What a Week So Far!

There’s still time to grab your tickets to tonight’s Fiction screening and Q&A and also our live Awards Ceremony tomorrow night at Scale! Tickets are absolutely free and can be booked on our website or via Ticketsource.

What a week of screenings an Q&A’s it’s been, were we’ve heard from a number of the filmmaker’s whose films are featured in this year’s edition of the festival. There’s still time moo book your tickets for tonight’s Fiction screening and Q&A, where we’ll be bringing you 7 tales of suspense, action, and mythical beasts, all followed by a discussion with some of the filmmaker’s involved in the programme. It’s sure to be a great night, so why not join us at the Redmonds Building from 6PM?

Speaking of great nights, tomorrow is the live Closing Night Awards Ceremony, hosted at Scale Liverpool, where we’ll be revealing the winners of this year’s coveted Paper Bird Awards. Also being revealed is the winner of this year’s Paper Bird Audience Award, so why not join us for an evening of celebrating another successful edition? You can grab your tickets to both events from the link above and we look forward to seeing you there!

It’s Finally Here – the 2026 LJMU MA Short Film Festival is Live Now!

After weeks of anticipation, it gives me great pleasure to finally announce that the 2026 edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival is now live. For the next 7 days, you can watch 41 of the best in student Fiction, Documentary, Animation, and Experimental Filmmaking. Out of the 2281 submissions we received this year, our MA Film class of 25/26 have chosen an incredible selection of films that are sure to move, excite, and stimulate audiences.

Watch the 2026 Edition Here!

Join Us and Watch the Programme Live!

Do you like short films? Are you in the Liverpool area over the course of the next week? If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions, then why not join us in person for one of our live screenings at LJMUs Redmonds Building? For the whole of next week, we’ll be screening our strands in full and following this with a live filmmaker Q&A, where you can put your questions to some of this year’s featured filmmakers. This is a great opportunity to meet the team behind the festival and really be a part of this year’s festivities.

Our live screenings begin this coming Monday (23rd March), where we’ll be screening our Documentary strand in full, and we’ll follow this with Animation on Tuesday (24th), Experimental on Wednesday (25th), and Fiction on Thursday (26th). All screenings take place at LJMUs Redmonds building, and you can grab your free tickets here. Doors open at 6 PM, so make sure you act now and be part of this year’s edition.

As well as being the final day of the festival, Friday 27th March marks the date of our closing awards ceremony, and we’re returning once again to Scale, in the heart of Liverpool’s Fabric District. Grab your free tickets now, and come celebrate the climax of this year’s edition, where we’ll be revealing the winners of this year’s Paper Bird Awards. With a bar, music, and lots of great discussion to be had, it promises to be a fantastic evening. We’ll also be revealing which film has received the most audience votes and will take home our Audience Paper Bird Award. Speaking of which…

Vote for This Year’s Paper Bird Audience Award!

As well as the main competition awards, the 41 films featured in this year’s festival will also be vying for the public’s vote for the all-important Audience Paper Bird Award, decided solely by visitors to our website and live events. This is a great opportunity to show this year’s filmmakers your appreciation for their hard work and talent, so when you’ve watched a film, make sure you hit the ‘thumbs up’ button directly below the video player. Remember, you can vote for as many films as you like, but only once per film.

One Week Left Until the Launch of the 2026 LJMU MA Short Film Festival

Watch the full programme online from Friday 20th – Friday 27th March

Get your free event tickets here and celebrate the 2026 edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival in style!

In less than a week’s time we’ll be launching the 6th edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival, where you’ll be able to watch 41 of the best in student Documentary, Animation, Experimental, and Fiction filmmaking. This year’s programme is a truly international selection, encompassing countries such as Estonia, Iran, Turkey, Finland, and the Philippines. Audiences will be wowed by tales of robotic inventors, thrilled by thieves, and moved by heart wrenching drama. As always, our programme is completely free to watch for the duration of the festival as are our screenings and events.

Grab Your Free Live Event Screening Tickets

Speaking of which, next Friday (20th) also marks the date of our opening party, which will take place in Liverpool at The Kazimier Kabin, where you’ll be able to mingle with the festival team and find out more about this year’s edition. With musical accompaniment from resident DJ and LJMU Lecturer, Dr. Keith Marley, it’s sure to be an exciting event. You can grab your free tickets here.

