Buntingford Shorts will return for its 9th festival in 2026. Submissions will open in Autumn 2025.

Buntingford Shorts provides a unique opportunity for young people to have their work viewed and critiqued by industry professionals (in previous years we have had Paul Cornwell of various Derren Brown productions and also Paul McEvoy, director of FrightFest UK), along with networking opportunities on the finale evening. Submitters who are students are welcome to submit school/university coursework or any of their other creations from any genre listed below, we love to see the wide range of ideas and inspirations everyone has to offer!

We encourage submissions from filmmakers with a micro-budget and non-professional actors. We do not disadvantage those without access to high-end resources.

Check out our website / YouTube channel to view previous winners - https://www.youtube.com/@buntingfordshorts

This year we will be hosting our festival over 2 nights:

Saturday 12th April 2025 - Open to any young filmmaker currently attending any school, living in Hertfordshire and surrounding counties. This awards evening will be hosted live in-person at Christ Church URC Buntingford with judges present to give direct feedback to the filmmakers and award prizes (see below). The evening will be recorded and posted to our YouTube channel after the event.

Evening Format - All 5 shortlisted filmmakers will be invited up in turn to discuss the inspirations behind making their film and any anecdotes from the creative process. Each film will then be shown in full before our panel of judges provide live feedback to the filmmaker. Once all 5 films have been shown the judges will make their final decisions as to the top 3 placing local films and award each of the winning filmmakers with their prize money.

Sunday 13th April 2025 - Open to any young filmmaker from around the world. The finals evening will be streamed live via our YouTube channel (and will be available on demand for the month of April) with clips from shortlisted finalists in each category. Judges will also be present and give feedback / prizes to any shortlisted entrant. Winning films are streamed in full for the audience to enjoy.

Evening Format - Each category will be visited in turn and excerpts of the 3 shortlisted films will be shown. After this our panel of judges will provide live feedback to filmmakers watching live via our YouTube channel. We will then announce and show the winning film in full. All winning filmmakers will be contacted after the event regarding their prize money.

Thank you to the team of amazing sponsors that make Buntingford Shorts possible: Yellow Technology, HD Print, Content by Gem, The Old George Studio, Evolving Spaces and Buntingford Film Club. For more information on these generous local businesses please visit our website.

Awards & Prizes

Hertfordshire (and surrounding counties) Evening - 2026 Date TBA (and available on demand via. YouTube thereafter)

Entrant submits their film of any genre from those listed under worldwide evening to 'Local Award'. All local submitters will automatically be considered for the worldwide categories.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 3 placing films.

Worldwide Evening - 2026 Date TBA (and available on demand throughout the month of April)

Cash prizes will be awarded to the best film in each of these genres:
Drama (includes action, historical, narrative, political and social)
Comedy
Documentary
Animation
Music for Film
and Horror (includes thriller and suspense)

Please get in contact if you are not sure which genre your film falls into.

Rules & Terms

General Terms:

A) At time of submission, the filmmaker must be 26 years old or younger.

B) All filmmakers under the age of 18 must seek permission from a Parent, Guardian or Teacher before submitting to Buntingford Shorts

C) Teachers uploading a quantity of films on behalf of their students may submit at maximum three films in total.

D) Your film must be between 30 seconds and 15 minutes in length

E) Each film may only be submitted to one category, however, the judges will consider it for other categories if it is eligible and if it is in the film's benefit to do so. Submitters to the local category may also submit to one of the international categories.

F) It is the responsibility of the filmmaker to ensure that their film uses original content that does not infringe any rights or copyright of third parties. This includes, but is not limited to, music, archive footage, images and literary material. For copyright laws, It is unlikely for us to shortlist films that do not meet these conditions.

G) Submissions in any language other than English must be submitted with English subtitles.

H) Buntingford Shorts does not pay screening fees, by entering a submission via filmfreeway.com you acknowledge that the festival will not pay to present your work.

I) Buntingford Shorts reserves the right to close categories early ensuring our volunteer reviewers have sufficient time to judge each film.

For Shortlisted Finalists:

J) You give us permission to use your full video, photographs of the filmmaker and any other relevant materials at the screening finals (detailed in the awards and prizes section) and for pre/post event promotion on social media.

K) All submitters must provide an A4 portrait poster, trailer of up to 30 seconds and download access for their film should they be selected as a finalist. If the provided deadline is not met then the place as a finalist will be forfeited.

28 Reviews
Overall Rating
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Networking
  • Алина Дегтярёва

    Our team is very happy to be the winner in the Music for Film category! We are deeply grateful that we were chosen by the committee and shown to the festival audience. It was interesting to watch the broadcast and see the works of our colleagues! Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the festival! We are happy to be a part of it now and in the future with new projects.

    April 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Алина! We’re really glad you enjoyed the event!

  • Caleb Woods

    Absolutely amazing festival. The idea of having a trailer show and the panel of judges talking about each of the films in the categories. Jake emailed us well in advance to get to know us and see what we needed or how everything was going to work. It made me so happy to be a part of something so wonderful and amazing! The quality of the films were also phenomenal. Even though my film, The Butterfly, didn't win in its category, I believe the films that weren't mine were so much better. Excellent and high quality film festival.

    I would pay to be part of it again!!!

    April 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Caleb, glad to hear you like our format! As a committee we love The Butterfly and hope it does well in your other festivals too!

  • Michael J. Keplinger

    Great festival and extremely friendly organizers!

    April 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Michael, was a joy to have Iris as part of it!

  • Laura Gregory

    Was pleased to have been selected as a Finalist at this event with my film 'Happy New Year!' Really enjoyed the screening, communication was excellent, and the standard of films were very high - glad to see a great local event with fantastic support!

    April 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks Laura, we were glad to have you at the event! Best of luck with the rest of your festivals!

  • Natalia Zajączkowska

    Such an honour to have my film, “She’s Asking For It”, screened and rewarded in the best documentary category! The communication has been superb every step of the way and the organisers are incredibly kind!

    April 2025
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Natalia, an important topic dealt with in such an impactful way. Congratulations again!