A 21 day Independent Film Festival which covers previews and premieres of UK, American, European and World Cinema. We present Features, Documentaries, Animations, and particularly indie films from across Europe. We also screen three Open Air screenings in Priory Park, Chichester.

NO SHORT FILMS

Half of the programme is new and half is made up of retros, centenaries and tributes. Talks by filmmakers and tutors support strands in Festival. Visiting filmmakers, actors producers, critics, Q&As. Recent Guests: Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Daniel Brühl, Elaine Page, Steve Coogan and Michael Radford all introduced their films.

Main auditorium 115 seats + studio 40 seats + Picture Palace 14 Seats + open air screenings + chapel for silent films with live organ.

Awards & Prizes

There is no festival competition.
There are Audience awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary & Best Independent Film.
New categories may be introduced for awards.
Films eligible should be premieres, previews or new releases for the UK.

Rules & Terms

Films should be of FEATURE LENGTH only, DO NOT SUBMIT SHORT FILMS.

Films should be new (preferably previews, premieres or new releases) to be eligible for audience voting awards. We especially welcome works by women and black & minority ethnic directors.

We prefer to screen final submissions from a Download MP4 (preferred) file in either our Studio (seats 40) or in the intimate Picture Palace (seats 14). Physical disc (BLU RAY/DVD) are also be acceptable as screening submissions.

In exceptional circumstances a selected film may be screened in our main auditorium on DCP. 35mm is available for rare archive material.

Please note that films need to be sent to the Festival at the expense of the filmmakers.

We regret we have no budget to support film makers expenses if they wish to introduce their work. There are no screening fees, and we regret we are unable to offer any wavers for the Submission Fee.

Submission Fee is $20US (£16 approx).
Submitted to FilmFreeway
12 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jane Mote

    This is a wonderfully engaging festival run by a small but passionate team of film lovers who make you feel so welcome. The main cinema is lovely and the audience was warm and enthusiastic. It's not on the scale of larger film festivals so there's less networking with filmmakers but the range of films on show will keep you busy!

    September 2022
    Helpful
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thanks for those kind words Jane. It was a pleasure to screen your documentary, which received the second highest audience votes in the documentary category

  • Kai Morgan

    Thank you to Roger, Walter and Richard for their kind assistance throughout the film festival and for their championing of indie films such as our own, NOT A TAME LION to be included among their Official Selection.

    September 2022
    Helpful
  • Christine Jezior

    This is a very high quality festival. Well organized, friendly staff. They even printed out the festival catalogue and sent it to me via post. Thank you!

    September 2021
    Helpful
  • Solaris Pictures

    Thank you so much for screening our film EVENING SHADOWS in your 2018 edition. It was a delight to have our LGBTQ feature screened at such an important mainstream film festival as yours.
    For a list of all our 67 film festival screenings do visit https://bit.ly/2JslyBY

    July 2019
    Helpful
  • Michelle Gales

    The Chichester International Film Festival of new films and retrospectives of classics is ambitious and thought-provoking, a model of programming cinematic art. It was an honour to have been included in such an impressive programme of this festival founded by the Chichester Film Society.

    February 2019
    Helpful