The following Monday also marks the start of our week of free screening, with the Documentary strand being screened in full at LJMUs Redmonds Building from 6PM. As well as watching this year’s programme on the big screen, you’ll also be able to quiz some of this year’s filmmakers during an exclusive Q&A session which will follow the screening. This is one not to miss out on, so grab you free tickets here.

We’ll be following our Documentary screening with the Animation strand in full on Tuesday, and Wednesday sees Experimental take centre stage. Thursday is the turn of the Fiction strand, and as always, all of our screenings will be followed by a live Q&A with some of the featured filmmakers. Grab your free tickets for the rest of the week’s screenings, here.

Vote for the Audience Paper Bird Award

Our juries are currently deliberating over which films deserve the coveted Paper Bird Awards but audiences also have the chance to pick their favourite film, which will also receive an award. From Friday 20th March, when you’ve watched a film, you can click the ‘thumbs up’ icon below the player. The film that receives the most ‘thumbs up’ clicks will win this year’s Audience Paper Bird Award, so it’s your chance to help shape the destiny of one of our featured filmmakers. Voting last year was incredibly close, and we expect this year to be even closer! You can vote for as many films as you like, but only once per film, so spread the word about your favourite selection from this year’s programme.

Socials & News

For all the news and info in the run up to this year’s launch, make sure you keep an eye on our social media channels. Give us a follow here and catch this year’s trailers, team news, and meet the filmmakers.

Revealed: Our 6th Edition Poster!

It’s been a long time coming, but today we can officially reveal the poster design for the 2026 LJMU MA Short Film Festival. This year we’re taking to the skies once more with our signature avian theme representing the colours of the festival’s individual strands. We’re sure you’ll agree that this year’s poster is a striking and impactful play on the iconic elements of the festival brand.

As in previous editions of the festival, we tasked this year’s MA Film Studies students to create designs utilising the elements associated with the festival, and our students did not disappoint, submitting a wealth of creative ideas. The submissions were then assessed by the festival management team, resulting in the work of student’s Aimee Challinor and Will Knowles being selected for development – check out some of their initial designs on the right.

The final step in the design process saw us bring back the designer of last year’s poster, LJMU MA Film Studies graduate, Leandro Manfrinato De Lima. Working alongside Amy and Will, Leo incorporated and developed their original work into the semi-minimalist design which also takes inspiration from Pantone cards. You’ll be able to see the new poster across our website from today, and keep an eye out for the website banner version, here, and across our socials.

While we’re on the subject of social media, if you haven’t already, head over to our Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and more, and make sure you’re following us for all of the news and updates as we head towards the opening of this year’s edition on the 20th March. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be revealing which films have made the final programme and introducing this year’s MA students so don’t miss out on all of the exciting developments. The 2026 LJMU MA Short Film Festival – we can’t wait to show the world what you’ve been working on!

2025 Award Winners & Special Mentions

With the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival drawing to a close last Friday, it’s time to reflect on the Award Winners and Special Mentions from this year’s edition. This year, our jury was made up of a combination of academics, industry experts, and final year LJMU students, who were tasked with selecting the winner of the Paper Bird awards from a very competitive field.

This Year’s Winners and Special Mentions

Describing it as a deeply personal insight into the dark side of competitive sports, our Documentary jury chose Cecilia Palmeri’s Swim Higher, and the recipient of this year’s Paper Bird for Documentary. Their Special Mention went to Max Vázquez Montufar’s Roots, a moving and hopeful look at the lasting bonds between mother and child.

Our Animation jury chose Lewis Macaulay’s Why Won’t Anyone Eat Me? as the recipient of this year’s Paper Bird Award for Animation, describing it as a happy indulgence in the weird, gooey habits we usually keep to ourselves. The Special Mention went to Sonu Thomas’ The Man Who Loved Flowers, a poetic and deeply moving look at challenging traditional masculinity.

Praising the chemistry of its two leads and its important message, our Fiction jury chose Ewa Japola’s Count My Lov3 as the recipient of this year’s Paper Bird award for Fiction. They chose two films to share a Special Mention: Nika Ardito’s Growing Up is Killing Your Mother and Mikel Garrido’s We Have Homeland, both of which were praised for their quality and tense atmosphere.

