Submissions for our international categories have now closed. It is still possible to submit to our local category until February 23rd.

Buntingford Shorts provides a unique opportunity for students 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. 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!

Check out our website / YouTube channel to view previous winners - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGUrx_p_5MtX7ZHQtal93Kw.

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

Friday 12th April - Open to any student filmmaker currently attending any school, college or University living in Hertfordshire and surrounding counties. This awards evening will be hosted live in-person at a venue in Buntingford TBA with judges present to give direct feedback to the filmmakers and award prizes (see below).

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.

Saturday 13th April 2023 - Open to any student filmmaker from around the world. The finals evening will be streamed live via our YouTube channel with clips from shortlisted finalists in each category. Judges will also be present and give feedback / prizes to any shortlisted entrant.

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. We will also show the winner of the local awards evening. 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.

Hertfordshire (and surrounding counties) Evening - Friday 12th April 2024

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 - Saturday 13th April 2024

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.

A) You must be a currently enrolled student at a school, college or University. If you do not attend one of these you must currently be 26 years of age or under.

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

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

D) Each filmmaker can submit against any of the categories listed. Only one film per director per category may be selected. The same film may be submitted to at most two categories.

E) Your film can fall into any genre listed above. We like to see a wide variety of work to give our judges an extra challenge!

F) It is the responsibility of the film producer 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) You give us permission to use your video, photographs of the filmmaker at the screening finale and any other relevant materials. These will be used for promotion of the competition on the Buntingford Shorts Facebook and Instagram page, our website, YouTube channel and any other relevant places.

H) 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.

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

J) 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.

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

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Our small but heartful film Strawberry Shake was honored with the best short horror award and we can not be more grateful. In one word Buntingford Shorts was inspiring for the whole team to keep making weird art while having lots of fun. Thank you Buntingford Shorts for the wonderful experience! Can't wait next year!

    April 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Andjela, we’re glad you enjoyed the festival! We hope to see more of your work next year!

  • Lu Jingshu

    Thank you for giving me the award. All the student works here are really sophisticated and fascinating so that I learned a lot from them. It's an unforgettable award in my career path. Hope to see you in the future with my new film work. Thanks a lot.

    April 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Jingshu, congrats again! Hopefully you'll submit to us again next time.

  • A very wonderful festival, excellent communication and a beautiful platform

    April 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you so much, we really enjoyed having you on board this year!

  • Abbiosis Dansa

    Thanks to everyone involved in the festival organisation. It's a great opportunity for young filmmakers to show their work. Thank you again for sharing our shortfilm!

    March 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you! Glad to have you involved this year!

  • The communication of the festival team with us since the application process was great. Social media was actively used and film directors were also actively involved in all process. At the award ceremony, the jury's statements on the films were announced and it was very instructive for us. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the festival.

    March 2022
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Nuri, so glad you found our judges' comments useful and felt part of the process.