Editors Pick: Student Film Festivals

More and more opportunities are opening up for student filmmakers giving you a huge variety of festivals to screen your fresh new film, meet all variety of people involved in film. or just head along to see the great work students are making in great environments not available at larger film festivals.

While not running in 2014, Cinematique! will be back for 2015 to continue to provide a space for student filmmakers to showcase their latest (or first) films. Run by former Warwick students, Cinematique! aims to help create a network of student filmmakers to share skills and resources across the UK and last long beyond the confines of the festival itself. Cinematique! doesn’t offer awards but simply the chance for everyone and anyone (as long as they’re a student) to get involved in filmmaking, whatever their talents. In 2013 the festival included talks and music alongside the screenings at a bar in London, giving it the small-time feel to encourage engaging, casual conversation about film without sacrificing on quality and a professional look. Now coming up to its third festival Cinematique! is putting itself on the student festival circuit as one to look out for and get involved with in whatever way you want. Run as a not-for profit it also has free entry but as yet the date for the 2015 festival is yet to be announced.

Screentest film festival is an annual event that features five days of talks, workshops, screenings from BFI and BAFTA short films and culminates in the National Student Film Awards. This award is only open to submissions by students, making it the perfect place for you to start your filmmaking debut. The National Student Film Awards gives out a number of awards in various genres (including experimental) and for aspects like best script and best musical score, making it a fantastic place to get recognised. Last year’s winner was the heart-warming documentary A Boy and His Dog: check it out online. Also, submissions are free, so you’ve got nothing to lose. So submit your experimental time-lapse film or your 20-minute political drama or your quintet of four-minute comedy flics (see last year’s Committee’s Choice award winner The Goat). Submissions open in December and the Screentest festival is held in London in March. Head along and get involved regardless of whether you’re a filmmaker or wanting to review something.

Watersprite is the name of the Cambridge International Student Film Festival, founded in 2010 and attempting to rewrite the rules of student film festivals. Even though the awards and the festival itself is held in Cambridge, it attempts to craft a network of international filmmakers and boost emerging filmmakers. It has grown to include hundreds of submissions from 48 countries, and offers awards in 11 different categories. Submissions are now open and the deadline is the 24th of November, so do get submitting! The rules for the films can be found at www.watersprite.org.uk/for-filmmakers/ submission-guidelines, but the general idea is that the film has to be in English (or with English subtitles), no longer than 20 minutes and completed not earlier than August 2012. Watersprite also entails a broad spectrum of events, including screenings and talks by such renowned figures as Richard Curtis.

If you’re a Warwick student and interested in going to any film festival and writing your thoughts get in contact with us at film@theboar.org and we can sort out press accreditation.

Images: Feature Image (modified), Image 1, Image 2, Image 3