PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE DECIDING TO SUBMIT. THANKS!

Yorkshire Silent Film Festival is a month-long celebration of silent film with live music taking place all over the northern UK county of Yorkshire. In 2016 - our first festival - we presented thirty screenings in independent cinemas, village halls and theatres to an audience of just over 2000. We present screenings in around fifteen different venues across the region, including the leading independent cinemas. All our screenings are accompanied by live music and we work with some of the UK's best improvising film musicians.

YSFF17 will feature a small selection of contemporary silent shorts. We are looking for a diverse selection, which could be animation or live action, and should be suited to live musical accompaniment by one of the festival's musicians.

To be suited to the festival, your film needs to work purely visually. If it relies on sound effects or dialogue to create its meaning, it will not work well as a silent short. Some dialogue-less shorts work excellently as pure silents with live music - some do not. Please consider whether yours does before submitting!

We're particularly interested in shorts which might complement a season of Georges MeliƩs and Segundo de Chomon's early fantasy films, the most well-known of which is A Trip to the Moon. But we are interested in any subject matter or artistic approach. Please do bear in mind that all films need to be suited to live musical accompaniment by one of YSFF's resident musicians. We work ONLY with live music.

We can screen real film - 8mm, 16mm or 35mm, as well as the usual digital formats.