Mansfield Town Film Festival 2024

#MansfieldLovesFilm #MTFF #MTFF24

Celebrate the silver screen as Mansfield Town Film Festival returns in 2024.

Bringing together a stunning mix of filmmakers with a strong focus on diverse, working-class talent from across the country, and internationally, enjoy three electric days of incredible short films shown in the beautiful Mansfield Palace Theatre - perfect for those with a love of film.

Featuring an array of short films, music videos, documentaries, and animation as well as international shorts, our film festival offers three days of unique programming, entertainment, and fresh perspectives.

Complete with an opening ceremony, live screenings, an in-person awards evening, masterclasses, Q+As, and more! There’s plenty to enjoy or simply soak up the atmosphere in the thriving heart of our town.

During our inaugural year, MTFF welcomed hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world to the Mansfield Palace Theatre for three days of incredible films. Our festival was opened by Palme D'Or winning filmmaker Ken Loach who may be attending MTFF24.

Our festival will conclude with a lavish in-person awards evening, celebrating all the incredible talent shown at MTFF24, and rewarding the chosen few, selected by our jury panel of industry veterans and local stars, with the soon to be converted 'Mansfield Film Award', or 'Manny'.

Categories include;

Heart Of Mansfield Award (Best In Festival)
Working Class Voices Award
LGBTQIA+ Voices Award
Women's Voices Award
Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices Award
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animated Short
Best Student Short
Best International Short
Best Music Video
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Original Score
Best Performance In A Leading Role

The 'Heart Of Mansfield Award', is a prize awarded to the best in the festival which personifies our founding principles, and not only moves our jury, but our live audiences too.

Jurors to be announced soon.

Your Mansfield Town Film Festival fee covers
• Competition entry;
• Up to 4 Festival Passes for cast and crew of films selected for the festival;
• Free entry to all workshops, masterclasses, and Q&A;
• Free entry for all selected filmmakers to the Mansfield Film Awards Ceremony;
• Discounted stays at a local hotel during the festival;

MANSFIELD TOWN FILM FESTIVAL 2023 ENTRY PROCEDURE

Submissions MUST use FilmFreeway and MUST have been completed after 1st January 2021.

Submissions MUST include an on-screen viewer for selection purposes.

Filmmakers agree that if selected, their films will be showcased during our main festival July 26 - 28 2024 at Mansfield Palace Theatre.

As well as at monthly community cinema events taking place after the festival, in order to increase accessibility to the arts within priority neighbourhoods in around the Mansfield district.

Filmmakers will be notified in advance if we would like to screen their film at a community cinema event, and will only do so with express permission from the filmmaker.

Films entered into the Working Class Voices, LGBTQIA+ Voices, Women's Voices, Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices, UK Narrative Shorts, UK Documentary Shorts, UK Animated Shorts, and International Shorts categories MUST BE NO LONGER THAN 30 MINUTES.

Films entered into the UK Student category MUST BE NO LONGER THAN 15 MINUTES.

Films entered into the Music Video category MUST BE NO LONGER THAN 4 MINUTES.

The films accepted into the Festival are required to provide for screening .MOV or MP4 digital files. Delivery costs of the screening media must be borne by the applicant or forwarding festival. Screening material will not be returned.

Payment is via FilmFreeway.

If selected the screening copy should be with the festival AT LEAST one week before the start of the festival.

The final deadline is 1st May 2024. On receipt of the submission, the entrant will receive an email confirmation and a reference number from FilmFreeway that should be quoted on all future correspondence. Selection notification to all applicants will be as early as possible but at the latest several weeks before the festival.

Screening material should be supplied as soon as selection to the festival has been received, to allow time to check the technical quality. By submitting your film, you are giving permission for Mansfield Town Film Festival to screen your film without any charge or fee during the festival and subsequent screenings organised by the Mansfield Town Film Festival.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

If your film identifies with either; WORKING CLASS VOICES, LGBTQIA+ VOICES, or WOMEN’S VOICES, DISABLED/NEURODIVERSE VOICES, please submit it in the respective category no matter the genre of film.

If your film DOES NOT identify with any of our specialist diversity categories, please submit to the respective UK category if the film has been produced in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.

If the film has been produced OUTSIDE OF the UK, please submit to INTERNATIONAL SHORTS.

Submission Categories;

Working Class Voices
“One of the founding principles of MTFF is to hold a spotlight to working class filmmakers from across the globe, by submitting your film to this category, you acknowledge that your project tells either a story rooted within the working class experience, or has been produced by a creative team from a working class background.”

LGBTQIA+ Voices
“One of the founding principles of MTFF is to hold a spotlight to LGBTQIA+ filmmakers from across the globe, by submitting your film to this category, you acknowledge that your project tells either a story rooted within the LGBTQIA+ experience, or has been produced by a creative team who identify with this initialism.”

Women’s Voices
“One of the founding principles of MTFF is to hold a spotlight to female filmmakers from across the globe, by submitting your film to this category, you acknowledge that your project tells either a story rooted within the female experience, or has been produced by a female lead creative team.”

Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices

“One of the founding principles of MTFF is to hold a spotlight to disabled and neurodiverse filmmakers from across the globe, by submitting your film to this category, you acknowledge that your project tells either a story rooted within the this experience, or has been produced by a disabled or neurodiverse lead creative team.”

