Founded in 2003 and now in our 20th year, London Short Film Festival (LSFF) is a BAFTA and BIFA qualifying, internationally regarded independent short film festival. To read about this year’s Awards and Jury, click here.
Each January, LSFF hosts ten days of short films, live events, Q&As and multidisciplinary curation. We present between 250-500 British and international films each edition, collaboratively programmed down from 5000+ open submissions, alongside Special Events and an industry offering of workshops, panels and discussion for filmmakers and workers.
LSFF exists to spotlight a multiplicity of filmmakers, visual artists and creatives, across intersections and with a commitment to peripheral voices. We pride ourselves on a 20-year ethos of giving screen-space and visibility to unconventional and thoroughly independent filmmaking, and our programming seeks to situate the contemporary in dialogue with its history and the world at large. We consider LSFF both a platform where filmmakers can cut their teeth and define their careers, and a celebrator of the archival treasures and talent that got us here.
Need to get in touch? You can drop a line to info@shortfilms.org.uk and we’ll get back to you.
Festival Co-Director
Philip co-founded LSFF with Kate Taylor in 2003 under its original moniker Halloween Short Film Festival, following ten years of running its predecessor The Halloween Society through its various guises as a film and club night.
Philip has previously programmed for East End Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Branchage Festival, Latitude and Curzon Soho.
Festival Co-Director
Charlotte has worked for many years in UK film exhibition, from marketing roles at Showroom cinema in Sheffield, Film4 Online and ICA. She worked as Marketing and Programme Coordinator at Film Hub Scotland, promoting new releases and BFI-wide seasons to cinemas and film festivals across Scotland.
She is an alumnus of the ICO Cultural Cinema Exhibition Course, the Europa Cinemas Innovation Labs in Seville and Sofia and is on the pre-selection team for the Glasgow Short Film Festival. Charlotte also co-programmes for LSFF, including the surrealist Eye Rituals weekend at ICA in August 2022. Charlotte was previously Marketing and Development Manager for LSFF.
Festival Producer
Alice Maestrini is a film festival producer and cinema manager. Before joining LSFF, she worked in production roles at various festivals including the London Korean Film Festival, Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival and London Feminist Film Festival.
She’s also the co-director of Screen25, a community cinema in South Norwood.
Creative Partnerships and Sponsorship
Laura has worked for the likes of BBC, Open Media, BFI, Film London and Games London in various roles that span videography, web design, film exhibition, festivals and sponsorship. Whilst helping to procure partners for LSFF, she also manages the marketing for award-winning film exhibition company, We Are Parable.
Graphic Designer
Edward is a multidisciplinary designer and creative who is versatile in mixed media. He directs concept based projects from scratch and has a keen eye for composition and layout.
Head of Programme
Since 2021, Qila Gill has been part of the London Short Film Festival (LSFF) team as the International Programming Lead, now Head of Programme. She previously worked as Distribution Director at LUX, was on the selection committee at Sheffield Doc/Fest (2020 and 2021 editions), and has programmed for Experimenta London Film Festival (LFF) and Aesthetica Film Festival. She is a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a member of BGDM, POC2, IDA and an alumnus of IFFR Sessions.
Alongside programming, she independently produces artists’ moving image and creative non-fiction, and have previously produced work for artist Michelle Williams Gamaker, Onyeka Igwe, and Asmita Shrish.
Head of Programme
Previously LSFF’s UK Lead Programmer, Varun is also an Associate Programmer at SXSW and Shorts Programmer at Fantastic Fest.
He previously programmed for Encounters and PÖFF Shorts, screened for Fantasia and was Festival Coordinator at Grimmfest. He’s also a writer and filmmaker – his most recent short, Man or Tree won the Lab Competition Student Jury Prize at Clermont-Ferrand and is a Vimeo Staff Pick. He’s also a Script Reader for the BFI NETWORK’s Short Film and Early Development Funds.
Selection Committee Member
Sylvie has been a pre-selector at LSFF since 2020. She has volunteered and worked for Raindance Film Festival, Open City Documentary Festival, LOCO, LFF, and participated in a Young Curator panel for UK Asian Film Festival. She is currently studying part-time for an MA at Goldsmiths University in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy.
