We are now open for submissions to our 12th short film festival being held in 2025 and are looking forward to once again showcasing a huge range of short films.

The festival events take place in Leigh's only independent, fully air conditioned cinema, Leigh Film Factory which is based in the historic Leigh Spinners Mill, a fascinating and important part of the town's heritage.

As before, we will be hosting two events, on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th of September and there will be awards for the best animation, best comedy, best documentary, best drama, best horror, best international film, best northwest filmmaker & best young filmmaker.

Our festival events are run entirely by volunteers with all proceeds being directly invested into the following year’s events.

Please watch our social media for more news, as further details of the events are announced soon.

We have 8 entry categories which are;

Animation
Comedy
Documentary
Drama
Horror
International
North West Filmmaker
Young Filmmaker

On top of this, a live audience vote will be held on each night to decide a winner for each nights, Audience Choice Award.

THE RULES FOR FILM ENTRIES

All films must be 15 minutes or less in length, including credits at the end.
Entries to the Young Film-maker category must have been made by directors/teams aged between 18 and 25 years when filming.
Entries for the North West category must have been made in the North West of England.
Judges, sponsors, administrators, and independent contractors who work with or for the Leigh Film Society are not eligible to enter the festival, nor are their spouses or other immediate family members.
Deadline for submissions to the competition is midnight on 31st July 2025.
Once a film has been entered in the competition, under no circumstances will we accept a new version of the film. If you wish to submit a revised version of your film, you must enter it as a new submission and pay the appropriate entry fee.
There is a £10 entrance fee taken when submitting your film on the FilmFreeway website.
The entrance fee is non-refundable.
Films should ideally be submitted in the h.264 MP4 file format but we can accept most other formats. We would also prefer that all submissions are supplied at a minimum of 1080p resolution.
All selection & judging decisions are final.
Any conflicts of interest between film-makers & the selection panel should be declared to the festival organisers IMMEDIATELY.
Digital versions of marketing materials should be made available to be used for our marketing purposes no later than the 31st August 2025.

THE SELECTION PROCESS

By submitting a film to the WLFF, you indicate that you have read and accept the Rules and Terms of the Wigan & Leigh Film Festival.
I will provide the festival with any additional information required pursuant to these Rules and Terms.
I authorise the WLFF to exhibit my film, and if selected, I confirm that an exhibition copy will be made available in a required format for screening during the 2025 festival.
I certify that I hold all necessary rights for the submission of this film/video to the WLFF, that all rights and clearances have been made and that this film is not subject to any litigation nor is threatened by any litigation.
By Agreeing to these Rules and Terms, I transfer to the WLFF the right to use excerpts of the submitted film, its stills, and trailers, for the purposes of publicity and marketing of the film at our festival, and for other non-commercial uses related to the promotion of our festival.

Full Entry requirements, Rules and Terms & Conditions are available on our website. Please visit the Submissions page.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • It's great to see a regional festival provide a strong programme. In 2024 we had two clients screen:

    🎬 SUCK IT UP
    🎬 The Eyes of Marge

    November 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Many thanks for your kind words. We hope to see more films from your stable in the future !!

  • Caroline Menzies

    A brilliant festival and we were thrilled that our film, Turn Up The Bass, won the audience choice award. We even got a trophy sent to us in the post! Very impressed with communication and the festival line-up, the quality of films was high.

    October 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Many thanks for your kind words. We look forward to seeing more work from you in the future!!

  • Genevieve Sulway

    Highly recommend. Great communication, Professionally run. My Film " I am Kanaka" won best documentary 2024. Wigan & Leigh Short Film Festival is excellent. Finally a festival that doesn't charge you to submit your film, makes money selling tickets for your film, and then when you win, charge you for the trophy! I will definitely resubmit to this festival and attend next time. Thank you and well done Team!

    September 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Many thanks for your kind words. We look forward to seeing more work from you in the future!!

  • An excellent selection of films with some amazing programming. Plus we won the Audience Award for best short film. Thank you so much Wigan and Leigh! We will be submitting in the future!!

    September 2024
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    Response from festival:

    Many thanks for your kind words.

  • Nathan Miller

    We were so excited to win Best UK & International Film at Wigan and Leigh Film Festival with our short Dead Cat Film. They do such amazing work supporting emerging filmmakers and we couldn't recommend the festival more!

    November 2023