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SHOWCASING POWERFUL STORIES OF PEOPLE AND PLANET 🌍💚

Sustain Film Festival based in Guildford, Surrey—a cathedral town just a short train ride from London. While our festival theme has environmental overtones, we welcome submissions from artists, creators, producers and makers from across the creative and cultural landscapes, with an open invitation to interpret the theme as they see fit. We seek stories and artworks far and wide – local regional, national and global. We want to bring people together to promote the future wellbeing of the planet, as well as the current cultural wellbeing of its inhabitants. We want to deliver experiences that explore the very nature of our species, that probe into our psyches, ask big questions of who we are, and who we might become.

Our first year saw 53 events, with our main festival covering 4 days packed with 80 incredible shorts and features from over 35 countries. If you have an emotionally and environmentally engaging story, we want it to shine within our showcases!

Previous venues
📽️ ODEON Guildford
📽️ The Boathouse Cafe
📽️ Boileroom
📽️ Guildford Institute
📽️ Nodus Centre
📽️ Trinity Centre
📽️ Performing Arts Technology Studios
📽️ Lakeside Cinema

Awards & Prizes

📽️ All selected submissions will be screened at venues in Guildford at our main festival, and potentially any build-up events prior.
🌿 All selected projects will receive an "OFFICIAL SELECTION" Sustain Film Festival laurel to use for promotion, for both main festival and build-up screenings.
🎓 All student films will are eligible for competition in our awards; there are no student specific categories, though students who can present ID valid at the time of their project's production are eligible for a discount.

Types of selection:
🏆AWARD WINNER - These will be announced during the festival.
🌿NOMINATIONS - These will be announced shortly prior (1-2 weeks) of the festival. Films that have been nominated will be screened and eligible for an award at our main festival.
✅SELECTIONS - These will be announced up to Feb 26th, or earlier. Selections will be screened at our main festival.
🔵FINALIST - Your film just barely missed out on being selected for the programme, but we wish we could show it and may do so do at future festival events!
❣️HONOURABLE MENTION - Unfortunately your film is not suitable for our screenings, but we value your submission and it's message/mission.
🚫NOT SELECTED - Your film is unfortunately not suitable for our events.

🏆Best Sustainability Film
2026 - "Plastic Surgery", Dir. Guy Trevellyan, UK
2025 - "The Unfixing", Dir. Nicole Betancourt, US
🏆Best Animation
2026 - "The Farmer's Daughter", Dir. Melissa Bloom, US
2025 - "Hot Mess", Dir. Tortor Smith, UK
🏆Best Documentary
2026 - "Obroni Wawu: Dead White Man's Clothes", Dir. Luke Dell, UK
2025 - "The Wild Defending Itself", Dir. Vincent Verzat, France
🏆Best International Short
2026 - "Immigrant", Dir. Nilram Ranjbar, Iran
2025 - "An Orange From Jaffa", Dir. Mohammed Almughanni, Palestine
🏆Best Drama
2026 - "A Bear Remembers", Dir. Zhang + Knight, UK
2025 - "Empty Your Pockets", Dir. Tara Aghdashloo, Iran
🏆Best Expressive Film
2025 - "Sacrebleu", Dir. Clement Oberto

2025 Curated Shorts Screening Titles:
🌍6 Films, 6 Continents
🦝Creature Characters
💃Expression
🧸Family Friendly
🌳Family Tree
🥇Growing Solo
🩹Health and Healing
🌸Hope Blooms
🌵Plant Life
🏳️‍🌈Queer Roots
💕Tales of Two
👀Uncanny Feeling
🪵Uprooted
⛈️Weathering The Storm

Rules & Terms

Please do not email us for waiver codes.
For eligibility details head to SustainFilmFest.org/FAQs.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
- For your film:
📽️ We will screen films at a minimum resolution of 1080p, and up to 4K.
🏰 Exceptions may be made for lower resolutions, such as historical works or young filmmakers, though this decision is at the discretion of the festival team.
🗨️ Subtitles are encouraged for all submissions and required for non-English language films. Find resources on how to make these at SustainFilmFest.org/FAQs
- To help us promote your film please provide:
🖼️ At least 3 high quality PNG photos/screenshots you would prefer to be used for promotional purposes
🦸 Your film’s poster
📝 Your film’s brief synopsis – if yours is longer, please update to include a version that is no more than 45 words.
🎙️ Your director’s statement – we use this occasionally for promotional purposes where we wish to spotlight your film, such as on our social media channels.

