The Spirit of Independence film festival is a unique celebration of raw, passionate filmmakers who make films on a micro-budget. Our remit is that we only screen feature films made for under £150k (short films made for under £1k) providing a platform for fresh talent who work with small budgets to screen and celebrate their films.
Doesn't micro-budget mean it will look amateurish? Well no - if you look at some of the biggest talent working in Hollywood today they all started working with films made for less than £100k - Christopher Nolan's Following, Kevin Smith's Clerks and Darren Aronofsky's Pi to name a few.
Our goal is simple - to provide a platform for these films to get out there and to inspire filmmakers of the future to see what can be accomplished with little money.
Held at the beautifully independent Showroom Cinema, host to other fantastic festivals such as DocFest and ShAFF, the Spirit of Independence Film Festival forms part of the ever expanding cultural calendar in the city.
We have since expanded the festival into a second screen where we take on a more industry based focus holding talks on the film industry, have networking events and screening locally made films.
This year we have also launched a further strand of the festival - the Emerging Spirit Script to Screen competition, a screenplay competition designed to make a filmmaking teams' short film idea, a reality. Together with our partners, we will provide the competition winner with a package of resources that will support them to turn their script into a short film during 2022. Their finished short will also be guaranteed a screening at the Spirit of Independence film festival on 1st October 2022.
It Cost How Much?? Best achievement for a feature film award
That looks awesome! Best achievement for a short film award
Emerging Spirit Script to Screen Competition:
- £500 cash
- Free equipment hire from South Yorkshire Filmmakers’ Network
- Free use of post-production facilities at The Kurious
- Mentorship by a member of the BFI Network