Naoussa International Film Festival has a competitive character. Participants’ films are judged by judging committees of the festival which are constituted of eminent people of cinema and the wider cultural area.
The judging committees are staffed in a way that meritocracy for all creators is secured and all of them stand equal chance of winning. Along with it, the artists are given a position to utilize productively the experience and knowledge of the people of consequence they meet.
In Naoussa Film Festival there is a judging committee for each individual section of the organization. Consequently, there are judging committees for fiction, animation, experimental films, student and youth films and finally there is one committee for movile -the section of mobile phone movies- , too.
Furthermore, the organization institution in order to bring young people closer to the festival’s activities created an additional judging committee which is composed of students of the local department of University of Macedonia and ones of the local high schools. This committee expresses a youthful viewpoint and awards the “Naoussa Prize”.

The prizes that are awarded in Naoussa  International Film Festival are the following:

Best Short Film
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
2nd Best Short Film
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
3rd Best Short Film
(Participation of the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Greek Short Film
(Participation of all the Greek films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Director Award
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Experimental Film
(Participation of all the experimental films)
Best Animation
(Participation of all the films that belong to the animation category)
Best Acting
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Photography
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Editing
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Script
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
Best Film of 1st Appearance
(Participation of all the films of 1st Projection that belong to the fiction category)
"Naoussa" Award
(Participation of all the films)
People's Choice Award
(Participation of all the films that belong to the fiction category)
People's Choice Award Experimental Category
(Participation of all the films that belong to the experimental category)
People's Choice Award Animation Category
(Participation of all the films that belong to the animation category)