­al fes­ti­vals in Germany.