For its powerful and haunting evocation of experimental form, our jury selected Raphael Heinisch’s A Train Arrives as the winner of this year’s Paper Bird Experimental award. The Special Mention went to Minna Abalian’s Oudenk, which the jury described as an emotive film that intertwined documentary aesthetics with multi-media style to perfectly reflect the significance of family.

Our final award, the Audience Paper Bird, was hotly contested throughout the duration of the festival, with just 6 votes separating the winner and second place. This year’s Audience Paper Bird award went to Max Vázquez Montufar for his film, Roots, and we were lucky enough to have Max and sound designer Daniel Alejandro present to receive the award at our live Awards Ceremony.

You can watch the replay of the ceremony below and catch all of the live Q&As from this year’s festival at our YouTube channel.

Watch the Replay of our Awards Ceremony

That officially wraps up another year of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival, and what a year it has been! Out of the 2691 films we received, we managed to select 37 which we feel represent the cream of emergent student filmmaking talent. We’ll be back for our 6th edition next year with more incredible student films, but for the time being, on behalf of all of the staff and students at this year’s festival, we’d like to thank all of the filmmakers who submitted and the audiences who watched – without you, there would be no festival.

Closing Awards Ceremony This Evening – Get Your Free Tickets Now!

All good things must come to an end, and the LJMU MA Short Film Festival is no exception, but fear not – there’s still time for our Awards Ceremony! Tomorrow marks the closing day of the festival, and there’s no better time to celebrate the efforts of all of the student filmmakers we’ve featured in this year’s programme. Our student hosts will guide you through the highlights of this year’s festival, and we’ll also be joined by some of the directors vying for this year’s Paper Bird Awards. Entry to the event is absolutely free, and we’ll have a bar till late and a selection of movie turns curated by MA student, Oscar Bradshaw. Get your free tickets here!

Come and meet the MA team behind this year’s festival and celebrate with us while we reveal the winners of this year’s Paper Bird Awards for Fiction, Animation, Experimental, and Documentary. We’ll also be revealing which film will take home this year’s Paper Bird Audience Award, and it’s all still to play for – you have until 2 PM today to cast your vote and can do so by clicking the ‘thumbs-up’ icon on the viewing page, so get voting now!

Check out the replay of yesterday’s Experimental Screening and Q&A on YouTube

Last night we were fortunate enough to hear from some of the directors featured in this year’s Experimental strand. Our audience was treated to the full programme of 10 boundary-pushing films and you can check out the replay of the event over on our YouTube channel.

Experimental Screening and Q&A Tonight!

Last night, we showcased an incredible selection of Fiction films, and tonight we have our final live screening: Experimental! We have 10 incredible examples of cinema which will challenge, intrigue, and push the boundaries of filmmaking. If you missed our screening last night, you can check out the rerun on our YouTube channel.

Grab Your Free Tickets for our Awards Ceremony

There’s just a couple of days left of this year’s LJMU MA Short Film Festival and what better way to celebrate this year’s edition than joining us at our annual Awards Ceremony and closing party. Here, you’ll be able to meet the MA student crew responsible for this year’s festival, but more importantly, you’ll also be one of the first people to know who has won this year’s Paper Bird Awards! Don’t forget, you can still vote for the Audience Paper Bird by clicking the ‘thumbs-up’ on your favourite film and we’ll also be revealing the winner of this award on Friday evening. Get your free tickets now and come and celebrate with us in style!

Fiction Screening and Q&A Tonight!

We’re past the midpoint of this year’s LJMU MA Short Film Festival, and tonight, it’s time for our Fiction filmmakers to shine! Our free Fiction Screening will showcase 6 of the most entertaining, challenging, and thought-provoking examples of emergent student filmmaking talent, so it’s an event not to be missed. As always, we’ll be following this with a live Q&A with some of the directors featured in this year’s Fiction programme, so grab your free ticket now and join us from 6 PM BST at LJMUs Redmonds Building.

Check out the Animation Q&A on YouTube

Last night was a packed house for our Animation screening, and audiences were treated to thrills, laughs, and tears, as we screened our 2025 Animation programme in full. For our Q&A, we were joined by the directors of The Man Who Loved Flowers, Why Won’t Anyone Eat Me, Puzzle Pieces, Billy, and Les Chateau des Chats. Our attending audience got to find out about the inspiration behind these films, what motivates their directors, and much more. If you weren’t able to make it last night, fear not! The Q&A is available to watch in full over at our YouTube channel.