Selection Committee Member
Umloda has a background in Interior Architecture and is currently completing an MA in Global Cinemas, with a focus in African and Middle Eastern regions. Her previous experience includes being a Project Assistant at One World Media and Production Assistant at Film Africa Film Festival and Lewisham Youth Theatre.
Her interests, other than coffee and the Marvel franchise, is in claiming back narratives through storytelling and telling authentic stories about the people around her.
Selection Committee Member
Akinna Aquino is a British-Filipino producer working across film and events. She delivered the first virtual editions of both the London Short Film Festival and the London Screenwriters’ Festival in 2020/21. In addition, she’s worked on a number of film/video projects including 3D animations for Coloro x WGSN and a short film looking at the lives of the Filipino immigrant community which was screened at the Earls Court Film Festival 2019.
This year she will be the Awards Production Manager for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and working to deliver a national anti-racism campaign for the arts sector. Akinna is particularly interested in nuanced explorations of identity within diasporic and marginalised communities.
Selection Committee Member
Milo Anani is a filmmaker based in London, UK. Having recently graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth, his final project, Fieldwalk, has gone on to screen at the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, and various independent screenings in Dorset, London, and Lithuania.
His work often looks to the banal in an attempt to explore our ways in which spaces reflect our history and sense of self. He is currently undertaking a collaborative project in Palestine, working with a painter based in Ramallah.
Selection Committee Member
Martyna is a Lithuania-born and London-based cultural worker who just completed her BA dissertation on the aesthetics and politics of boredom in Lithuania‘s post/Soviet image cultures. She is interested in archaeology as an artistic practice, with a focus on Eastern European memory politics.
She has previously been selected to serve as a youth juror for Venice International Film Festival’s “Giornate degli Autori” programme and co-produced the One Pound Super Short Film Festival. Her debut archival short “May You Live in Interesting Times” is currently in post-production (@martynaratnik).
Selection Committee Member
Mascuud is an actor born and raised in East London. Recently, he completed a month-long run of a modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet at the Chelsea Theatre where he played Friar Laurence. Mascuud has a love for all-sorts of film. He recently, in an attempt to bolster his film knowledge, watched 100 films before the end of the year.
Selection Committee Member
A Chinese expat living in Chicago, Nicky Ni writes and curates exhibitions and screenings. She is currently Curatorial Resident at Chicago Artists Coalition, Editor at Sixty Inches From Center, and Programmer for Onion City Experimental Film Festival (a production of Chicago Filmmakers). She is co-founder of LITHIUM (2017-19), gallery dedicated to time-based art in the Pilsen neighborhood. LITHIUM then became TNL (aka. The Neu Lithium), an online editorial and curatorial platform for time-based and media art. Additionally, she has curated exhibitions or screenings at Conversations at the Edge, Mana Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Photography, SITE Galleries, 062, and other venues.
Her writing has appeared on Chicago Reader, Sixty Inches from Center, Newcity, Call for Curators, Chicago Artist Writers. Nicky’s past residencies include Full Spectrum Curatorship Programme at IMPAKT Centre for Media Culture (Online/Utrecht, NL); and Momus Emerging Art Critics Residency (Online/CA). Nicky received her M.A. degree in Art History and Arts Administration from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and French from Northwestern University.
When not working, Nicky enjoys geeking out on coffee, exploring vegan cooking and listening to electronic music (@mllecolettex | @theneulithium).
Selection Committee Member
Gamze Şanlı is a multidisciplinary artist and performer. Her craft weaves stories centred around socio-politics, ancestral remembrance, nostalgic fantasy, poetic horror, mythology and magic. Projects that she has collaborated on and/or performed in vary from experimental theatre to independent film and documentary.
She is currently working on some experimental short films, and is a member of the Documentarist and MENA film festival teams. As an artist her work combines embroidery, collage and illustration. Şanlı is also a founding member of the multilingual folk music collective ‘Janatolia’, and is the art and activism director of the SWANA collective Full Potential. Having worked in Erbil and Istanbul she is now based in London.