41 Films From 24 Countries to Screen at LJMU’s Free Short Film Festival in Liverpool
The sixth annual LJMU MA Short Film Festival is set to return this March, bringing an exciting programme of international student filmmaking to Liverpool.
Taking place from 20–27 March, the festival, hosted by Liverpool John Moores University, will feature 41 films from 24 different countries, with free tickets available for all live events both in person and online. As festival co-organiser Dr Lydia Papadimitriou explains, the programme “promises a very exciting selection of international student films screened in person and online.”
The week-long celebration of emerging filmmaking talent gives creatives from around the world the chance to showcase their work while competing for the coveted Paper Bird Award. Audiences can also get involved by voting online for the Paper Bird Audience Award.
The festival begins on 20 March with a launch party at Kazimier Garden. From 23–26 March, film screenings will take place across four categories — Fiction, Animation, Documentary and Experimental — at the Redmonds Building, home to many of LJMU’s TV studios and newsrooms.
The festival concludes on 27 March with the awards ceremony at LJMU School of Arts and Creative Industries (Scale), where the best films in each category will be recognised.
While the awards celebrate standout films, the festival itself is designed to spotlight emerging voices and give filmmakers — including many from overseas — a platform to share innovative work with new audiences.
Now, maybe there is a little bit of bias here, but I am excited to see some of the works that have been created by Liverpool’s very own student filmmakers, with two films for each category being personally selected by the students of the MA Film course. These films are:
Fiction
Chop Chop – A Scottish Pakistani father clashes with his religious father over whether to have his son circumcised.
Portrait – A photographer entrusted with capturing the final images of the recently deceased, struggles to balance his secretive profession against the pressures of his home life.
Animation
A Fistful of Redos – The bounty-hunting cowboy ‘Freddy Fasthands’ seeks to single handedly take down an entire tavern’s worth of outlaws. With the power to rewind time at will, nothing stands in his way, other than his own perfectionism.
Cows – Moo Moo simply isn’t finding joy in her picturesque life anymore when, by luck, a brand-new farm moves in across the road! With a rebellious heart, she escapes but finds that the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
Documentary
When the Clouds Are Moving – A poetic depiction of an air traffic controller’s life, balancing the demands of work against her love of nature.
Someone Else’s Life – Umi seeks to understand her parents when she was a toddler, through home footage lovingly and extensively recorded by her.
Experimental
For Those That Lived There – A meditation on a community in metamorphosis amidst the gentrified remnants of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green, tracing displaced Black legacies and emerging migrant narratives.
Bouffon – A twisting tale of love, regret and clowns, told across three chapters.
Festival coordinator Martin Jones highlights the effort behind the event: “Reaching its sixth edition is a testament to the hard work of the students who make the LJMU MA Short Film Festival possible.”
With a diverse international programme and free access to all live events, the festival offers a great opportunity to support emerging filmmakers from Liverpool and around the world.
And if you’re excited to see these short films, but can’t attend in person, you can watch online via LJMU Festival Website.
