The North London (NOLO) Shorts Festival aims to celebrate the best established and emerging talent of short film in London and beyond. 

Established in the lockdown of 2020, NOLO started life with a focus on comedy films. London is known for its excellent comedy and stand up scene and we wanted to help bring some of the comedy films associated with this further into the limelight and champion some of the great work out there at the moment. We have since expanded the festival to include all short film genres, as well as comedy.

As we have developed over the past few years, we know focus on NOLO Shorts as a single-entry submission point, for filmmakers to submit against a variety of categories, culminating in what we hope will be another brilliant, supportive screening event, full of creative talent.

The current season will end with a ticketed festival screening event, showcasing a selection of entries, followed by a casual networking event for attendees.

Awards & Prizes

All winning entries will be announced at the screening event and on Film Freeway on the day of the event, after judging has been completed by our celebrity and award-winning panel of judges.

Rules & Terms

All entries should have been made within the two years prior to the screening date.
All entries should adhere to the durations of each category and where no duration is specified should be no longer than 30 minutes in total.
5 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Ben Hyland

    Lovely festival and run by a bloody legend.

    January 2026
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  • Chris Tangey

    As I live on the other side of the world I sent my daughter along and she said it was really enjoyable and welcoming.

    December 2025
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  • Adam McNicol

    Amazing festival. Highly recommend. Will be submitting again in the future!

    November 2024
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    Response from festival:

    It was great to have you involved! Look forward to you all being a part of it again next time.

  • Tal Profs

    The North London Comedy Shorts (NOLO) film festival is a small, intimate, and eclectic festival superbly hosted by festival director Joe Bor.

    It was a pleasure to be invited to attend this year's festival (2024) at The ArtHouse in Crouch End, north London, and and added bonus for 'One Night Stand' ('ONS') (Dir: Felix Sutton / Cinematography: Constantin Widauer) to be awarded the prize for 'Best Editing', and also for 'ONS' to be Runner-Up for 'Best UK (Comedy)'.

    November 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Thank you for being a part of it, it was a pleasure to have you involved!

  • Dave Fulton

    This is a new member of the festival community and I couldn’t have been honoured more to be a part of it. Excellent communication, impartial judgment and a broad variety of those films selected tell me that this festival has done its level best to set itself up for years to come to be one of the go to events for showcasing short films. I wish them well and I’m already planing my next short with the hope of submitting next year.

    February 2021
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