Shakespeare Shorts is an annual short film competition, celebrating the continued impact of William Shakespeare’s work. Organised by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, submissions are welcomed from film-makers of all ages and abilities, from all over the world.

Inspired by the Trust’s new multi-year theme, The Women Who Made Shakespeare, this year, the judges are especially interested in seeing entries from women and female-identifying people, of all ages and abilities, anywhere in the world. However, people of all ages and backgrounds are welcome and encouraged to enter.

This year there there is a category for films inspired by the theme ‘Shakespeare’s Female Characters’, from love-struck teenagers to shrewd political players and even witches.
Entries can be created using any form of technology from a smartphone to camera equipment.

Entries are invited in the following categories:
1. Best film inspired by the theme ‘Shakespeare’s Female Characters’ - up to 10 mins
2. Best film inspired by Shakespeare and his legacy - up to 10 mins
3. Best ‘Shakespeare Shorter Shorts’- up to 3 mins
4. Best Shakespeare inspired animation - up to 5 mins
5. Best Shakespeare inspired film or animation by a young filmmaker aged under 16 - up to 10 mins

For more information on The Women Who Made Shakespeare: https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/a-multi-year-project/

Each category longlist will be shortlisted into a Top 3, selected by our panel of film industry and Shakespeare experts. The winner of each category will then be sent to our festival patron, Sir Kenneth Branagh and guest judge, Lolita Chakrabarti, who will select their 'Patron's Choice' winners.

All winning films will receive a certificate and be screened in Shakespeare's New Place over our busy summer period for all our visitors to watch and enjoy. Find out more about Shakespeare's New Place here https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/visit/shakespeares-new-place/

The winner of the 'young filmmaker' category will win an animation kit, provided by Let's Animate.

This year's awards ceremony will be hosted online. We anticipate this will take place in the July 2025 and will inform successful entrants as soon as possible.

Entry Guidelines:

• Submissions will ONLY be accepted via FilmFreeway. Entrants must upload their short films onto FilmFreeway.
• The submission must be a finished product.
• Each film may one by submitted to one category. Films submitted to multiple categories will not be viewed.
• Entrants will be asked on the submission form to assign their film a rating (U, 12, 15, 18). Failure to declare any graphic or explicit content will result in disqualification.
• The submission must not contain any pornographic or obscene content.
• All submissions must be short films; anything over the maximum time will not be watched.
• We have no policy restricting when the film was made. As long as you created it, your film will be accepted.
• If the film has been submitted to this competition in previous years, it may be submitted again, providing it was not selected.
• The film can have originated in any country in the world, but if it is not in English we would request that it has English subtitles.
• We reserve the right to disqualify any individual we find to be tampering with the submission process, or to be acting in a manner that we deem to be not within the spirit of the competition.

Originality:

• The film must be your own original work, meaning that you must have been one of the principal creators and have the right to submit it to this competition and authorise it to be screened to the general public.
• The submission must not contain any third party work, INCLUDING ANY MUSICAL RECORDING OR COMPOSITION, unless (1) you have a license to use such work in the submission from the owners/licensors; (2) such work is in the public domain.
• The submission must not infringe on any third party’s intellectual property or privacy rights.
• Where required by law, you must have obtained appropriate releases for every person who appears recognisably in your submission.
• Your submission must not breach any contractual obligation.
• We cannot be held responsible for any losses arising from any third-party action against you in relation to your submission.
• No animals must be used in your film without the owner’s consent.
• You must be able to provide licenses, releases and permissions upon request.
• You must be happy that we screen your film at a public screening.
• Films must not have exclusivity rights elsewhere.

The Screenings:

• If you are selected as the winner, you must be able to provide us with a high resolution version of your film.
• We assume no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries.
• We reserve the right to cancel, modify or suspend the competition, although we will try our best to provide notice to all entrants.

Ownership and rights:

• Grant of Licence: As between you and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, you will own all intellectual property related to your submission and shall retain ownership of such intellectual property.
• By submitting your entry, you grant the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust a non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, publicly perform, display, reproduce, transmit, sublicense, and distribute in all media formats that exist now or in the future the submission in connection with (1) the Shakespeare Shorts competition and the promotion of stated competition; (2) the promotion of future iterations of the Shakespeare Shorts competition.
• Where permitted by law, each winner agrees to grant the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the right to print, publish, broadcast and use, worldwide in any media now known or hereafter developed, including but not limited to the world wide web, at any time or times, his or her name, portrait, picture, voice, likeness and biographical information as news or information and for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without additional consideration, and without notification, review, or approval.
• Each winner agrees to grant the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust the right to contact them in the future, in relation to Shakespeare Shorts, via the contact information given in the submission.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Dilgan Moczar

    It's an absolute pleasure to be in this festival. I'd like to say a most sincere thank you to the judges, for selecting my short for the animation category, and to everyone involved with Shakespeare Shorts!
    A pleasure and an honour.

    December 2025
  • Małgorzata Szyszka

    Thank you for honoring WRATH OF MY HEART — inspired by Katherine’s final monologue from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Brought to life by the fierce performance of Julia Trzeciakowska, with striking cinematography by Artur Sochan and evocative music by Książe Jarosław. Directed and written by Małgorzata Szyszka from Poland. It is an honor for us to be among the films recognized by the jury.

    November 2025
  • It was a great honour to be part of the Shakespeare Shorts with my film "Ophelia's Lament". Thank you very much and I hope to see you again!

    September 2024
  • Ha sido genial haber podido participar en este festival. Ha habido muy buena comunicación con los participantes.

    September 2024
  • Anthony Cally

    The festival was a pleasure to be a part of and the virtual ceremony was a lot of fun to witness. Huge kudos to the organizers and for showcasing everyone's work.

    September 2024