A short film festival hosted by postgraduate film students at Liverpool John Moores University will return after last year’s success.
From April 1-8, 40 student films received from 22 countries, including Spain, China, and Brazil, will premiere digitally to be enjoyed by a wide audience.
The films at the festival will be separated into three genres – Fiction, Documentary, and Animation – and will compete for the ‘Paper Bird’ Award.
The films will then be judged by a jury made up of industry specialists, last year’s winners and current film students.
This festival was created by students who study the module ‘Exploring Film Festivals, Distribution and Exhibition.’
MA Film Student Elysia Smith has claimed this to be ‘one of the most exciting modules I’ve taken’.
“Not only am I learning something entirely unique, I am also able to use my own learning to provide a platform for other creative students and help student filmmakers broadcast their work.”
The Short Film Festival is organised by MA Film students who have taken responsibility to ensure that the film festival happens, such as designing the posters, speaking with the filmmakers and promoting the festival through social media.
Submissions for the festival opened back in December and 1,495 films have been received so far, which has surpassed their previous year.
Each student will then watch roughly 80 films each to narrow it down to the final 40 films across the three different genres.
Freya Yeldman, an MA Film Student, said she is ‘loving’ the opportunity to view and select the work.
“In the long term, I’m really excited to see what becomes of these filmmakers as their work has rekindled my hopes for a bright future for the film industry.”
The full programme list will be released three weeks before the festival on their website.
