Festival Data:

• Established: 2003
• Genre: General
• Attendance: 4000
• Accredited Industry Attendance: 111
• Total Number of Films Screened: 80
• Total Screenings: 80
• Total National and International Premieres: 27

• Competitive
• Retrospective
• Has Panels

Festival Website:

Festival Description:

Previously the UK’s only film festival dedicated to screening work from Northern Europe, Northern Lights Film Festival (NLFF) is now expanding its remit to take in the entire world. The new focus is on breakthrough talent, and the festival has employed programmers to scout the globe for the hottest new filmmakers out there, and to bring the most exciting and innovative debut features back to premiere in the North East.

As part of this, the festival welcomes short film submissions to be a part of the NLFF Selection: a prestigious program of short films (20 mins or under) which will screen publicly as part of the festival line up. Last year, the NLFF shorts program, New Directions, screened to a sell-out audience at Tyneside Cinema and welcomed six of the UK’s hottest young directors to the Festival – including Joe Tucker (For the Love of God), Sean Conway (Alex and Her Arse Truck) and Zam Salim (Laid Off). This year, the films screening as part of this program will be entered into competition, which will be judged by the audiences at the festival, and the winner will be awarded a cash prize of £1,000 at the close of the festival.

NLFF now accepts entries from all over the world, and showcases work in all genres and visual forms, including narrative, documentary, experimental and design-oriented work; entries can be live action, animated, or hybrid. Entries may be shot or created in any format: film, analog/digital video.

Film Submissions:

• Accepts direct submissions
• Submission formats: DVD