The 19th London Short Film Festival will be held from 14th-23rd January 2022.
LSFF exists to spotlight a multiplicity of filmmakers, visual artists and creatives, across intersections and with a commitment to peripheral voices.
Each January, the festival hosts ten days of short form, conversation and multidisciplinary curation. We present between 250-500 British and international films each edition, collaboratively programmed down from 5000+ open submissions, alongside Special Events and an industry offering of workshops, panels and discussion for filmmakers and workers.
Each edition, we award cash prizes to the UK and international short films screening in our annual competition, and are a BAFTA-affiliated festival, enabling accepted UK filmmakers to apply for the 2022 BAFTAs.
Each year, the festival appoints an international jury who deliberate on the following categories and award prizes of over £4500 in value.
Our LSFF 2021 jury comprised pioneering British-Nigerian filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah (Welcome II The Terrordome), performer, curator, film scholar and gender-queer art icon Vaginal Davis, and former executive director of imagiNATIVE Jason Ryle to award our key prizes.
BEST BRITISH SHORT FILM
Sponsored by the British Council
The Best British Short Film Award spotlights the multiplicity and diversity of British creators and creativity producing impactful, challenging work.
The Best British Short Film Award winner will receive a £1000 grant towards their next project and a choice of financial support to travel to an international festival or training and development opportunity, plus a £1000 cash prize from the festival itself.
A Special Mention will be awarded £500 towards their next project.
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
The Best International Short Film Award champions filmmaking from across the globe interpreting cultural, political and social concerns in bold and exploratory ways.
The Best International Short Film award winner will receive a £2000 grant towards their next project.
A Special Mention will be awarded £500 towards their next project.
THE TAASH AWARD FOR COMEDY IN FILM
Sponsored by Mark Rylance and the Van Kampen family
Getting a laugh is a rare talent - subjective to each one of us watching, whilst a universal experience when it’s gotten right - and this award acknowledges those filmmakers finessing comedy on screen.
All qualifying UK films can be found in the Funny Shit programme.
In celebration of the life of promising filmmaker Nataasha Van Kampen, this award remembers her boundless talent and humour, as founded and sponsored by her stepfather, Mark Rylance.
The winner of the Taash Award For Comedy In Film will receive an award of £1000 towards their next project.
BEST LO-BUDGET SHORT FILM
LSFF has always championed a little DIY rebelliousness in short filmmaking, while being aware there’s a method to that madness.
Our Lo-Budget Mayhem programme has been the festival’s traditional celebration of such filmmaking, and this award recognises work that is imaginative, resourceful and tells stories with limited-to-no resources and a good dose of wit.
All qualifying films can be found in our Lo-Budget Mayhem programmes, and this award is deliberated on by a separate youth jury.
The Best Lo-Budget Short winner will receive an award of £500.