Get Your Free Tickets for our Experimental Screening & Awards Ceremony!

With just a couple of days left in this year’s LJMU MA Short Film Festival, now is a great time to make sure you don’t miss out on this year’s festivities by grabbing your free ticket for our Experimental Screening and Awards Ceremony. Tomorrow evening (6 PM BST Thursday 3rd April), we’ll be showcasing this year’s Experimental Strand in full and following this, you’ll have the chance to pose questions to some of the directors in our live Q&A. On Friday, we’ll be revealing the winners of this year’s Paper Bird Awards and celebrating the close of this year’s festival from 7 PM BST at SCale Liverpool – if you’re in the Liverpool area, why not come and meet the team and celebrate another fantastic year of student filmmaking? Tickets for both events are available now and are absolutely free of charge.

Tonight’s Animation Screening & Q&A

Last night was a celebration of some incredible documentary filmmaking, with our audience being treated to the full Documentary strand from this year’s programme. We were also fortunate enough to be joined by the directors of Roots, Swim Higher, Dear Valerie, To Kill or Be Killed, and 64 Reasons Why Everything Went Wrong, who gave us fascinating insights into what drives them as creatives. You can catch the full replay of our livestream on YouTube now.

Tonight we have the second of our live screenings and Q&As, and from 6 PM BST, we’ll be screening the full Animation strand. That’s 12 of the best in new student animation, so make sure you book your ticket here. Prepared to be moved, enchanted, and challenged by these breathtaking films.

With a full week of screenings coming up, you can catch the full programme live, with tickets also available for our Fiction and Experimental strands. Why not be one of the first to find out which films will be taking home the coveted Paper Bird Awards, and also find out which film has received the most votes for our Audience award. Our closing Awards Ceremony takes place this Friday from 7PM at Scale, Liverpool and you can get your completely free tickets, here.

For more information and behind the scenes content, check out our socials and the fifth episode of the LJMUMASFF Podcast, which is available on Spotify and YouTube now!

Tonight’s Documentary Screening and Q&A

With the festival now well underway, tonight marks the first of our live screening and filmmaker Q&As, and we’re beginning with a full screening of our Documentary programme.

From 6PM at LJMUs Redmonds Building, you’ll be able to catch all 9 incredible Documentary films in full, followed by a Q&A session with some of the director’s featured in this year’s programme. You’ll also have the chance to meet the MA student team behind this year’s festival, who are preparing for the event as we speak. It’s sure to be an fantastic event and you can book your tickets, absolutely free, HERE.

With a full week of screenings coming up, you can catch the full programme live, with tickets also available for our Animation, Fiction, and Experimental strands. Why not be one of the first to find out which films will be taking home the coveted Paper Bird Awards, and also find out which film has received the most votes for our Audience award. Our closing Awards Ceremony takes place this Friday from 7PM at Scale, Liverpool and you can get your completely free tickets, here.

For more information and behind the scenes content, check out our socials and the fifth episode of the LJMUMASFF Podcast, which is available on Spotify and YouTube now!

It’s Here! The 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival is Live!

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!

One week to go until the launch of the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival!

In just 7 short days, the 2025 edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival will officially be underway. From the 28th of March to the 4th of April, we’ll be bringing you 37 student films that will challenge, inspire, and delight in equal measure. This year’s selection of films is all about diversity, with our usual strands of Fiction, Animation, Documentary, and Experimental encompassing 21 countries including Kazakhstan, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, and Lebanon. The full programme for this year’s festival, along with the trailers for each strand can be accessed here. All of this year’s featured films will be available to watch, completely free of charge, from 12:01 AM GMT on Friday 28th March.

After the incredible success of previous events, this year’s festival week will again feature screenings of each individual strand. As part of the screenings, these events will also feature live Q&As with some of this year’s filmmakers, so it’s a great opportunity to find out more about your favourite film from this year’s programme. On Monday 31st March, we’ll be screening the Documentary strand in full, followed by daily screenings of the Animation, Fiction, and Experimental strands on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. After each screening, you’ll have the chance to quiz some of the featured filmmakers about their films and what inspires and drives them as creatives. You’ll need a ticket to attend our screenings, but the good news is that they are completely free of charge and available now – click here to get your screening ticket.

