Southampton Film Week, now in its 15th year, is a festival at the heart of the South of England's developing production hub. The festival is focused on creating opportunities for filmmakers through its programme of networking, workshops and masterclasses and in providing opportunities for work to be showcased to the wider public and film community.
Alongside its showcase screenings, Southampton Film Week exhibits a wide selection of films, classic and new, to broaden opportunities for film fans and filmmakers to experience the best of UK and International cinema, focusing particularly on films and film-works which are generally less accessible to audiences. Within Southampton Film Week you will find features and shorts, drama and documentary, and a strand of Music and Film events, Artists’ Moving Image work and a Youth Film Festival.
SFW: Shorts, our short film competition, was launched in 2012 and attracts films from across the globe. The competition is open to all and offers freedom in theme and genre. The only limitations set are the length of 10 minutes (including titles and credits), that the film must have been made no earlier than January 2021, and that in the organisers’ opinion it is appropriate for a public audience.
Filmmakers can submit their short films to any of the following categories: Best Fiction, Best Documentary and Best Artist Film. All shortlisted films will be eligible for the Michael Fuller Award for Best Film selected by our panel of judges, and the Audience Award voted for at the screening and awards ceremony during the festival. Filmmakers from Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey, West Sussex and Isle of Wight will also be in contention for the Regional Filmmaker Award. Animation can be submitted to any of the three categories and in 2022 the festival, for the first time, will award a prize for Best Animation.
Southampton Film Week is led by City Eye, a film charity which supports the development of filmmakers and film culture through its programme of education and training events, its own production work and its screening programme, which includes Southampton Film Week. Established in 1986, City Eye is now located within its purpose-built filmmaking and screening facilities at the heart of Southampton’s Cultural Quarter. The fit-out and equipping of these spaces is underway and a full programme of events, activities and training, alongside access for emerging and established talent to our new facilities, will soon be announced.
The SFW: Shorts film competition is run and organised by City Eye. The competition screening and awards event will take place in Southampton Film Week (SFW) between 11 and 20 November 2022.
The final selection of all films presented at the competition is the responsibility of City Eye www.city-eye.co.uk
Please read our terms and conditions before submitting.
Best Artist Film – for experimental and artist films, can be narrative or non-narrative. Any style accepted including animation, live action, music.
Best Documentary – for non-fiction short films, any theme or style accepted including animation, live action, talking heads.
Best Fiction – for narrative based fictional short films, any theme, style or genre accepted including animation, drama, horror, comedy, etc
Michael Fuller Award for Best Film – eligible for all shortlisted films, awarded by a panel of Judges.
Regional Filmmaker Award – eligible for all shortlisted films made by filmmakers from Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey, West Sussex and Isle of Wight and awarded by a panel of Judges.
Audience Award - eligible for all shortlisted films and voted for by the audience during the festival.
Animation Award - eligible for all shortlisted animation films, awarded by the panel of judges.
