Cheltenham International Film Festival

Welcome to the fourth edition of Cheltenham International Film Festival in 2022. We invite emerging (and more experienced) filmmakers to submit their work - narrative and documentary, features and shorts. If you have an animated film, you are welcome to submit.

SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO HAVE YOUR WORK SCREENED, STREAMED AND WATCHED BY AUDIENCES

Cheltenham International Film Festival is about filmmakers and we offer filmmakers the opportunity to put their films in front of audiences:

- during the main ‘live’ in-person film festival;
- during the online film festival which has proved so successful the last two years;
- during our new Youth International Film Festival;
- we also create and introduce audiences to new films via NFT’s

We are fortunate to partner with and host Cheltenham International Film Festival on YourScreen (https://watch.yourscreen.net/), the UK multi-screen virtual cinema. Once the Festival has drawn to a close, we select festival films to stream on YourScreen, which gives filmmakers additional opportunities to have their work watched by audiences and to earn revenue as we share YourScreen box office with filmmakers.

CHELTENHAM & CELEBRITIES
Cheltenham is the UK’s Festival town, stretching back over 70 years; music, jazz and literature festivals are among the most prominent. It is now Cheltenham International Film Festival’s turn to add to the prestige of the town’s reputation as one of the premier film festivals in the UK, attracting Oscar-nominated directors such as Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears, Jan Komasa and celebrated filmmakers and artistes Josie Rourke, Steven Berkoff and our Honorary Patron, Simon Pegg, among others.

Over 70 years, big name actors and directors, musicians and writers, politicians and royalty from Roger Moore, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Judy Dench and Hugh Laurie through to Roger Daltrey, Van Morrison and Debbie Harry, through to Bob Geldof, Jools Holland, Prime Minister David Cameron, Hilary Clinton, Prince Charles and more have come to Cheltenham.

BEST FILM, EMERGING DIRECTOR
In 2021, we introduced the BEST FILM, EMERGING DIRECTOR award which was judged by a jury of well-respected figures from media, the arts and from film, chaired by well-known film critic/journalist/broadcaster, Anna Smith. The winner in 2021 was the Polish film, I Never Cry, directed by Piotr Domalewski.

CHELTENHAM YOUTH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Th new Cheltenham Youth International Film Festival launches in January 2022, as a major part of the main festival which every year takes place at the end of May.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Cheltenham International Film Festival, in part, is building its reputation on year-round special events. On 4th October, we introduced the annual Cheltenham International Film Festival Lecture given in 2021 by Baroness Lola Young on the theme of diversity in the British film industry.

We recognise women filmmakers with an “F” rating on films with female directors, writers, and/or lead characters. In October, we acknowledged the work of Iranian filmmaker, Mahnaz Mohammadi, in the context of the struggle women face to achieve equal rights; we screened Mahnaz’s latest film, Son-Mother, followed by an interview with leading film critic, Anna Smith, as part of our “In Conversation with……” series.

The Cheltenham International Film Festival promotes diversity and is inclusive of all who wish to share their vision, their creative work, their thoughts and ideas with audiences in and around Cheltenham and throughout the UK – live and online.