Your short film could be shown at Forbidden Worlds next year

Your short film could be shown at Forbidden Worlds next year

Posted on: 13 Nov 2023

Forbidden Worlds, Bristol’s favourite cult film festival, has announced a new short film competition.

Forbidden Worlds, for those uninitiated, is a Bristol-based film festival celebrating fantasy, sci-fi, horror and action films – in short, ‘genre films’ – with a focus on those more unknown films, or those considered cult classics. All films shown at Forbidden Worlds (until now) have been produced pre-2000, and usually were available to rent on VHS.

Forbidden Worlds was started by a group of Bristol-based cinephiles (a team born from beloved video rental shop 20th Century Flicks) and has been running since 2022 out of what was originally the old IMAX cinema – now retrofitted to make the best use of the unused space possible without proprietary IMAX equipment.

 

 

Now, Forbidden Worlds have announced a new dimension to their festival – a short film competition. Genre Film-Makers of the Future is a showcase looking for short films within the genre remit of the wider festival – and Forbidden Worlds are accepting applications now for the 2024 edition of the festival.

Films submitted to Genre Film-Makers of the Future must have been completed no earlier than January 2022, be ideally 10 minutes (and at most 15 minutes) in length, and must belong to either the action, horror, science-fiction or fantasy genres.

 

 

As long as the film isn’t available for public viewing online, all entered shorts will also be eligible for the competitive aspect of the showcase, with five awards to be given out: the Short of the Year, Best Horror, Best Action, and Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy awards, to be decided by a panel of judges, and the Audience Choice award decided by attendees of the festival.

Winners of awards will be notified ahead of the festival, and will receive a certificate and an eco-friendly award from Bristol Design Forge.

So, if you’ve got a genre short in your back pocket – or just the idea for one and the chutzpah to make it in time – then don’t waste time! The earliest deadline is December 15, costing £20 to apply, and the latest is February 11, costing £30 to apply. For more information on the full list of rules, terms, and guidelines, or to apply, go to their FilmFreeway page. For more information on Forbidden Worlds in general, check out their website.

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Patrick Bate

Patrick is a filmmaker with so much Bristol in his blood the white blood cells are graffiti'd. Educated at the Northern Film School in Leeds, he’s returned home to be a Videographer and Reviewer for 365Bristol and BARBI. When he’s not messing about with cameras, he enjoys playing guitar, spending far too much time on tabletop RPGs, and being an awful snob about cider. Have a look at his work here, or get in touch at patrickb@365bristol.com.