The inaugural Oxford International Short Film Festival (OXISFF) celebrates the diversity and creativity of short films. OXISFF is located in the heart of the historic university city, on the same road where Inspector Morse, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien famously all enjoyed a tipple, a mere stone's throw from Hogwarts' Dining Hall.

We believe short films are an art form which deserve to be experienced in unique and beautiful surroundings, on a large screen with an enthusiastic audience. The festival will be held in the beautiful grounds of St John's College at The University of Oxford in the College's newly refurbished auditorium. Films will be shown throughout the day, during the evening there will be an awards ceremony before we retire to the College bar.

We are looking for great fictional stories which stir the emotions, have strong characters, and unique voices or evocative worlds. The awards will be judged by a panel of local filmmakers prior to the event across a range of categories. All eligible film submissions will be considered for the Best Short Film award. Submissions can also be entered into additional categories.

Please note: we will only be showing fictional (non-documentary) short films in our 2019 line-up.

Update: Being filmmakers ourselves, we know how frustrating it can be to submit a film but not know the reason why the film has not been selected. We would like to see this change, so if your submission was unsuccessful and you would like to know why - let us know and we will provide some brief feedback for you! We'd like to think this is one of the things which make our festival unique (beside the awesome location).

Awards & Prizes

Want to win an Award Trophy? All shortlisted film will automatically be considered in the Best Film Award category. We also open it up to the audience who will get to chose the Audience Choice award. There will also be a number of additional awards included at no extra cost which promote and celebrate diversity. In addition to you have the opportunity to enter the following additional award categories:

Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Lead Actor
Best Lead Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Editing
Best Production Design
Best Music Score
Best Sound
Best Special Effects

Rules & Terms

1. Elligibility

1.1 Your film (including credits) must be under 15 minutes.
1.2 The film must have been completed on or after 1st January 2016.
1.3 Any film not in the English language must contain burned-in subtitles.
1.4 Any work submitted must be the completed version. We will not accept any works-in-progress.
1.5 You must own or obtain all clearance rights for any of the material you submit to the festival.
1.6 Multiple entries are allowed. You can submit more than one film to the festival but the submission fee must be paid for each film.
1.7 We do not require premiere status.

2. Payment

2.1 All submissions must be entered online via FilmFreeway and paid via credit card.
2.2 All fees are non-refundable.
2.3 Payment will include automatic consideration for the Best Short Film and Audience Choice categories. Additional categories thereafter will incur a small fee. Please make sure you select the correct categories when you submit.
2.4 The festival and its organisers will not be held accountable for any costs, damages or legal responsibilities incurred by the submitting party.
2.5 The submitting party shall indemnify the festival and its organisers from any claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to legal fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

3. Film Selection

3.1 We will aim to contact all submitting parties on the notification date.
3.2 Any film shortlisted by the festival must be distributed electronically to the festival organisers within two weeks of the notification date. Failure to do this likely to result in the film being deselected.
3.3 Films should be delivered in mp4/mov format (minimum 1080p quality) and encoded using h.264/AAC.
3.4 The submitting party will allow festival organisers rights to use promotional material associated to the submitted film (such as posters, trailers, photos, short clips) for related festival purposes.
3.5 No film may be withdrawn from the festival programme by the filmmaker after it becomes an official selection.
3.6 All response to filmmakers will be by email.

4. Screenings and Awards

4.1 All attendees must be aged 18+
4.2 Audience numbers are limited, so film screenings will be ticketed. We will aim to give priority to shortlisted filmmakers who will receive free tickets.
4.3 Award entries will be judged by an independent panel on their artistic or technical quality.
4.4 If the filmmaker wins an award but is not present to collect at the awards ceremony, we reserve the right to charge a small handling fee (should the filmmaker want us to post the award to them).
4.5 Festival attendees are responsible for travel and all other expenses.
4.6 Food and drink is strictly prohibited in the auditorium area.