The ALTER-NATIVE International Short Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals from this region with specific goal of supporting and promoting cinematography and fresh filmmaking talent. The event started off in 1993 with the title Fate and Imagination, having as goal to present Hungarian films of the last 50 years. In 1994 the festival enlarged its topic and became the ALTER-NATIVE International Short Film Festival.

The program supports individual alternatives to the mass products of the media market, presenting various less-known styles and unique viewpoints, discovering independent self-expressions in film. ALTER-NATIVE inherently considers radically different genres and thoughts of film both valid and authentic. The directors of the film selected for the competition will be invited to the festival.