ADVICE
🎭 GENRE - All project genres welcome, as long as your project(s) meet Sustain's theme!
🌎 ORIGIN - International submissions welcome!
🎞️ FORM - Moving image only.
📏 LENGTH - We accept both short and feature submissions. Shorts should be no longer than 30 minutes, features no longer than 100 minutes.
🧠 THEME - Our 'Sustain' theme is open to interpretation - we are particularly interested in titles associated with our theme, in whatever creative ways you can interpret. For example, as well as nature and climate, sustaining health, relationships, self, and more.
💚 SUSTAINABILITY - Projects that adhere to sustainable production practices are, of course, encouraged

TERMS
🔁 By submitting your film, we reserve the right to use it at upcoming and unannounced events, should we deem it brilliant enough to be worth sharing a second time around! You will be welcome to use laurels for these events, though your submission will only be eligible for awards in your project's original submission.
📅For screening eligibility, films can have been produced any year.
🏆For award eligibility, films must have been produced after 01/01/2023
📱 We may use your trailer or short clips from your film (max. 90 seconds) to promote your film's screening, on social media and other digital platforms
📰 To ensure you are satisfied with your films marketing materials, we would appreciate the following from you:
- at least 1 director/filmmaker headshot
- any BTS photos
- any stills/screenshots from the film
- a trailer, if you have one
Our intention is to use these within marketing materials for the festival, both digital and physical media - promo videos, flyers, posters, programmes etc.
On occasion, we may also gather alternate screenshots and short clips from the projects ourselves, for use in festival marketing where appropriate.

SELECTION PROCESS
✨ Films are reviewed by a majority of our team before the ultimate selection decision to screen is made. Our team is made up of filmmakers, creative producers, journalists and more!
📽 Not all projects might suit our film festival, and we reserve the right not to screen project submissions we think would find a more suitable home at other festivals.
🫴We are committed to including a variety of films by a variety of filmmakers, and consciously programme our events to include a diversity of culture.
🗓️ All films submitted after our normal deadline are guaranteed to be reviewed for our next festival edition, but may not be screened at immediately upcoming events.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Funded by the University of Surrey's Institute of Sustainability, we ensure our projects focus on the United Nations' 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). Below are statistics showcasing the frequency of SDGs across the 84 films in our 2025 programme. If your film covers multiple or especially infrequent SDGs, it is more likely to be selected!
🏡 No poverty 11x
🍽️ Zero hunger 5x
❤️‍🩹 Good health and well-being 40x
📚 Quality education 12x
⚖️ Gender equality 17x
💧 Clean water and sanitation 14x
🪫 Affordable and clean energy 11x
📊 Decent work and economic growth 12x
⚙️ Industry, innovation and infrastructure 9x
🟰 Reduced inequalities 24x
🚲 Sustainable cities and communities 16x
🏭 Responsible consumption and production 18x
💚 Climate action 16x
🐙 Life below water 11x
🐯 Life on land 12x
🕊️ Peace, justice, and strong institutions 18x
🌐 Partnerships for the goals 4x

For more details head to SustainFilmFest.org/FAQs.
11 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Summit Fever Media E & M Green

    Really impressed with the Sustain Film Festival, a great team behind this event which delivers so much for all those involved - and for the planet!

    A real pleasure to be able to contribute to this brilliant festival,

    Thanks from all the team at SFM

    March 2026
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  • James Hastings

    Brilliant Festival to be a part of! Thank you Adam for a great event.

    March 2026
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  • Melissa Bloom

    This little festival has such a big heart! We were honored for our short film to have its European/England premiere with them and for the Best Animation award. The organizers were great at email communication and also have a consistent social media presence surrounding their festival. Excited to see how they grow and so happy to be a part of a festival that aligns so well with our studio's mission of creating in alignment with Nature. Would definitely submit again in future!

    March 2026
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  • Paulo Gadioli

    Great festival with great communication, we were truly honored to screen "I Feel At Peace Thinking of Today" on the 2nd edition of the Sustain Film Festival!

    March 2026
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  • Tom Newman

    I was notified by Filmfreeway that I was a 'finalist' at the Sustain Film Festival. This was great, I told everyone on our film's team and our subject we were a finalist at a film festival, and as a courtesy, I wrote the festival a thank you note. The festival wrote back to say I wasn't in the festival. My film was a finalist for inclusion in the festival. But I could download a laurel, which is a template, which means I could invent any award or category for LIela's Journey - like 'best film in the universe'. The whole experience was really disappointing, I had to tell everyone that we were not a finalist for anything, or even, in the festival. I wrote to the festival to voice my concern and suggest the term they use instead of 'finalist' is 'not selected'. I have yet to receive a reply to my email.

    On face value, the festival looks really uplifting and promising, and I hope its genuine. And if it is, I would encourage the festival to be honest with people. Films are selected, not selected and awarded. It's pretty clear. You hear the term 'Olympic finalist' and you don't think, 'ah someone who was almost in the Olympics.' You think they're up for a medal.

    March 2026
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