Fighting Spirit is a UK based group that organises martial arts and action themed Film Festivals throughout the country. Now in our 9th year, we have hosted events in London and Birmingham, and have built connections internationally with other film festivals in the UK, Spain, USA, South Korea, and Italy, with more in the pipeline.

Our aims are to support, inspire, recognise, promote, and connect people who have a love of martial arts, action, and film. We support the martial arts and action film community, which includes but is not exclusive to practitioners, teachers, film makers, stunt men and women, and of course, the fans. To do this, we screen short films, feature films, and also have live martial arts demonstrations as part of the events.

In addition to screening films, we also host a variety of short film awards to help support and promote and inspire those who are part of the film making process. Our previous award winners have gone on to win multiple awards in festivals all over the world, and we want to keep this momentum up in the future, and keep supporting the next generation of talent.

The next festival will take place in London in September 2023, and we would like to invite any submissions which would fit our theme.

For more information, and to see footage from our previous events, please go to our website www.fightingspiritfilmfestival.com

Best Short Film
Best Action Choreography
Audience Choice
Best Short Documentary
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Director
Best Short Film - 10 mins and under.
Best British Short Film in Association with New Day Pictures*
Best British Short Film Cinematography in Association with British Cinematographer
Best International Short Film Cinematography in Association with British Cinematographer
Best International Short Film

*The winner of Best British Short will receive a £500 hire voucher for New Day Pictures
https://www.newdaypictures.com/

By submitting your film, you agree that Fighting Spirit can use parts of your film (including trailer/teaser/film poster) for promotional purpose.

To submit a film, you must have created the project yourself, own the rights or have permission from the owner of the content to submit the film to us. IF SELECTED, ALL FILMS MUST HAVE AN ENGLISH SUBTITLE TRACK PREPARED - OTHERWISE THE FILM WILL BE DESELECTED.

Fighting Spirit does not pay a revenue share or a fee to screen your film.

Due to budget constraints, filmmakers travelling from oversees are not paid for attending.

Rules and Terms:
Please read all rules and requirements before submitting your project:

1. We do not accept any films completed before 1st Jan 2023.

2. Documentaries, non-fiction, animation, arthouse, short films and feature films of the action or martial arts genre are open for unsolicited submission to the festival.

3. Documentaries, non-fiction, animation, arthouse, short films and feature films of the action and martial arts genre are also selected by invitation from Fighting Spirit Film Festival.

4. All films must include English subtitles if selected (this is so we are fully inclusive for people who may not speak English as a first language, or people with hearing needs). Adding subtitles is the responsibility of the film maker. This also applies to films which are not in English language.

5. Fighting Spirit is not responsible for broken or non-functioning films.

6. Films do not have to be screened publicly to be eligible for our festival, or awards.

7. To be eligible for awards, short films must not be available for public viewing on any video hosting sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Vimeo, etc.

8. Short films should ideally be under 20 minutes, but anything up to 30 minutes may be considered subject to our panel.

9. Fighting Spirit Film Festival is a competitive event and unless notified otherwise, all shorts (except those that are publicly online) officially selected are eligible for competition. Not all submissions received are selected for the Fighting Spirit Film Festival.

10. All films are nominated and voted upon by a jury of film professionals, from an independent point of view. The full jury list can be viewed on our website. https://www.fightingspiritfilmfestival.com/awards

11. All genres and formats are considered eligible for nomination into one or more competitive categories.

12. Fighting Spirit Film Festival reserve the right to refuse to accept any submission deemed by the Festival to be inappropriate, or not fitting in with our values (see event description). Should you wish to question FSFF about their decision, you can contact us by email on info@fightingspiritfilmfestival.com

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • James Waterhouse

    We had such a great experience screening our film KIN at fighting spirit. The organisers are amazing and there was such a great selection of action shorts and features. Can't wait to return next year!

    February 2024
  • Alberto Scisco

    One of the best "Action themed" film festival in the platform. The event in London witch we cannot attend, was plenty of surprise and interesting guests!

    October 2023
  • Daniel Pedersen

    I have been lucky to have my film Swollen played at a lot of diffrent festivals around the world, some big and some small. But without a doubt, this one is my favourite. This is everything a festival is supposed to be, Great films, passionate filmmakers, fascinating speeches and panels and a lot of fun!

    October 2023
  • Chloe Chudasama

    Great Festival, had the pleasure of showcasing our action/sci-fi ASCENDANTS where it won Best British Short Film. Great team who really care about the filmmakers.

    September 2023
  • L Cronly

    Happy to have Two Blokes Fighting screened at the Fighting Spirit Film Festival, along with an amazing catalogue of films screened that year. To say that I had an great experience there would be an understatement and I want to thank everyone who ran this festival

    September 2023