Saturn Returns Film Festival is a festival dedicated to elevating, amplifying and celebrating women’s voices, experiences and successes.
We honour the female voice and showcase fantastic female filmmaking.
Saturn Returns is a festival created and curated by an industry professionals currently working in the field. Our judges are actors, casting directors, DOPs, producers and writers who are as excited about seeing your work as sharing their own experiences so this festival is a little bit different.
We have the endorsement and input of many industry professionals, invested and passionate about providing support, feedback and expertise to all our contributors. We will have panels – covering everything from funding and scriptwriting to casting and editing - aimed at sharing the knowledge.

Awards & Prizes

We have a festival launch drinks on Thursday 17th September 2026, an Award Ceremony on the evening of 19th September 2026. There will be a workshop on Saturday 19th to share film-making, funding and marketing. Other film-makers and industry professionals will be on hand to advise and skill-share.

Films will be screened in blocks over three days.

Gala Closing night will be attended by sponsors, industry professionals and guest speakers.

A great chance to mingle, network and show off your work and your prizes.

Rules & Terms

Qualified films must be a quality, completed film AND have at least three women in a key creative behind the scenes role (e.g. Writer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Composer or other significant behind the scenes role).

Rules :

1. All films must be directed or written or produced by a woman or gender non-conforming filmmaker.
Films by anyone are accepted if at least two of the main roles (director, writer, producer) is led by a woman or gender nonconforming filmmaker.

2. All rights to the film must be owned by the filmmakers and cleared.
Music and archive footage is your responsibility.

3. If your film is not in the English language, English subtitles will be required.

4. As a new festival striving for equality and accessibility in the film industry, we ask that you kindly provide CC on all films to accommodate to disabled or D/deaf audience members and members of our team.
You can submit your film without CC, but we ask that if you are selected, they must be added before the screening.

5. Films must have been completed after January 2024.

7. Films that do not fall into the above criteria will not be watched or considered, so please do ensure you read and follow guidelines.

8. We do not refund submissions or offer waiver codes.

9. We are so sorry but are are unable to provide feedback on submissions as we are run by volunteers.

10. The most important rule: ENJOY yourselves and good luck!
12 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Roshi Nasehi

    A great and genuinely diverse showcase of female talent in the heart of London. Wendy and Tori created such a nice supportive atmosphere for all the attendees. We're delighted that our short The Paper Bag/Pahcat E Kaghazi was selected to be part of such a strong programme and hope the festival continues to go from strength to strength.

    October 2025
    Helpful
  • Emma Croft

    Saturn Returns Film Festival was an absolute joy. Such a welcoming atmosphere and truly heartfelt support for women filmmakers. The screening for Invincible was sold out and was a really great audience. It is reassuring to have industry professionals support and eyes on the films and to know that the care and attention that goes into the 3 day event is genuinely a platform created to celebrate women who make films. Thank you. And Thank You for the award of Best Film! That was unexpected but truly wonderful.

    October 2025
    Helpful
  • Mattia De Luca

    Hands down one of the best small festivals I've been too! If you are currently unaware of Saturn Returns you should find out more! If you have a film that qualifies for a women centred festival you should submit and if you just want to attend an amazing festival then you should attend this one! It's small but that's a great thing! You can easily speak to everyone there and so it's perfect for networking!

    Highly recommend going! I'll be back next year even if I don't have a film in the festival!

    P.s. Thank you Wendy, the team and the Jury for this year's amazing festival, for selecting our film and for the honour of an award. Even if we hadn't won I'd still be writing this same review because this festival and you are all just that great!!!

    September 2025
    Helpful
  • Tina Nowarre

    The festival organizers put on such a wonderful event that cultivated so much creativity and networking. Many talented and lovely filmmakers. It was an absolute pleasure to attend this festival, and we are so honoured to have taken home the Best Film award! Even our teammates who were not able to attend the UK event were kept in the loop and were excited to watch all the updates via Instagram. Thank you Saturn Returns!

    November 2024
    Helpful
  • Festival Formula

    A great cosy festival in London that represents and lifts up female talent. We were excited to have two clients screen in 2024:

    🪐 Portrait
    🪐 SUCK IT UP

    Good programming, excellent communication, a healthy audience.

    November 2024
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    It's always a joy to see what Festival Formula sends to us. Your films are always varied, interesting and thoughtful. Thank-you for your support!