Free tickets are also available for our annual celebratory awards ceremony, where we’ll be announcing the winners of this year’s paper bird awards in front of a live audience, as well as screening all of this year’s winning films in full. We’ll also bring the tunes with our carefully choreographed selection of movie theme favourites, and you’ll also have the chance to meet this year’s festival staff. Come celebrate the hard work of our featured filmmakers and MA students by securing your completely free ticket, here.

Keep an eye on our socials for more updates as we approach the start of this year’s edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival!

Episode 2 of our Fifth Edition Official Podcast Available Now on Spotify & YouTube!

Catch up with all the news from this year’s LJMU MA Short Film Festival by listening to the second episode of the Official 2025 Edition Festival Podcast. Hosts Devan and Max are joined by fellow MA students Leo and Bridget, as they discuss the highs and lows of this year’s Oscars, creating the 2025 festival poster, and much more. Episode 1 is also available to listen to on Spotify and YouTube and you can follow us to keep up to date as new episodes are released.

It’s Here! The Official 2025 Festival Trailer

If you’ve been following our social media lately, you’ll have seen that the campaign for our 5th edition is well and truly underway. The exciting news for today is that we have released the Official 2025 Festival Trailer!

Each year, we task the MA students with crafting 10 trailers in total; 2 for each of our individual strands (Fiction, Documentary, Animation, Experimental), along with 2 Overall Festival Trailers. If you’re following us on Instagram, you’ll have no doubt seen the incredible editing work of MA Student Devan Jones, MA student and creator of our Verttical Festival trailer, which along with Instagram, will be featured on our TikTok channel.

Along with his trailer editing skills, Devan is also responsible for this year’s social media campaign planning, so you’ll be seeing much more of his work on our socials over the next few weeks.

Also premiering today is the Horizontal Festival Trailer (below), which was created by MA student Leo Manfrinato De Lima. Leo’s outstanding editing talents will feature across Facebook and our website. Leo has also applied his considerable creative skills to much of the branding and content for this year’s edition and you’ll also be able to catch his trailer at this year’s live events – speaking of live events, we’ll soon be sharing news of how you can watch this year’s films in-person as well as have your questions answered by some of this year’s featured directors.

Meet the 2025 MA Students

This year’s MA students have been hard at work behind the scenes since last October, but now it’s time to put them in the spotlight! Over the course of programming and running the festival, our MA students undertake a variety of roles, including public relations, hosting Q&As, and contributing to our very own podcast, episode 5 of which is now on Spotify. You can find out what roles our MA students have been involved with on our website and if you’d like to know more about what it’s like to be involved with running the festival, they’ll be present at this year’s live screenings and award s ceremony.

We’ve got lots more to come over the next few weeks, including more trailers, profiles of some of this year’s featured filmmakers, and the reveal of the full line-up for the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival – stick around, as it’s sure to be a memorable occasion!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1… We’re Coming Back!

Things have been quiet since we closed our call for entries back in November of 2024, but today marks the start of our social media campaign for the 5th edition of the LJMU MA Short Film Festival!

If you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or any other social media platforms, you’ll no doubt have seen this video teaser announcing the return of the festival for 2025. As always, we’re bringing not only the best in emergent student filmmaking talent, but a new set of MA Students whose responsibility it is to oversee the running of the festival.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll tell you more about this year’s MA students and also our 2025 jury, before bringing you the long awaited programme of films which will be competing for the coveted Paper Bird Awards.

There’s lots planned for this year, including our awards ceremony, screenings, and live filmmaker Q&As, and we might even have a special guest or two joining us for the festivities. We’ll also be bringing you a little sneak-peek at some of this year’s entries when our teaser trailer releases over the next couple of days. For our fifth birthday, it’s going to be a real celebration of the best in emergent student filmmaking talent!

Revealed – Our 5th Edition Poster!

We gave you a sneak peek earlier this week, but now it’s time for the big reveal – it gives me great pleasure to reveal the official poster for the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival! You can read more about the design process for the 5th edition poster below.

