Watford Short Film festival returns for Hertfordshire's Year of Culture in 2020 to showcase some of the best local, national and international filmmaking talent. Open to an audience of avid film fans and film-makers alike, Watford Short Film Festival celebrates the best drama, factual and animated content. Local filmmakers will receive an exclusive category to showcase their work. Audience members at the festival will be able to vote for an 'Audience Award' in every category across both days of the event.

**An award will be presented to the best film in each category as voted by our panel of judges**

Watford Award

Best Drama
Best Documentary
Best Animation

Best Drama (College / University)
Best Documentary (College / University)
Best Animation (College / University)

**Members of the audience will also be able to vote for the audience award in each category**

A) All films must be under 15 (fifteen) minutes in length.

B) Films must fall within the categories of ‘Drama’, ‘`Documentary’ or ‘Animation’.

C) It is the responsibility of the film producer to ensure that their film does not infringe any rights or copyright of third parties. This includes, but is not limited to, music, archive footage, images and literary material.

D) By submitting a film to Watford Short Film Festival, the film producer grants the festival the rights to exhibit the film, reproduce stills and exhibit short excerpts of the film for promotional purposes.

E) Only online entries will be accepted, submissions via post or any other platform will not be considered.

F) Entries must be received before the final deadline, any submissions after this time will not be considered.

G) Films which make ‘Official Selection’ for the festival must be able to provide a digital copy for exhibition.

H) Due to the size of our voluntary staff, we are unable to provide detailed critique of films which are not selected for exhibition.

I) Submissions in any language other than English must be submitted with English subtitles.

J) WSFF does not pay screening fees, by entering a submission via filmfreeway.com you acknowledge that the festival will not pay to present your work.

K) By submitting to WSFF, you agree to all the rules, terms and conditions, you acknowledge that no fee refunds will be issued upon submission to the festival.

L) You will not receive any compensation for for the use of your film by WSFF in accordance with the rules, terms and conditions.

M) All films will be assessed in compliance with guidelines from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

N) All filmmakers under the age of 18 must seek permission from a Parent, Guardian or Teacher before submitting to WSFF.

O) Films entered into the 'Watford Award' category may require additional verification before being accepted onto the shortlist. Qualifying entries must be made in Watford, Hertfordshire or be made elsewhere by a Watfordian filmmaker in a HOD Role (Writer, Director, Producer, DOP, Sound Recordist, Editor)

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Alif Sankey

    Thank you #WSFF2019! For selecting 'Woman of Life' to be part of the festival lineup. The entire team was very organised and very helpful. It was a wonderful diverse selection of films. I highly recommend this festival!

    September 2019
  • I really enjoyed taking part and attending the festival. The organisers were nice and helpful, it was great to have some filmmakers come over to do a Q&A and also the film selection was really interesting. Great experience!

    August 2019
  • Nathan Glendinning

    Thank you for inviting us down to WSFF. We had a great time, met a lot of likeminded creatives and the general atmosphere was really nice.

    Will be attending next year for sure!

    August 2019
  • Shannon Meilak

    This festival was super friendly and accommodating. Although I was unable to attend, the festival communicated frequently and precisely, was really helpful and friendly and even allowed me to do my Q&A via video as I was unable to attend. They were incredibly accommodating with every enquiry and request I had and supported my film and me on social media too. I am so thankful to have been a part of it!

    August 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks for your sharing your film with us Shannon, all the best for the future!

  • This was a very well organised festival. Email communication before the day was very fast and clear. On the day staff where welcoming and friendly. The quality of films shown was incredibly high. The brackets were well selected and the Q&As were interesting an well moderated.
    There was opportunity to talk to other filmmakers but the advertised networking drinks afterwards did not seem to happen as everyone disappeared very quickly.
    Overall it was a lovely day we were proud to be there. We look forward to attending next year!

    August 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Thanks Sarah, it was great to meet you and the rest of your film crew.
    Apologies again for the lack of networking post-awards, we are looking into why the bar staff closed early and aim to improve this for 2020.