Following the success of 2023's festival , we are delighted to announce the eighth RAINBOW UMBRELLA Film Festival, which will take place at THE HEN & CHICKENS THEATRE in January 2025. The programme will be announced in December 2024 and tickets will go on sale at unrestrictedview.co.uk & uvff.co.uk

The festival is run by filmmakers and aims to celebrate the very best in indie and encourage all aspects of independent LGBT film making.

As well as live screenings, there will also be various networking events to be announced shortly.

The Festival is at The Hen & Chickens Theatre, an independent cinema in Islington, North London and the pub below will be the networking and meeting place.

Festival Director Mark Lyminister has worked with Unrestricted View and been Theatre Manager of The Hen & Chickens Theatre for many years. He has also worked extensively as an actor in theatre, film and TV.

" Rainbow umbrella has been set up to encourage actors and film makers from the LGBT community to have a platform to express their hopes, fears, desires and experiences and share them with new audiences. We aim to allow anyone with a voice, an opinion, a vision, a calling, to be free to write, act, direct and be free to express themselves through the medium of film. From first time film makers with little or no budget to the films with more experience and financial clout, they are all welcome under our umbrella!
We want to share films that show every emotion of someone experiencing life as an LGBT person."

Best Short
Best Foreign Short
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Cinematography
Best Screenplay

1. No films completed before Jan 2021
2. Non-English films must have subtitles Embedded.
Please note that Judges are not able to give feedback

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • RUFF is one of the most amazing film festivals ever. What an important festival for our community. To be included with these important LGBT+ filmmakers touches our hearts. There's no better quality, no festival with better communication, networking and publicity across so many social media platforms. Great festival, great team.

    January 2025
  • Ryan Paige

    We were thrilled to be selected for RUFF - from the very beginning, communication was clear, regular and very friendly and accessible. We were lucky enough to attend the festival and had an amazing time - the experience was fantastic. We loved the venue - The Hen & Chickens Theatre where we had a very warm welcome and each detail had been considered. All of the films that were screened were of brilliant quality and it was wonderful to see the space packed with such a generous audiences who were very supportive and encouraging with their responses to each film - it was lovely to walk in and see how well received each short was. It is no small feat to pull off a festival so meticulously, smoothly and with so much love at the centre of it. The cherry on the cake was our short, Making Up winning The Festival Director's Award. Thank you for a brilliant experience, Mark and the entire RUFF Team!

    January 2025
  • Christina Hulen

    I had the pleasure of having the London premiere of my short film Everything's Fine at the rainbow Umbrella Film Festival. It was a tremendous evening at the Hen and Chickens theatre. It was so nice to see films from all over the world. Mark is a lovely and gracious host, who made us feel very welcomed. The cherry on top was winning both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress prizes.

    January 2024
  • AriĆ© Chamouni

    Lovely festival, very happy our film was screened in London ! Mark is very reactive and gives feedbacks !

    January 2023
  • Tzu Tung Chen

    100% recommend Rainbow Umbrella Film Festival!! Amazing selections and I'm happy our film can be a part of them.

    January 2023