After months of work behind the scenes, today marks the launch of the 2025 edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival. Until Friday 4th April, you can watch all 37 films featured in this year’s programme, completely free, on your desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Click below to access the individual strands.
Watch the 2025 Programme!
Vote for your favourite film!
The 37 films in this year’s programme will be competing for the coveted Paper Bird awards, the winner of which will be decided by our jury of academics, former winners, and LJMU Undergraduate students. While the fate of the individual films will be decided by our juries, the audience still plays an integral part in the festival, as it’s your responsibility to decide which film will receive the Audience Paper Bird award.
When you’ve finished watching a film, you’ll be able to cast your vote using the ‘thumbs-up’ icon just below the video player window. The film that receives the most votes will receive the Paper Bird Audience award, and will be screened along with the other winning films at our live awards ceremony on Friday 4th April. You can vote for as many films as you like, but only one time for each film, so get clicking now!
Join us at our live screenings!
If you’re in the Liverpool area over the course of the festival, why not join us for one of our live screenings, which will take place at LJMU’s Redmonds Building on Brownlow Hill. Beginning on Monday 31st March, we’ll have nightly screenings of the full strands, opening with Documentary and followed by Animation (Tues 1st April), Fiction (Wednesday 2nd April), and Experimental (Thursday 3rd April). Screenings are completely free to attend, but you’ll need to let us know you’re coming by booking a ticket here. As part of the screenings, we’ll also be holding live Q&As with some of the featured filmmakers from this year’s programme, so it’s a great opportunity to find out more about their films and what motivates them as creatives. Free tickets are also available for our closing night awards ceremony on Friday 4th April at Scale, Liverpool. With a bar, music, and lots of great discussion to be had, it promises to be a fantastic evening – you’ll also have the chance to meet the MA student team, and be the first to find out which films will receive this year’s Paper Bird awards!