After a very successful first year, the second edition of Elevation Film Festival will return to Maker Heights (Cornwall, UK) on 6-7 September 2025.

Elevation celebrates emerging voices in artistic, experimental, and expanded cinema across southwest England, the UK and internationally.

We welcome filmmakers to showcase their work across a weekend of screenings, talks and workshops, connecting regional and international artists in a vibrant community celebration of moving image culture. We accept national and international submissions of artists' and experimental film, installation and expanded cinema performance, plus films of any genre made in Devon & Cornwall.

Elevation is an in-person film festival with screenings held at Patchwork Studios and other spaces in the historic Barrack Block at Maker Heights in South East Cornwall, UK. This is a unique cultural, artistic and historical landscape. Centred around a historic barrack block building occupied by a community of visual artists and musicians, Maker features a campsite, inspiring views and access to beaches and woodland.

Taking place from 6 to 7 September 2025, Elevation is supported by Patchwork Studios, Maker Camp, Rame Conservation Trust, and the wider community of artists based at Maker Heights.

Elevation is curated by a team of film enthusiasts and artists based at Maker Heights. The programming team includes Richard Ashrowan, the founder and former Director of Alchemy Film Festival in Scotland, Emily Saunders, Becky Hand and Chris Stacey.

Elevation is non-competitive and does not offer rewards or prizes.

Elevation is a in-person festival with live audience screenings in our venues. It is a not-for-profit film festival with film submission fee income going directly toward the costs of reviewing films, programming, hosting and running the festival. Elevation is a joint project between Patchwork Studios, a not for profit Community Interest Company, and the Rame Conservation Trust, a registered charity.

We welcome entries from any territory, worldwide.

Elevation accepts short, mid and feature length films with a particular focus on artistic, non-narrative, poetic, experimental and underground film. Based in Cornwall, we are also interested in films made in Cornwall of any genre. We are further open to proposals that combine film and live music, installation or expanded cinema in any form. Where possible, we will support the screening of analog film formats in 8mm and 16mm.

We do not require premiere-status, we are a fully inclusive festival and it is fine if your work has already screened at other festivals or galleries.

If there is dialogue or narration in your film, we require films to have English dialogue or English subtitles at the point of submission.

We regret we do not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on unsuccessful entries.

The festival will take place over two days at Maker Heights, in the region of South East Cornwall in the UK. Screenings will be held at Patchwork Studios and other spaces within the historic Barrack Block.

Films will be reviewed by a programming team who uphold a strong commitment to meritocratic principles of fairness, equality and diversity within their reviewing processes and programming decisions. Every submitted film is reviewed by at least two members of our programming team before being shortlisted.

Selected films will be presented either as standalone feature presentations, within curated short film programmes or within an installation/expanded cinema format.

If your film is selected, we will require your digital screening copy and any requested film information (for the programme) to be delivered or made available for download at least three weeks prior to the festival start-date. If you are unable to do this on time, it will sadly result in your film being withdrawn from the programme.

Once a film has been formally accepted to the programme, you may not withdraw your entry at a later date.

If you are unsure whether your film fits in terms of genre, before committing to pay the submission fee, you are welcome to contact us and we will do our best to respond, time and capacity permitting.

If circumstances prevent you from being able to pay the film submission fee, we operate a 'no questions asked' fee waiver policy. Please just contact us.

We are working toward a artist fee-paying model for the festival, but as this is just our second year, we regret we unable to pay screening fees for selected films at this time.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
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Networking
  • So happy to be part!

    October 2024
  • Tyro Heath

    Great Q&A and high standard of films. Beautiful venue and surroundings. Everyone was very friendly.

    October 2024