Welcome to Nottingham Film Festival!

An event of networking, screenings, and parties in Nottingham, England.

NFF is here to allow filmmakers and audiences to connect, create, and collaborate.

In our opening year, we'll be celebrating and showcasing shorts, animations, documentaries, music videos and experimental works.

Additionally, we'll also be exhibiting Virtual Reality (VR) works. This will be moving image pieces of any genre or format that can be viewed using virtual reality headsets.

The festival aims to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, thus we are taking three key environmental pledges to make sure that during the event, we will produce no plastic waste, no paper waste and no food waste.

With this, we will be awarding an “Environmental Impact Awareness Award” to a filmmaker who is alerting audiences to the impact humans are having on our planet.

This will mean NFF will not be producing paper-based promotional or programming materials. All information will be disseminated digitally in order to reduce the environmental impact and waste produced by the physical event of the film festival.

The festival was also created to showcase films that raise awareness of mental health conditions. This includes the presentation of a “Mental Health Awareness Award”.

Additionally, this is why the festival has no social media accounts or profiles. As the festival director believes social media has had an overall negative effect on the mental health of its users.

Please note we will not be screening features, all media and art included in NFF will be under 40 minutes long. A exception to this rule may be made for virtual reality works.

NFF will also be giving out cash prizes and awards in its first year at an awards event during the festival, see the Awards and Prizes section below. We want to do this in order to support new talent and celebrate their hard work and ambitions.

Our programme and sponsors to be announced in due course - stay tuned for further exciting updates!

contact@nottinghamfilmfestival.com

Awards & Prizes

Mental Health Awareness Award
Prize: £100

Environmental Impact Awareness Award
Prize: £100

Emerging Filmmaker Award
Emerging Actor Award
Emerging Writer

British Short Film
International Short Film

Music Video Award
Dance Film Award
Best Actor
Best Director
Best Composer
Best Editing
Best Animation Award
Best Documentary
Best Comedy
Best Student Film
Best Experimental Work
Best Production Design

Rules & Terms

1. Submission Format
Films must be submitted via online screener.

2. Submission Eligibility
- All submissions must have been completed after 1 January 2022.
- Nottingham Film Festival does not require a Nottingham premiere for all films.
- Works-in-progress and films with distribution are accepted.
- All films not in the English language are required to have subtitles.
- Please note we will not be screening features, all art included in NFF will be under 40 minutes long.

3. Premiere Status
- Nottingham Film Festival does not require a Nottingham or United Kingdom premiere for all films and other submitted media. All films may have screened at other festivals.

4. Film Classification
All films screened during the Nottingham Film Festival receive an age rating that is decided by the British Board of Film Classification and/ or the Nottingham Film Festival programming team.

5. Submission Fee
All FilmFreeway submissions for Nottingham Film Festival are to be paid by credit card or PayPal. The submission fee is non-refundable.

6. Shipping
All shipping and postage costs, if the film is selected for the Festival, for all DCPs and additional materials sent to and returned from Nottingham Film Festival must be borne by the submitting party. Nottingham Film Festival will not accept Cash On Delivery shipments. Nottingham Film Festival will not absorb any fees incurred in British customs. All charges must be pre-paid

7. Selection of Films

Submissions are reviewed and selected under the following criteria:
- Originality
- Production values
- Independence of the production
- Acting
- Cinematography and Sound
- Editing
- Themes

8. Notification
Nottingham Film Festival endeavours to complete all selection procedures by the date labelled as "Notification Deadline" on the FilmFreeway page of the festival. NFF will inform all submitting parties, in writing, if their film has been successful or not after that time. Successful submissions will receive an email that will include important information on shipping relevant media to the Festival, press and publicity, guest accreditation, contact information and how to make the most of participating in the Festival.

9. Festival Screenings
Selected films MUST provide a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) or video file (e.g MP4) in order to be screened at the Nottingham Film Festival. The film title MUST be clearly labelled on the hard drive.

10. Scheduling
Screenings are scheduled during the Festival at the discretion of Nottingham Film Festival. Whilst every effort will be made to adhere to the published schedule, Nottingham Film Festival reserves the right to make changes at any time for any reason. Nottingham Film Festival will not be liable for any costs claimed as a result of a change in scheduling. No film may be withdrawn from the festival programme after its selection.

GENERAL AGREEMENT OF PARTICIPATION IN NFF:

By submitting to the Nottingham Film Festival I confirm that I have read and accept the terms and regulations of NFF. I will provide the festival with any additional information required pursuant to these rules and regulations. I authorise the NFF to exhibit my film, and if selected, I confirm that an exhibition copy will be available in a required format for screening during the 2024 festival.

I certify that I hold all necessary rights for the submission of this film/video to the NFF and that all rights and clearances have been made. This film is not subject to any litigation nor is threatened by any litigation. I hold NFF harmless from damage to, or loss of any or all materials en route to, from or otherwise at the festival. I assume all legal responsibilities therein. I hereby agree to allow my contact details to be shared and handled by NFF, its partners and its sister film festivals. Upon submission of your project, you give permission to NFF to handle your personal details and share them with its partners, which include charities, organisations, companies and partner festivals that assistant in the production of NFF and its events.

By Agreeing to these terms, I transfer to NFF the right to use excerpts of the submitted film, its stills, and trailers, for the purposes of publicity and marketing of the film at the 2024 festival, and for other non-commercial uses related to the promotion of the 2024 festival. I hereby agree to indemnify NFF, in the event that such rights have not been properly transferred.