BFI London Film Festival Announce Short Film Award

The BFI London Film Festival will introduce a a new Short Film Competition in 2015 as part of its overall commitment to supporting and developing filmmakers. In line with the Festival’s Official, Documentary and First Feature Competitions, 12 films will compete for the BFI London Film Festival Short Film Award.

The Festival’s programme team, led by Festival Director Clare Stewart, will shortlist 12 short films from across the festival programme which demonstrate a distinctive cinematic style and a confident, original handling of chosen theme and content. The winning film will be selected by a jury of senior international film professionals and the Short Film Award will be presented at the BFI London Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday the 17th of October in London.

Recognising the importance of the limited exhibition opportunity for short filmmakers, the LFF has recently revised its eligibility guidelines for short film. Eligibility for the festival progamme and shortlisting for the Short Film Award will be in line with new general submission guidelines: short films must have been completed within the previous 18 months, and can have previously screened anywhere in the world or UK, broadcast or been made available online, ensuring a curated selection of excellent work.

The BFI London Film Festival has a long history of recognising and supporting new film talent through its short film programming and have previously screened early short works from filmmakers such as Andrea Arnold, Peter Strickland, Ana Lily Amirpour, Destiny Ekaragha and Sean Durkin who have also gone on to screen feature film work in the Festival.

BFI London Film Festival Director Clare Stewart said

“The BFI London Film Festival has long valued the short film, a form in which filmmaking is often at it's most original, daring and playful. We build on this commitment by creating a new platform to celebrate this essential facet of cinema, in line with our other competitive strands for fiction, documentary and debut features. We look forward to profiling more great filmmaking talent and presenting the boldest, brightest and most striking international short films at LFF in 2015.”

Films shortlisted to compete for the Award will screen within the curated short film programmes across the festival’s main programme strands, and then have a repeat screening in additional Short Film Award Collections on the final weekend of the Festival.

The deadline for the submission of short films is 12 June 2015, they can be submitted through the BFI London Film Festival website.

The 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express runs from Wednesday 7 October-Sunday 18 October 2015.