The Oxford International Short Film Festival (OXISFF) celebrates the diversity and creativity of short films.

Our inaugural festival ran in March 2019 showing over 90 short films including the 2019 BAFTA winning animation Roughhouse. We also held a number of Q&A sessions with filmmakers including one with two time Academy Award winner Paul Franklin (Inception and Interstellar).

View the 2019 Festival Trailer here: https://youtu.be/Ft4jdt9WCGc

We believe short films are an art form which deserves to be experienced in unique and beautiful surroundings, on a large screen with an enthusiastic audience.

We are located in the heart of the historic university city of Oxford, 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.

The 2020 festival will be held in the beautiful setting of St John's College at The University of Oxford. Films will be shown throughout the day, and during the evening there will be an awards ceremony before we retire to the College bar.

We are excited to be accepting both fictional and documentary entries for our 2020 line-up and plan to expand the number of talks with industry specialists and Q&As with filmmakers.

We are looking for short films with great stories which stir the emotions, have strong characters and unique voices or evocative worlds. Selected films will be considered for awards which are judged by a panel of local filmmakers prior to the event across various categories.

We are particularly keen to invite selected international filmmakers to attend and are able to offer limited on site accommodation at an extremely discounted rate (£45 per night).

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 - please let us know and we will try our best to provide some brief feedback for you! We'd like to think this is one of the things which make our festival unique.

Awards & Prizes

Want to win an award trophy? Shortlisted films will automatically be considered for any eligible awards in the following categories:

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

We also offer a number of additional award certificates for best genre films and the Audience Choice award.

Rules & Terms

1. Eligibility

1.1 Your film (including credits) should ideally be under 15 minutes. Films over 15 minutes but under 20 minutes may still be considered, but this is down to the discretion of the festival (and we recommend you get in contact with us before submitting if this is the case).
1.2 The film must have been completed on or after 1st January 2017.
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 The festival and its organisers will not be held accountable for any costs, damages or legal responsibilities incurred by the submitting party.
2.4 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. Selected filmmakers will also be invited to the private awards party after the screenings.
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. We do not offer food or drink at the venue, but there are plenty of nearby cafes, restaurants and shops.
8 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Carol Younghusband

    We were delighted that 'What Happened to Evie' was selected, and won a couple of fabulous awards, for this innovative new festival. You couldn't get more friendly communications and they bent over backwards to keep tickets for us even though in the end we sadly couldn't attend. We'd thoroughly recommend this festival in such a beautiful setting and we are sure it will go from strength to strength and become a highlight in the festival calendar.

    April 2019
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  • Gisela Nadasy

    It was a great first OXIFF held at the beautiful St John's College in Oxford, England. I was impressed by the auditorium, the awards ceremony and the helpful staff. I would strongly recommend entering this festival for the networking opportunities and friendly vibe.

    April 2019
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  • Tatjana Anders

    Absolutely lovely festival in the heart of Oxford! Very high quality selection of films and what a gorgeous location to be showcasing your film :-)
    I was very impressed with the organisation of the festival as well as communication - the structure of the event and everything around it was very clear from beginning to the end.
    I only wish that the networking part would have started slightly earlier as I had to catch a train back to London and only managed to speak to a handful of talented film makers!
    Highly recommend this festival and will definitely take part again next year!
    Tatjana Anders

    April 2019
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  • Hai Dao

    It’s an incredible short film festival i’ve ever been to in the Uk. I strongly recommend all Film lovers who want to see all the best and most emotional latest short film world wide! I definitely attend to Oxisff on their next version!!!

    March 2019
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  • Keith Large

    I attended this festival with cast members and we all absolutely loved it. A really well put together festival in a fantastic venue. The programming of films in short blocks worked great and the films were shown more than once in the day, so you got a chance to see everything. The quality and variety of films were superb and the event was staffed by a helpful and organised team. One of the best festivals we have attended. Bookmark this one for next year.

    March 2019
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