The 22nd London Short Film Festival will be held in January 2025.

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 up to 500 British and international films, collaboratively selected from 5000+ open submissions, alongside Special Events and an industry programme of workshops, panels and discussion for filmmakers and cinema workers.

Each edition, we award cash prizes to the UK and international short films screening in our annual competition. We are a BAFTA-affiliated festival, enabling accepted UK filmmakers to apply for the 2025 BAFTAs.

Awards & Prizes

Each year the festival appoints an international jury who deliberate on the following categories and award prizes.

Our LSFF jury in recent years has comprised of filmmakers such as Ngozi Onwurah (Welcome II the Terrordome), Lucille Hadžihalilović (Innocence), Nick Rowland (Calm With Horses) and Maryam Tafakory (Irani Bag), film industry professionals such as actors Stacy Martin (Nymphomania, Vox Lux) and Jessica Barden (The Lobster, The End of the Fucking World), programmer Abiba Coulibaly (Brixton Community Cinema) and talent executive Aaliah Simpson (Film London, BFI Network) and festival programmers from Hamburg Short Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Dokufest Kosovo, imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, Open City Docs, and Short Waves Poland.

BEST UK SHORT FILM

The Best UK Short Film Award spotlights the multiplicity and diversity of British creators and creativity producing impactful, challenging work.

The Best UK Short Film Award winner will receive a £1000 cash prize courtesy of the British Council.

A Special Mention runner-up 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 £1000 grant towards their next project.

A Special Mention runner-up will be awarded £500 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 programme and this award is deliberated on by a separate youth jury.

The Best Lo-Budget Short winner will receive an award of £500.

Rules & Terms

Submissions are open to short form of every genre - including fiction, comedy, horror, sci-fi, documentary, animation, music videos and more. We welcome artists’ moving image and video works.

Films must be no longer than 45 minutes in length.

FEES & DEADLINES:

Opening - 16th January 2024
Early bird deadline - 5th April 2024
Regular deadline - 14th June 2024
Late deadline - 16th August 2024
Selection notification date - 25th October 2024
LSFF 2024 - January 2024

Early bird deadline - UK + international - £20
Gold Members: £15

Regular deadline - UK + international - £27
Gold Members: £22

Late deadline - UK + international: £35
Gold Members: £30

Under 5 minutes - UK + International - £10
Gold members - £7

Entries are open to both UK and international filmmakers based outside the UK, with two separate tiers of submission.

Both UK and international films under 5 minutes in length qualify for our Under 5 minute category.

PREMIERE STATUS
Films must have been completed after 1st January 2023, though LSFF does not require any premiere status.

FORMATS AND CAPTIONS
Should your film be selected, you will be required to provide a Quicktime ProRes file and a DCP of your film.

All entries must be in English or contain English subtitles if not in the English language. Non-English entries without subtitles, or supplementary printed translations, can unfortunately not be considered.

All films will be required to provide a subtitle track to ensure our ongoing commitment to accessibility, though the LSFF team will be able to assist and provide facilities to help on this.

SELECTION
We accept short films via FilmFreeway only. LSFF does not accept speculative submissions, and only entries received through FilmFreeway will be considered.

All submissions are fully considered and curated by our team of programmers, pre-selectors and review committee. Please note, due to the volume of entries received, we regret we cannot give individual feedback on submissions.

You will be notified of your film's acceptance in mid-October.

LSFF does not pay screening fees for submitted and accepted films, both in and out of competition.

TERMS
Entry fees are not refundable, and only completed entries with paid submission fees will be processed and considered for screening.

Only completed films may be submitted and will be considered.

64 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Thomas Laurance

    An excellent festival experience. Great networking events.

    October 2024
    Helpful
  • sory world

    Thank you for having One Night on Saturn. Meant a lot to show this film amongst some other brilliant films at a brilliant festival.

    February 2024
    Helpful
  • Abby Falvo

    Great communication and organization. The festival and lineup looked amazing. I wasn't able to attend in person, but everything leading up to and during the festival was great.

    February 2024
    Helpful
  • Chickenshit Short Film

    LSFF is one of the best festivals in the UK. Phil and the team put so much into it and you can really feel the work. It is so welcoming with such a great range of Shorts. Always the place to meet wonderful filmmakers and to connect with audiences.
    Grateful for our short 'Chickenshit' to have been screened this year and for all the support and clear comms from the team throughout the process. Looking forward to the next one.

    February 2024
    Helpful
  • Tomasz Kulpiński

    Had a great time showing my film Beyond the City Park at LSFF’24! I am grateful to be a part of this and I left the festival full of inspiration. The film selection was amazing and my film was screened in the Animals programme which was so perfectly put together.

    February 2024
    Helpful