North East International Film Festival

The North East International Film Festival is a Grierson Documentary Awards qualifying festival for both features and shorts, the youngest BIFA qualifying, for both feature films and short films and an IMDB qualifying festival.

Exciting news for 2026, is that in pertnership with some gaming studio titans, NEIFF has added a competitive games category with 3 strands.

The North East International Film Festival (NEIFF) have also opened our doors to offer a
category of filmmaking specific to dance with select works being screened as part of
our Festival November 2026. This will be the first Screendance Festival and award in
the North East.
NEIFF invites dance filmmakers—both emerging and established—from across the
region and beyond to share their screendance work with us. Whether you’re just
starting out professionally or an experienced artist, NEIFF welcomes submissions
from all, regardless of background, training, or affiliation.
Screendance at NEIFF celebrates a broad and inclusive vision of dance. We
champion bold, experimental, and interdisciplinary work that pushes boundaries and
re-imagines the relationship between dancer, movement, camera, environment and
audience. As part of the wider festival, this strand connects audiences with
innovative and diverse artistic voices, opening up new possibilities for what dance
film can be.

Rated in the Top 100 festivals worldwide on leading industry site Filmfreeway from over 13,000 festivals. It is one of only 80 festivals worldwide to adopt the F-Rating, representing females in film, the first EVER festival to sign up to the BBC 50/50 Equality Project, making that organisational commitment to diversity and the first EVER festival to receive the Raising Films Ribbon for creating an inclusive space for Filmmaker, Audience and our Team!
The NEIFF is a carbon negative festival.

The NEIFF has been shortlisted for the prestigious BAFTA For The Love Of Film Awards Competition, for the Makers & Shakers Awards for Initiative To Grow Local Industry, The Small Awards under the category New Kid On The Block, The British Business Awards in various categories and the Inclusive Companies Awards. Our Festival Director is a Full BAFTA Member, a BIFA Voter, a Fellow Of The Royal Society Of Arts, a Royal Television Society Member, has also recently been added to the Northern Power Women Future List for her efforts in supporting and accelerating gender equality through the NEIFF, won a Champion Of Women Award, She has also been awarded the Prime Minister's Points Of Light Award at 10 Downing Street for her work with the NEIFF.

We are in partnership with BBC Radio and Regalier Magazine which is the worlds first online global, luxury magazine. One of our official distribution partners is Opprime TV. All of our festival award winners will automatically be offered the option of screening their films on the Opprime TV platform. The Filmmaker will receive a percentage of all subscriptions and winners of the Audience Awards and Best Of The Fest Awards will receive cash prizes, sponsored by Northumbria University. Our venue partners range from independent community led cinemas to 13 screen chain cinemas. The NEIFF is also in partnership with iPitch.tv. All of our festival Winners will be awarded a complimentary 12 month code for iPitch.tv and every Official Selection will be awarded a complimentary 3 month code. even more reason to submit!
About iPitch: Industry members in their marketplace are scouting for Feature Film and Television projects for all the major networks, studios and platforms. These Executive Members include:
Discovery Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment Television, New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers, Echo Lake Entertainment, Relativity Television, CBS, WEtv, Authentic Entertainment, Forman Productions, Infinity Media Inc., Little Studio Films, Leftfield Pictures, Brian Graden Media... to name a few.

Their site also features educational content and interviews with industry notables such as: Mike Medavoy, Doug Mankoff, and Douglas Ross who share their experience and personal insights for our up and coming filmmakers and creatives.

The North East International Film Festival is the World's most inclusive, collaborative and diverse female-founded film festival, connecting Filmmakers and Film-goers through an array of exciting film related activities and events. This is a festival in every sense of the word.

The NEIFF is humbled to have the support of our regions Universities and Colleges and is proud to confirm the participation of hundreds of student volunteers and placements so far.

Our categories include the standard submission categories as well as VR, Immersive & 360 Film, Best LGBTQ+, Best Low/No Budget, Best Student Film and our VisABLE category which is to represent disability in all it's forms.

Our event is a 3 day theme park of award winning films to take place in various locations throughout Newcastle from 23rd - 26th October 2025. Our Cinema partners range from independent, volunteer-led cinemas to 13 screen chain cinemas.

The festival is to include one off special screenings of award-winning films with cast and crew Q&A’s, VIP networking events, free, educational, film related workshops delivered by industry professionals and three full day screenings of finalist films. The festival will culminate in a Closing Awards Gala, with welcome drinks, networking/mingling and media opportunities, a 3 course gourmet Artisan meal, live music, entertainment and special guests.

Award trophies will be custom made and will be presented for each of the submission categories as well as for Audience Choice Award, Best of the Fest, Best Director, Best Performance.

Our Grand Jury Members are chosen specifically for their expertise in the industry and their links to theatrical distribution.

Come and join us to appreciate stunning locations, regional specialities and the world famous Geordie hospitality.