UK Narrative Shorts
“Narrative short films, made in the UK, of any genre, up to 30 minutes in length.”

UK Documentary Shorts
“Documentary short films, made in the UK, of any genre, up to 30 minutes in length.”

UK Animated Shorts
“Animated short films, made in the UK, of any genre, up to 30 minutes in length.”

UK Student Shorts
“Narrative Short Films, Documentaries, Music Videos, and Animations, made in the UK, produced by a current student studying the craft, from any genre, up to 15 minutes in length.”

International Shorts
“Narrative Short Films, Documentaries, Music Videos, and Animations, made outside of the UK, from any genre, up to 30 minutes in length.”

Music Videos
“Music Videos, made anywhere in the world, of any genre, up to 6 minutes in length.”

Mansfield Film Awards;

Our awards ceremony will be hosted on the evening of the final day of the festival, the ceremony will be held at Mansfield Palace Theatre, and will be hosted by a local comedian. Awards will be presented by members of our festival jury, as well as local personalities, and industry professionals.

Our awards jury will be updated with bios as new members join.

Those nominated for a Mansfield Film Award will receive notification alongside notification of official selection to the festival.

Awards will be decided in the following categories;

Working Class Voices Award
LGBTQIA+ Voices Award
Women's Voices Award
Disabled/Neurodiverse Voices
Best Narrative Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animated Short
Best Student Short
Best International Short
Best Music Video

As well as a ‘best in category’ award, our supplemental craft specific awards, listed below, will be nominated and chosen out of the films nominated in the primary ‘best in category’ selection.

Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Original Score
Best Performance In A Leading Role

The 'Heart Of Mansfield Award', is a prize awarded to the best in the festival which personifies our founding principles, and not only moves our jury, but our live audiences too, and could be awarded to ANY nominated film.

MANSFIELD TOWN FILM FESTIVAL IS OPERATED BY SHARP EDGE PRODUCTIONS LTD. (SEP) WHOM IS THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY. SEP RESERVES THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME TO WITHDRAW, POSTPONE, CANCEL OR MAKE ANY ALTERATION TO (OR PART TO) THE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OR FESTIVAL PROGRAMME WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION. Postal Address: MANSFIELD TOWN FILM FESTIVAL, 23 The Connexion, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 5PB. United Kingdom. Telephone: 07519 606413, email: jay@mansfieldtownfilmfestival.com, web address: www.mansfieldtownfilmfestival.com. Mansfield Town Film Festival is operated by Sharp Edge Productions Ltd, a trading name of Jay Martin.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Marlène Genissel

    Good welcome, very good programmation! Unfortunalty some screen quality problems for this 1st edition, but I'm sure it will be fixed for the 2nd one

    October 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Merci Marlène! C'était incroyable de vous rencontrer et nous avons adoré votre clip « Red Woman ». Nous sommes toujours très honorés que vous ayez voyagé depuis la France pour passer le week-end à MTFF!

  • Was happy to screen my short at the first ever mansfield town film festival! I even got interviewed by the BBC. I can't wait to watch this festivals progression over the coming years. I think it's really important that working class film makers and films have a voice here.

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:


    Thank you Claire! We share your enthusiasm in continuing to grow as a festival that promotes diverse-working class talent from around the globe!

    We're so pleased you chose to submit 'Borne' to us for our inaugural festival!

    The full BBC East Midlands interview can be found on our socials!

  • Phillip Edge

    Our short film won best student film and best original score. I couldn't attend the festival in person but the team were so friendly and encouraging on the phone and in emails. Their communication was amazing and I still had such a great time even though I wasn't at the event! I hope to have more work to join for future festivals. Very professional in their approach and the cinema screen looked massive!

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for your kind review Phillip, and so very well deserved for your beautiful short 'Whale Heart'.

    We knew the film was something truly special from the very beginning and were proud to see it take home 'Best Student Short' and 'Best Original Score' at the very first Mansfield Film Awards!

    Fun fact: one of our award jury members has a huge fear of Whales, which we didn't find out until after they had viewed the film alongside the other nominees... what are the chances!

  • Greg Newdick

    Thank you for screening my film "The Patron" in the Student Shorts strand. Major kudos to Jay Martin and the team for a fantastic inaugural Mansfield Town Film Festival. You would not have been able to tell, thanks to their sheer professionalism across the board. The team communicated with us well prior to the event and Jay greeted us on arrival. I was most impressed with the branding of the event, with the programme providing clear and concise details on all the films and talks. Hope to meet you again Jay and congratulations team.

    September 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you Greg! It meant a lot to us to bring in local talent to be a part of our inaugural festival, and your short 'The Patron' was equally enthralling and terrifying!

    We are here to stay and only plan on growing bigger and better - we hope to see you at MTFF again in the future!

  • Had the best time at this festival. I had my short film playing at the festival and everything was handled brilliantly. The communication leading up to the festival was fab and the organization on the day was seamless. I can't wait for next year!

    August 2023
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for the kind review Harry! It was an utter pleasure to meet you during our inaugural festival, and an even bigger pleasure to screen 'Heel Drop' as one of our very first 'Working Class Voices' films!

    It was always fantastic having you get involved in our Award Nominees panel on our final day, to discuss working class representation in film and the arts.

    So glad to hear you had a fantastic time after travelling up to see us all the way from London, and we hope you’ll consider returning to Mansfield in future.