The biggest international Top 100 Best Reviewed 5-star short film festival in the Midlands!

Now entering our 10th year, we pride ourselves on championing international films from around the globe, providing a platform for challenging, innovative, diverse, and high-quality films for a growing local and global audience. This means the festival plans to have in-person screenings and an online festival (inclusion optional).

And now Beeston is accredited to the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA - https://www.bifa.film ) meaning selection to Beeston gives the right to submit to British Short Film category!

We hope to foster a sense of global community, to show the world that no matter how different and varied our cultures may be, we all share the most important things: love, hope, dreams and the need to share our stories with the world.

"Great experience and brilliant communication!"
Olly Goodrum, Writer/Producer, Iniquity, Best in Festival 2022

The Beeston Oscar, or B’Oscar, is awarded to the best film in entry categories, specialist awards for Direction, Script, Performance, Sound, Cinematography, and, of course, the overall Best in Festival Prize.

Your Beeston Film Festival fee covers
• Competition entry;
• Up to 4 Festival Passes for cast and crew of films selected for the festival;
• Free entry to Nominees to the B’Oscar Award Ceremony;
• Free access to the Online Film Festival.

BEESTON FILM FESTIVAL ENTRY PROCEDURE

Submissions MUST use FilmFreeway and MUST have been completed after 1st January 2021.

Submissions MUST include an on-screen viewer for selection purposes.

Films entered into the Drama, Horror, Comedy, Documentary, Science Fiction, Crime, Women’s Voices, Animation and other categories MUST be no longer than 30 minutes.

Films entered into Student categories MUST not be longer than 15 minutes.

The films accepted into the Festival are required to provide for screening .mov or MP4 digital files. Delivery costs of the screening media must be borne by the applicant or forwarding festival. Screening material will not be returned.

Payment is via FilmFreeway.

Press packs are not essential at this stage but can be sent as digital versions via email.

If selected the screening copy should be with the festival one week before the start of the festival.

SELECTION PROCEDURE
The deadline is 31st December 2023. On receipt of the submission, the entrant will receive an email confirmation and a reference number from FilmFreeway that should be quoted on all future correspondence. Selection notification to all applicants will be as early as possible but at the latest one month before the festival.

Screening material should be supplied 1 month prior to the festival, to allow time to check the technical quality. By submitting your film, you are giving permission for Beeston Film Festival to screen your film without any charge or fee during the festival and subsequent screenings organised by the Beeston Film Festival, but, of course, we will confirm permission for each and every screening, that is how we roll.

ONLINE FESTIVAL
There will be an online version of the festival. Please inform the festival if you decline the use of your film in the online festival, this will not affect the selection decision.

NB BEESTON FILM FESTIVAL IS OPERATED BY PHOENIX PROCUREMENT SERVICES LTD (PPS) WHOM IS THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY. PPS RESERVES THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME TO WITHDRAW, POSTPONE, CANCEL OR MAKE ANY ALTERATION TO (OR PART TO) THE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OR FESTIVAL PROGRAMME WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION. Postal Address: BEESTON FILM FESTIVAL, 212 Bramcote Lane, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 4EX. United Kingdom. Telephone: 0750 2011547, email: john.currie@beestonfilm.com, web address: www.beestonfilmfestival.com. Beeston Film Festival is operated by Phoenix Procurement Services Ltd, a registered company limited by guarantee. No. 06365524.

CATEGORY DESCRIPTIONS
1. Drama
It’s time to get serious. Life is a serious business. Film drama spans the emotional turmoil of family breakups, to death, across any time period you can think of, and most importantly to share stories from across the world will be incredibly satisfying. We can see the world through different eyes but see things that are strangely familiar, and we can connect.

2. Crime
Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection, impact, and consequence. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as mystery, trash, suspense, or noir, but at the heart will be stories from the wrong side of the tracks.

3. Comedy
Racine said, “Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” Wise words indeed, but obviously he hadn’t seen much slapstick! Chaplin combines laughter with pathos, Steve Martin too. There may be darkness, there may be farts, but whatever you do make the audience laugh!

