Independent film festivals in the UK that aspiring filmmakers can enter and how these festivals are thriving, despite financial challenges.
Independent film festivals offer a range of opportunities for filmmakers, actors and writers to engage in the arts, develop their craft and gain recognition in what can be a very tough industry to get a foothold in. The health of the festival scene is therefore vital to nurturing and showcasing emerging talent, helping them promote the diverse perspectives and boundary-pushing stories that are key to attracting fresh audiences and advancing the UK’s film industry as a whole.
The enthusiastic communities that surround local film festivals are often among the very first introductions budding filmmakers get to a range of like-minded individuals with whom they can collaborate and industry professionals who can help bring their creative dreams to fruition.
It’s good news then that, in the UK today, independent short films, documentaries, animations and longer films have hundreds – if not thousands – of opportunities to get shown on the big screen. Film submission site FilmFreeway has listed more than 250 new festivals in the UK in the past year alone.
Here are some of the festivals to keep an eye out for, plus the positive impact that the rise of indie film festivals has made on filmmakers and local communities across the UK.
Sunrise Film Festival
Starting out as Lowestoft Film Festival in 2021, the newly renamed ‘Sunrise’ is the UK’s most easterly film festival and is referred to by one of its founders as “genuinely grassroots.”
Apart from the main summer event, which last year attracted close to 2,000 attendees, partnering Sunrise Studios supports disadvantaged young people across rural communities in Suffolk and Norfolk year-round with cultural learning and training opportunities, funded by the festival’s entry fees and ticket sales.
It’s a perfect example of how local community organisations are overcoming the often London-centric film industry in the UK and offering a much-needed outlet for progressive and underrepresented stories in what have historically been overlooked communities.
As a British Independent Film Awards (BIFA)-qualifying festival for short films, entrants will now also have a chance – if their short film is selected for screening – to be submitted to BIFA’s prestigious film awards.
Bristol Independent Film Festival
Boasting 11 international film festivals and recognised by UNESCO as a ‘City of Film’ alongside Galway, Rome, Sydney and Cannes, Bristol is a natural home for one of the UK’s fastest-growing independent film festivals.
Bristol Independent Film Festival first opened its doors in 2017 and has gone from strength to strength ever since, accepting entries from over 160 countries and doling out cash prizes to winning submissions to help fund future projects.
Events such as this and the investments they make into the local film industry are crucial to connecting and honing the talents of the city’s next generation of creatives – an important job given the huge revenues that film and TV are responsible for bringing into Bristol (an estimated £288 million in 2022 alone).
Soho London Independent Film Festival
SohoLIFF is another relatively new addition to the indie film festival scene having officially launched in 2020, but the team behind it has been holding screenings and networking events in the heart of London’s West End for more than 16 years.
Stand-out features of this more glamorous indie film fest are its panels with industry experts, workshops, free masterclasses and a vast array of promotional opportunities that extend well beyond the close of the festival each year.
Huge numbers of filmmakers and attendees have left overwhelmingly positive reviews of their experiences. The festival’s commitment to having a positive impact is also evident in its website hub‘s huge range of resources available to indie filmmakers. The chance to gain insights from so many industry professionals on such a wide array of topics, from production and direction to funding and marketing, highlights another one of the key contributions that film festivals make to the British film industry – educating and inspiring upcoming filmmakers.
Glasgow Short Film Festival
The longest-running of our picks, the Glasgow Short Film Festival is Scotland’s largest competitive short film festival, which has been the centre of an inclusive, close-knit community of filmmakers and film lovers for 18 years.
The range of awards on offer here provides an exciting opportunity for everyone, but Scotland-based filmmakers, as well as those who are aged 18-25, get the chance to gain recognition in special categories.
Budget cuts across Scotland have threatened a wide range of even the most popular international film festivals, but by soldiering on regardless, Glasgow Short Film Festival seems set to stay and expand on the resources it offers to its community in the form of workshops, panel discussions, learning events and networking opportunities.
The Financial Challenges of Independent Films
Despite the undoubted flourishing of so many indie films and film festivals, the industry still faces a range of unique challenges in the UK. Not least among these is the not-so-unique rise in costs that has been seen across industries and across the world in the last few years.
A report released by Screen International in late 2023 detailed how British indie film producers are feeling increasingly limited by the widespread shrinking of budgets at a time when they are also seeing large increases in the costs involved in making films. Since the onset of COVID-19, production costs have increased by around 20 percent and cinema audience numbers have yet to fully recover from the huge hit they took through the pandemic.
A big driver of the rising costs for independent filmmakers seems to be that bigger, foreign productions are repeatedly choosing Britain to shoot their movies. This means native indie producers are increasingly competing with TV and film giants such as Barbie, Bridgerton, The Batman, and Jurassic World for talent, studio space, equipment, and production staff.
On the other hand, securing the budgets that fund these kinds of costs is becoming harder on multiple fronts, too. The British Film Institute’s Filmmaking Fund has recently been significantly reduced, and private investors are increasingly hesitant due to market uncertainty. In addition, the big streaming platforms have become much more conservative in their commissioning in the last few years due to increased competition and an industry-wide fall in subscriber numbers.
Affordable Tech to the Rescue
As you might expect of a community famous for their ingenuity though, indie filmmakers have refused to let these financial constraints stop their creativity and passion from getting out there. Nowhere is this clearer than in the rise of films shot entirely on smartphones, as well as the festivals and festival categories that have sprung up to support them.
Helping to showcase the huge potential of savvy low-budget filmmakers and their modern smartphone cameras are categories such as ‘Best Smartphone Film’ at the London Soho Film Festival and the 2021 launch of London’s first-ever International Smartphone Film Festival.
The quality of the submissions that can be seen here and elsewhere should leave aspiring indie directors, producers and actors with no doubt that filmmaking is becoming more accessible than ever to those who can be creative with whatever equipment and funds are available to them.
Towards a Bright Future
The steady and continuing rise of British indie film festivals should serve as an encouraging sign that financial challenges have not become a major deterrent to amateur filmmakers across the UK. The great successes seen by the likes of Sunrise, Bristol Independent Film Festival and SohoLIFF ripple throughout their local communities and have cemented them as well-functioning hubs where creative talent can come to flourish.
The opportunities that arise from such festivals are invaluable and stretch far and wide beyond the events themselves. By fostering creativity and diversity—especially in geographical areas that may have been previously neglected—indie film festivals make a massive contribution to their local economies and Britain’s wider cultural landscape that should not be taken for granted.
Take a look at our website for more festival advice, including how to make a short film and plenty of tips for the Edinburgh Fringe.
