Homegrown Shorts is a grassroots short film festival and filmmaker network focused on developing talent in South-West England. It is a way of giving emerging cinematic voices a platform, and connect them to other filmmakers and industry contacts.
It is also (until someone points out otherwise) the only British film festival that actually pays filmmakers for their films. 50% of the submission fees and box office for the event is split evenly between the exhibited filmmakers. The more films are submitted and the more people come to the screening, the more the filmmakers get paid!
Featuring short films shot in, inspired by or created by filmmakers hailing from our cosy corner of the British Isles, Homegrown Shorts is proud to call Curzon Cinema & Arts in Clevedon home. As one of the oldest still functioning purpose-built cinemas in the UK, this cinema has an incredible legacy of entertaining the filmgoers of Somerset, and it's a privilege to be an ongoing part of its story.
Homegrown Shorts isn't about rewarding biggest budgets or production quality - we want to encourage grassroots filmmakers to make creative use of the resources available to them. We do feature more established talent with funding behind them, but we don't give awards for their work.
Alongside the exhibition fee paid to filmmakers, we have 2 trophies we give out:
MOST IMPRESSIVELY LOW BUDGET
The award for the film that makes the most impressive use of limited resources.
MOST TIME IN THE SHED
The award for the real labour-of-love projects, whether it's an animation, or needed hundreds of hours of bedroom VFX. Any film where the filmmaker has had to lock themselves away to pour themselves into the film.
