Leeds Young Film Festival

Awards & Prizes

Leeds Young Film Festival is keen on supporting independent, emerging or established, national and international filmmakers and hosts competitions both for short films BY young people, and FOR short and feature films for young people.

COMPETITIONS AND PROGRAMMES FOR FILMS MADE BY YOUNG FILMMAKERS

Young filmmakers up to the age of 25 can submit their films to the Golden Owls Award*, the Independent Directions Young Filmmaker Awards (the INDIs) and the International Short Films BY Young Filmmakers programme.

*The GOLDEN OWLS AWARD is a Leeds-wide Oscars’ style celebration of young filmmaking. Submissions for the Golden Owls Award are open to Leeds based filmmakers only and can only be made through our website. Please visit our website www.leedsyoungfilm.com for more information and to download an application form.

The INDIs is a national film award championing the talent of the UK’s young independent filmmakers up to 25 years of age. The competition is open to young UK filmmakers only and films must not be longer than 10 minutes and have been completed in January 2015 the earliest. The winner in each age category will receive a trophy, Arcadian Cinematic Sound Pack software for their next film projects and qualifies to compete for the overall INDIs prize. This £250 grand prize will be awarded by the IAC (Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, http://www.theiac.org.uk) for the best overall independent film in competition. Additionally, we are happy to announce that all shortlisted INDIs will also compete for the £250 MMBF Rising Star Award offered by the Matthew Martino Benevolent Fund (http://www.mmbf.co.uk). ou can find more information on the INDIs on our website www.leedsyoungfilm.com.

The International Short Films BY Young Filmmakers is our new programme aimed at bringing together young filmmakers from around the world. To qualify, filmmakers can be up to 25 years old and the films can be up to 10 minutes in length. 

COMPETITIONS FOR FILMS MADE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

The festival aims to show young people a world of film beyond Hollywood cinema.

Feature Films FOR Children and Young People are an important part of the festival's programme. They are eligible for our prestigious Jury Awards, that are awarded by a Young Jury in three age categories: Category 1 - suitable for all (BBFC classification U or PG), Category 2 - suitable for children and young people aged 12 or older (BBFC classification 12 or 12A), Category 3 - suitable for young people aged 15 or older (BBFC classification 15). Please specify upon submission who your film is suitable for. To qualify, films may be live action or animation, fiction or documentaries but they must be at least 60 minutes long.

Short Films FOR Children and Young People must be suitable for all ages and shortlisted films will be part of the festival's programme and be eligible for our Audience Awards. They may be live action or animation, fiction or documentaries but they must not be longer than 15 minutes.