Short Film

The competition, aimed at 18-29 year olds, is looking for powerful content with humour, aspirational and feel-good storylines to depict an optimistic and sustainable future, that diverts away from the typical dystopian drama depiction of what the future holds.

Flickers of the Future patron Richard Curtis CBE commented: "This could be the most important drama of our time, a much-needed route to drive the rapid and major changes we need to avert a climate crisis and achieve the United Nations Global Goals.

The RIFA awards recognise the best short films, of up to 30 minutes in length, which will be judged by a panel of experts from academia and the film industry. The the winners will receive a trophy and £2,000 in prize money for future filmmaking projects.  

This year's panel includes Richard Davidson-Houston, Head of All 4, Channel 4 Television and Matthew Reisz from Times Higher Education.

Now in its sixth year, this year the panel of judges features acclaimed writer and director Richard Curtis (Love Actually, About time, Four Weddings and a Funeral); Nadine Marsh Edwards, Company Director at Greenacre Films and philanthropist Professor Stefan Allesch-Taylor CBE; with further judges to be announced.

At the early May event, producer Brian Falconer and writer/director Jonathan Beer from Belfast production company Out Of Orbit were joined by an enthusiastic group of aspiring film-makers. 

During the 90-minute session, Falconer and Beer discussed how they got into film-making and showed a number of clips from films they had worked on, including their BAFTA award-winning short, Boogaloo and Graham.