Worcester Film Festival 2025
24 September 2025 to 27 September 2025
Running between Wednesday 24th and Saturday 27th September, it has just gained national recognition. It’s organised by Hendrik Harms who tells us more.
This will be our fifth film festival and the biggest one yet. The big news this year is that we recently gained accreditation from the British Independent Film Awards, a body that supports and promotes filmmakers in the UK. What this means is that any films we screen, can potentially make it through into other, larger film festivals and awards. We were thrilled when we found out!
In the meantime, plans for this year’s festival are progressing well. Our name is spreading and, at the time of writing, we’ve already had more than 200 film entries, wanting to be screened in September. We are planning to run two screens at Worcester Odeon. Last year we were concerned about expanding, but attendance was so good we have decided to do it again.
In total, 1,600 audience members attended last year’s festival. Our aims are threefold; to contribute to the local community, to serve the film industry, and to educate and inspire up and coming film makers. Our festival now attracts entries from across the UK, bringing visitors from far and wide who also get to see the kinds of locations and skills-base our area offers the film industry.
Alongside the many film screenings this year, we will hold Q and A events with film makers, a pitching workshop, and a Meet the Commissioners event with the BBC. The Create Central Production Pass Roadshow sees industry groups including Filming in England and the Royal Television Society giving advice about what filming and job opportunities exist locally.
We’ve also partnered with STEMfi, an organisation that celebrates the links between engineering and science-fiction, for a film screening followed by a talk titled ‘Science Behind the Fiction’.
The weekend culminates in our annual awards ceremony, when we celebrate some of the best contributions to our festival from film makers. I often wonder which of our award winners might eventually make it big. Two years ago we screened a short film that was long-listed for this year’s Oscars, surely it’s just a matter of time!
You’ll find more details about this year’s festival on our website, and for updates search for @worcesterfilmfestival on Facebook and Instagram.
www.worcesterfilmfestival.co.uk/
COMING UP
Lights, Camera … Paint 2025, an art trail celebrating cinema, returns to Worcester as part of this year’s film festival from 23rd August to 28th September. Find out more at www.artistsclubhouse.com/