novella film festival
December 2026
NOVELLA FILM FESTIVAL 2026
Submissions Open
April 1
Next deadline
Earlybird Deadline
May 4
Regular Deadline
July 27
Late Deadline
August 24
Submissions Closed
September 21
Notification Date
November 6
Event Date
December 5
And we’re back for the fifth year of Novella!
Novella is an international short film festival that drives creativity and inclusivity, with a strong focus on the power of storytelling. We want to empower filmmakers whose stories and communities are underrepresented on screen, as well as behind the camera.
We have ten diverse categories that aim to bring together filmmakers from different mediums and different walks of life, and we award high value cash prizes to all ten winners, as our main goal is always to allow filmmakers to continue doing what they love.
Over the past four years we have built a wonderful community of filmmakers, film lovers and creatives. It has been a privilege to platform so many brilliant short films and to meet the people behind them – we can’t wait to do it all again in 2026!
categories & prizes
A film can only be submitted to one category from each column.
form categories
FICTION
- £1,000 cash prize
DOCUMENTARY
- £1,000 cash prize
ANIMATION
- £1,000 cash prize
MUSIC VIDEO
- £1,000 cash prize
EXPERIMENTAL
- £1,000 cash prize
perspective categories
POC NARRATIVE
- £1,000 cash prize
LGBTQIA+ NARRATIVE
- £1,000 cash prize
DISABILITY NARRATIVE
- £1,000 cash prize
FEMALE NARRATIVE
- £1,000 cash prize
ENVIRONMENTAL NARRATIVE
- £1,000 cash prize
We are proud to offer high-value cash prizes for all ten of our categories, as our goal is always to allow our winners to continue doing what they love, and go on to make more films. You can read about how some of our previous winners have used their winnings here:
Follow us on instagram at @novellafilmfestival and on our WhatsApp channel to stay up to date!
