Win $350 worth of cash prizes at the Leeds Young Film Festival this year! The final deadline for submissions is Thursday 7th October 2021.

Leeds Young Film Festival takes place every Easter and welcomes young people and their families to the largest film event of its kind in the north of England.

Now in its 22nd year, the festival features a programme of the best new and unseen cinema for young people from around the world, made both for and by young people, as well as classic screenings, moving-image related workshops and masterclasses. It takes place in four of the city’s most prominent venues and attracts over 14,000 young film fans and their families.

“Film needs children and young people to keep falling in love with it, and the LYFF is the perfect place for them – always smart and adventurous, never less than fun.” (Danny Leigh, The Guardian)

"The Young Film Festival at Leeds is celluloid heaven for mini-movie buffs." (Mail on Sunday)

Awards & Prizes

Leeds Young Film Festival is keen on supporting independent, emerging or established, national and international filmmakers and hosts competitions for short films made FOR young people.

The festival aims to show young people a world of film beyond Hollywood cinema. We offer the Audience Award for both animation and live action short films.

Short Films for Children and Young People must be suitable for all ages. They may be live action or animation, fiction or documentaries but they must not be longer than 15 minutes. Please submit them either to the Animated Short Films category or the Live Action Short Film Category. The short film competition will be awarded by a jury of young people, and will win $100USD.

Rules & Terms

Eligibility:
* All Films must be submitted to the Film Festival by Thursday 7th October 2021.
* Non-English language films must have English subtitles.
* If you have more than two films to submit, you may be entitled to fee discounts for multiple entries - please email leedsyoungfilm@gmail.com for more details.
* Only films completed after 1st January 2019 will be considered for the competitive sections.
* Any genre will be considered but films must be suitable for children, young people and families and filmmakers must specify BBFC classification or suitable audience age range at submission. See http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ for guidelines.
* Films must not have appeared on British television, or have a UK distribution (including VoD)

By submitting your film, you agree that:
* The Film Festival can use the images from the film in Festival publications, press and media releases about the Festival and on the Festival website.
*The Film Festival does not return physical film copies that were sent for consideration.
* The Film Festival can keep the disc / file for its archive film libraries for viewing by other film festivals and organisations and for educational purposes.
* Permission has been granted and there are no outstanding copyright or licensing issues with any of the material or soundtrack in your film.

Premiere Policy:
* For feature-length films, though we do not insist on a premiere, we may not consider films that have some circulation in the UK already - for example, if they have toured other UK festivals. Please contact the Film Festival office if you would like clarification on your own film if it has already screened or is going to be screened in the UK.
* We do not require a premiere status for short films.
8 Reviews
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  • Boris Bakal

    Most of the films at the festival were "non-available" in Croatia.
    This is an issue with a lot of online festivals nowadays.
    So it was difficult to follow. We were happy to be part of this festival and we hope to come "in flesh" some other time.

    April 2021
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  • Simon Françoise

    A very modern inventive festival which has adapted to the pandemia using impressive numeric tools to communicate and show films selected by the festival. What a shame we couldn't see more of you and meet you in flesh. Thank you for showing our film Dolium Péplum to your audience. Hope to be back soon in your festival.

    April 2021
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  • Katie Green

    It was a privilege for our film "Give it Back!" to be selected for this festival. Staff were super professional and communicative. We are looking forward to submitting next year!

    April 2021
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  • Paul Baker

    It was such a wonderful experience having our animated short film ‘Rude Sleeping Beauty’ as an official selection of Leeds Young Film Festival. And we are more than pleased that we have been deemed a runner up as a top finalist! It was such a nice surprise that the Young Jury consisted of children and we enjoyed their positive feedback on our film. We wish we could have been at the festival in-person as all the films selected were fun submissions. In addition, the festival possesses a professional website and Eleanor Hodson, the Leeds Film Festival Assistant was friendly and great to work with as she responded promptly to all our emails and requests throughout and following the event.

    April 2020
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  • alexander williams

    Here at Escape Studios in London we were delighted to have our short film Jerich0 selected for the Leeds Young Film Festival. Many thanks!

    April 2020
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