This year’s poster was designed and created by MA students Leo Manfrinato De Lima, Bridget Harvey, and Max Kenney, working under the guidance of graphic designer, artist, and LJMU MA Graduate, Alejandra Cardona-Mayorga. As with previous years, the post design brief was driven by a desire to take our existing core elements into a new direction. In previous iterations, we’ve explored the role of physical and visual media, incorporating elements of collage and photography for a distinct effect. This year however, we’ve taken a more abstract and striking approach, incorporating our colour scheme along with the bird imagery which is synonymous with the LJMU MA Short Film Festival.

If you check out our social media over the coming days, you’ll be seeing this new visual identity replace our previous branding. If you look closely, you might also see some other versions pop up, so make sure you head over and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Bluesky, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled for This Year’s Poster

Submissions may have closed for the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival, but that doesn’t mean that things are slowing down. We’ve got lots to come over the course of the next few months, when we’ll be introducing you to our MA students, our juries, and of course, the all important programme of films. This year we’ve received an astonishing number of entries from across the globe, from student filmmakers who’ll be competing for the coveted Paper Bird Awards, but more about this and much more will be revealed over the coming months…

Speaking of reveals, with the festive period fast approaching, we thought we’d treat you to a sneak peak of this year’s official LJMU MA Short Film Festival poster. As with previous iterations, the poster was designed and created by several of our current MA students, working under the guidance of multi-talented designer and LJMU MA Graduate, Alejandra Cardona-Mayorga. We’ll be revealing the poster in full this Friday, so make sure you’re keeping an eye out on our socials and follow for more information and updates.

It’s just a few months until our 5th edition gets underway, and we’re excited to bring you the latest and best in emergent student filmmaking talent from across the globe. The LJMU MA Short Film Festival. 2025 – we can’t wait to show the world what you’ve been working on.

Last Chance for 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival Entries!

We’ve had an incredible response to our call for entries but everything must come to an end. If you’ve yet to submit, this is the last chance for 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival entries. Our MA students are currently hard at work viewing this year’s submissions so if you want the opportunity to be featured in our fifth edition, you’ll need to act quickly!

We’re accepting submissions from student filmmakers in the categories of Fiction, Animation, Documentary, and Experimental – all films must have been made after January 2022 and in the context of a higher education institution, and be no more than 20 minutes in length. As always, films will be competing for our coveted Paper Bird Awards which encapsulate the spirit and identity of the festival.

So, if you’re a student filmmaker whose work meets the above criteria, don’t miss out on the chance to be part of our 2025 festival programme – we can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!

Still Time to Submit Your Films for our 5th Edition

It’s been just over 4 weeks since we opened submissions for our 5th edition and the response so far has been incredible. Here at the festival, we pride ourselves in being a truly international event, and so far, we’ve received entries from a hugely diverse range of countries including Macao, Guatemala, Jamaica, Peru, and Uganda. This is just a taste of the countries that are represented in our submissions, and the good news is, there’s still time to submit!

We’ll be accepting submissions until November 11th so if you’re a student filmmaker and would like the chance to be featured in our 5th edition, head over to Film Freeway and submit your film now! If you’ve already submitted, our team of student programmers are currently hard at work viewing all of our current submissions. For up to date information about the festival, head over to our socials and give us a follow or check out the festive website. This year’s line up promises to be our most competitive yet, as we continue to showcase the best in emergent student filmmaking talent – we can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!

Submissions for the 5th Edition are Now Open!!!

We’re delighted to announce that as of this week we are accepting submissions for the 2025 LJMU MA Short Film Festival. If you’re a current or former student of a higher education institution you can submit your work in the category of Fiction, Animation, Documentary, or Experimental – all films must be less than 20 minutes in duration and need to have been completed after January 1st 2022, and there is a maximum of three entries per filmmaker. If you want to follow in the footsteps of our previous Paper Bird winners, why not submit your film for consideration today!

Last year’s edition proved to be incredibly competitive with over 2,500 films submitted to the festival from across the globe, including entries from Macao, Botswana, Nepal, and Haiti. Our focus at the festival is all about breaking down barriers and championing global student filmmaking voices, so if your film meets the submission criteria, why not take the chance to let your voice be heard. Submissions are open until November 11th 2024 and can be made by clicking the image below – we can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!