Renowned as the capital’s ‘cornucopia of new and beloved shorts from around the world’ (CineVue), London Short Film Festival enters its seventeenth year as the UK’s premiere showcase for emerging and established, homegrown and international short form.
The first significant date on the UK’s film calendar, each January sees diverse audiences of 10,000+ at some of London’s most historic cinematic venues, from the Institute of Contemporary Arts, to BFI Southbank, to Dalston’s Grade II listed Rio.
The festival was founded in 2003 by Philip Ilson and Kate Taylor under the nominer ‘Halloween Short Film Festival’, a continuation of The Halloween Short Film Club Philip had been programming since 1994. In 2008, the festival became the London Short Film Festival and 2020 marks its seventeenth edition.
In 2019, London Short Film Festival lit up the big screens of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, BFI Southbank, Curzon Soho, Regent St Cinema, Rich Mix and Dalston’s historic Rio, adding the famously underground Horse Hospital to our roster for an overhauled industry week of panels and workshops.
As always, they’re proud to welcome both UK and international submissions. In 2019, LSFF screened 500+ films carefully curated from over 3200 submissions, and our industry esteemed In Competition programmes featured 50 exceptional UK and international short films awarded prizes by a British Council-sponsored international jury.
