SOUTHPORT FILMFEST - International Short Film Festival

Run by film-makers for film-makers, this festival is an annual event on the cultural calendar in the Northwest of England. Our simple aim is to showcase the very best short films from around the world.

Again, this year we are pleased to announce that our Patron, Tony Jordan, (Founder & Executive Chairman of Red Planet Pictures) and his team will be judging our Best in Fest films and awarding the LILY BOND AWARD of £1000 to the winner - courtesy of Scriptwriting Associates Ltd.

In 2021, the festival ran in a live venue and also online. We have finally decided to focus solely on our physical festival. The world we are operating in has changed significantly from those first couple of years and we feel that focusing our resources into a venue based festival is the best way to move onto bigger and better things. If your film is selected for the festival, it will only be screened in our venue.

The festival venue is the purpose-built Bijou Cinema, a community enterprise project that shares both our joint passion for film in all it's forms, as well as a desire to share this passion with the whole of the community. (https://southportbijoucinema.co.uk)

Your Southport Film Festival fee covers
• Competition entry;
• Up to 4 Festival Passes for cast and crew of films selected for the festival;
• Free entry to the Festival Award Ceremony.

Awards will be given to category winners as well as the all-important 'Best in Festival'

Banner image -Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jakobowens1?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Jakob Owens</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/black-land-camera-AtZYTO9cZ5A?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>

Awards & Prizes

"Best in Fest" - £1000 cash prize.

Best Drama
Best Non-Fiction
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Best Animation
Best Comedy
Best North of England Filmmaker

Rules & Terms

Submissions MUST be made through this site and completed after 1st Oct 2023. Submissions MUST include an on-screen viewer for selection purposes. Films entered MUST be no longer than 20 minutes.

The films accepted into the Festival are required to provide for screening .mov or MP4 digital files. Delivery costs of the screening media are borne by the submitter. Screening material will not be returned.

All packages from outside Europe must bear the declaration: “for temporary importation only and for cultural use at a film festival - of no commercial value”. Documentation / proforma invoices for films from outside the EU must not state a value that exceeds £10 as this often attracts importation taxes. Any film attracting freight charges/ importation taxes our end will not be accepted, and will be returned at the sender’s own cost or may be retained by UK customs, where its retrieval will be the sender’s responsibility.

Payment can only be made via this site. Viewing copies must be received with all relevant supporting materials by the submission deadline unless by prior arrangement a late submission has been agreed with the Festival.

Press packs are not essential at this stage but can be sent as digital versions via email.

If selected the screening copy should be with the festival two weeks before the start of the festival.

Any film submitted to the festival using a '100% fee waiver' issued by the festival will be eligible for relevant category awards. However, they will not be considered for the Best in Festival award nor the cash prize. These waivers are issued under very strict guidelines and are limited in number.

All prizes will be processed through bank transfer. No other form of payment will be used. It is the recipients responsibility to ensure that they can comply with this requirement.

SELECTION PROCEDURE
On receipt of a submission, the entrant will receive an email confirmation and a reference number from FilmFreeway that should be quoted on all future correspondence. Selection notification to all applicants will be as early as possible but at the latest one month before the festival.

Applicants must confirm acceptance within 7 days of receiving notification quoting their reference number and at this stage should supply any stills/images etc. to be used in the festival brochure (if not supplied in advance). Screening material should be supplied 2 weeks prior to the festival, to allow time to check the technical quality.
40 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Anton Arenko

    Great venue and great organisation of the schedule of the festival. Only thing I would say is it would have been good to have a programme emailed over to us. Would happily enter again :)

    July 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thanks for the review, and apologies for not getting a schedule sent out. It was posted to our FB page and was also on the Bijou Cinema listings page, but you're right... I should have sent one out to the filmmakers.

  • Bianca O'Neill

    A lovely festival. Was great to have Yellow Daisy part of it.

    July 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Thank you very much!

  • Amir Zargara

    Thanks for having us :)

    July 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    You're welcome!

  • Mike Stinnett

    I wasn’t able to attend, but I was there in spirit. Much appreciate our short film, Ideal Recruit, being screened at the festival. From my communications with the Festival Director, Frank Harriman, I am certain the festival is one of the best. Festivals like this one provide a platform for independent films to be shown in the best possible venue. The recognition and feedback provided are important to both cast and crew. Thanks for everything you do. I will definitely enter my next project and recommend other filmmakers do the same.

    July 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Very much appreciated, Mike... and congratulations on getting the Best in Comedy award!!

  • Mattias Olsson

    This festival is incredibly vague.
    We got a confirmation via email that our film Boredom was accepted. In the email, they asked us to email them any questions we had about the festival, and about accommodations if we wanted to visit. We did, but never got an answer back.
    Their website was last active in 2022. Their Facebook page has been active lately, but there are no listings of which movies will be screened, or when. And the most recent photo is of some birds. Cute birds, but it is not film festival material.
    It feels shady.
    It seems to have been active in 2023, but since then, it seems to have been inactive.

    Or, perhaps, they are just really bad at updating.
    It is not that I was treated badly, more like I was ignored, which is strange since the film was accepted.
    All of this has given me the feeling that it is not actually a real festival.

    July 2025
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    Hi Mattias, I just want to apologise for the missed communication. To address a couple of things, we did post the schedule on the facebook page and it was also available on the venue listings (with a link to that on our FB page). That said, I do agree that I missed your email query. I can assure you that your film screened at the festival this year and that everything claimed about the festival on FilmFreeway is above board and legitimate. We would not have an industry heavy-hitter like Tony Jordan sponsoring our £1000 cash prize for Best in Festival if we were 'shady', as you surmise. So apologies once again for letting you down and I will take on board what you have said moving forward.