4. Horror
So when you arrive be prepared to scream your head off. The horror genre covers creepy to pure blood and guts and don’t we love it!!!! I’m sure we’ll see zombies, monsters, and vampires aplenty. But so often the fear provoked is that within ourselves; those creepy moments revisited through the filmmakers haunting imagery. Cool.

5. Non-Fiction
Non-fiction or nonfiction is content whose creator, in good faith, assumes responsibility for the truth or accuracy of the events, people, or information presented. In contrast, a story whose creator explicitly leaves open if and how the work refers to reality is usually classified as fiction. Nonfiction, which may be presented either objectively or subjectively, is traditionally one of the two main divisions of narratives, the other traditional division being fiction, which contrasts with nonfiction by dealing in information, events, and characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary.

6. Animation
Wiki says, “Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and by means of the rapid display of a sequence of static images that minimally differ from each other.” Whether digital or stop-motion each year we are dazzled by the joyous joie de vivre of animators.

7. Women Voices
This is a very open definition: films made by men but tell a woman's story in a good way, with a great leading female actor, can still be considered; as long as the film has a good mix of women and men working on the crew, and as long as they tell a good woman's story, it can be submitted.

8. Children's Joy
We are looking for uplifting, joyous films to put smiles on the faces of Beeston's under 12's. Whether comedy, animation, drama or whatever genre, these films should not be potentially offensive to young minds, rather they should be inspiring and heartwarming.

9. Student
Any genre, fiction or non-fiction, no agenda, just listening to what the next generation of filmmakers wants to say.

10. Science Fiction & Fantasy
Science Fiction film is a genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies.
Fantasy Films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds.

11. Pride
International stories, whether fiction or nonfiction, of love, heartbreak, art, history and justice from the LGTBQ+ community.

12. C-City Communty
Films of any genre BUT must be have strong connections with the C-City Community of Falun, Broxtowe, Chataeuroux, Gütersloh and Grudziadz.

13. East Midlands Focus
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire are three counties that border Beeston and are home to incredibly creative filmmakers. The Festival is proud to provide a specific platform to celebrate this wealth of local talent. Films can be submitted from any genre at all and we are the only BIFA-accredited festival in the East Midlands.

14. Feature Films
We’re branching out into feature-length films! Fiction or Non-Fiction, animated or live action, all genres accepted - from Arthouse to Western! Please ensure films are between 60min and 150min.

15. African Voices
Any genre, fiction or non-fiction, but the film needs to have been produced, financed, and created in Africa.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Natasha Hawthornthwaite

    Wow Beeston was a delightful festival. Don't be fooled by its size, this festival is screening some really quality films. John has a great energy and is very welcoming and supportive of the filmmakers. We even brought the star of our documentary film to the festival and she was very much welcomed into the festival which made the whole experience for us and her incredibly special.

    June 2023
  • Giacomo Esposito

    Such a well-run, welcoming festival. John, Nina and the whole team made me feel right at home. The film was beautifully screened and I met some great people. Thank you Beeston!

    May 2023
  • Arthur Fanget

    John and his team are the best !
    I spent a few days in that lovely town and hope I'll be back as soon as possible to see the wonders they are screenings and most importantly the persons behind it !

    May 2023
  • Duncan MacLeod

    Having our film showcased during the Beeston Film Festival opened up lots of conversations with attendees about the film's subject matter. It gave us an opportunity to showcase our film along side many other fabulous documentaries and we will certainly be submitting to the festival again.

    May 2023
  • Anna Griffin


    The BIFA accredited Beeston Film is fabulous; super supportive and utterly joyful with a phenomenal array of brilliantly curated films. Our film was shown on the opening night in the largest 200 seater screening room and the event was so popular they had to showcase it across two screening rooms. We felt so proud to have been chosen for this brilliant festival with its wonderful and hardworking team and can’t wait to submit again in the future. Awesome festival!

    May 2023