We are looking for filmmakers who are propelling media storytelling through innovation. Whether you are an established or emerging creator, we want to see your work. We accept submissions of media across 10 categories including narrative and documentary shorts and features, games, advertising, podcast/radio, music video, immersive.
The Official Selection will be shown at University of Leicester and showcased on 8th November 2025. This excellent opportunity will allow you to showcase your work to an international audience of filmmakers at the event and online.
Submission Timeline:
- Entries Open | 30th April 2025
- Regular Deadline | 30th June 2025
- Late Deadline | 25th August 2025
- The Official Selection will be announced 14th October 2025
The Event will take place on 7th and 8th November 2025 at The University of Leicester
- Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 8th November 2025.
Submission Guidelines:
- Short films should have a maximum running time of 10 minutes.
- Long form films are considered to have a runtime of 10- 60 minutes.
- We currently don't have ability to showcase immersive projects, so unfortunately we cannot accept these forms at the moment.
- All films in languages other than English must have burnt in subtitles.
- Your entry form must include your name, address, telephone number and email so that we can contact you.
- Your film must not be in breach of any copyright, including music or sound used in your film.
- The link to your video included in your submission form must not expire. Please check that the link is working.
- We do not have a premiere requirement. We will accept submissions of films that have previously screened elsewhere, including at other festivals.
- There are no completion date requirements, but films completed in the two years prior to the festival are preferred.
- The festival grants fee waivers to our students and students who reside in Leicester (proof will be required if you are at another institution).
- Submissions are final and subject to a no refund policy.
- All submissions are watched in their entirety and given the full attention of our team of programmers. The date of submission has no reflection on our selection decisions.
For submitted work:
- We do not cover licensing or screening fees for selected projects, as films are in competition and have been submitted to us.
- All films in the English language are provided with a correctly formatted subtitles to ensure that all content is accessible.
- We retain the right to use stills, trailers and excerpts of your work for the purposes of promotions, including the festival trailer, filmmaker interviews and social media posts.
Technical Specifications:
Should your film be selected to screen at The Festival of Media Stories, there are specific technical requirements the screening copy of your film must meet. Please read these carefully:
Festival of Media Stories is a digital festival and we only accept Quicktime files. We do not accept playable DVDs, DCPs, tapes, or film reels.
For submission films should be submitted via FilmFreeway.
For live screenings films should be submitted as high quality Quicktime in the following format:
- Quicktime wrapper – Apple ProRes 422 codec (h.264 will be accepted if bandwidth is an issue.)
Audio Codec – Integer 16bit 48KHz Stereo
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Progressive
- If you are submitting a feature film, you may be asked to provide a quicktime matching the above settings or a DCP.
Codec
- FMS uses Quicktime ProRes as its working codec for all film screenings.
Aspect Ratio
- In order to standardise our screenings, all films are screened within a 1920×1080 boundary.
- Ratios such as 2.35:1, 1.85:1, 1:33:1 should be presented within a 1920×1080 frame centred and pillarboxed or letterboxed accordingly.
Technical Compliance
- It is the filmmakers responsibility to ensure that the delivered film is technically correct. The festival does a quality control check for all films, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the filmmakers to check the quality of their work. Please check your film thoroughly before delivery.
Festival of Media Stories does not accept responsibility for visual or sound errors.
Audio
- All films will be exhibited in stereo. Please do not supply a 5.1 mix in any circumstances.
Padding
- All colour bars, leaders, cigarette burns and audio cues should be removed.
Subtitles
- Any films that are not in the English language must be subtitled. Subtitles must be clearly legible and burnt into the quicktime.
- Any subtitles and caption must be clearly legible. Please pay particular attention to font size, type and subtitle colour. White text on a light background will be hard to read.
- Where necessary ensure subtitles have a border/drop shadow or are presented in a different colour to white to ensure the text is clearly legible.
- For English language films, all filmmakers will be requested to supply a subtitle file (.srt or .vtt) to make their work accessible to viewers on our online platform.
File Name
- Please ensure your Quicktime file is named as the title of your film.
All submissions will be automatically added into the Best Visual Storytelling and Best Script in a production categories which will be decided on the day.
