Building upon its success as a BIFA-qualifying short film festival, SFF 2025 promises an expanded and diverse cinematic experience, showcasing 187 exceptional short films from 42 countries worldwide.
This year’s festival will feature a rich tapestry of stories from across its 10 competition categories, highlighting the talent and creativity of emerging filmmakers. The programme includes new additions such as a dedicated ‘SFF for Free’ offering, Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, and the World Premiere of a Lowestoft-based online series entitled Time Travelling with Myself.
“We look forward to welcoming you back to Lowestoft’s Sunrise Film Festival. This year marks our fourth annual edition, and 2025 is our second edition as a BIFA qualifying short film festival.
We’re proud that our festival continues to be affordable to access whilst the cost of living continues to rise, as well as opportunities to access culture becoming ever more inaccessible.
More than ever, a platform like ours is needed to make the industry more equal and representative of the diversity of those who work within the film industry, said Joshua Freemantle, Leading Founder of the Festival.
We look forward to welcoming many of our nominees, filmmakers and audience Behind our selected films to Lowestoft in-person this May, as we continue to grow this celebration of independent film on the East Anglian Coast.”
The festival’s programming reflects a commitment to diversity and accessibility, with thematic strands designed to cater to a wide range of interests. Highlights include:
- East Anglia on Film: Championing local stories and homegrown talent.
- Sharing Our Stories: Exploring the myriad of ways to be human.
- It’s Giving Comedy: Celebrating the breadth of the comedy genre.
- Are You Afraid: A frightful late-night horror and thriller strand.
- The Next Wave: Highlighting the work of exceptional filmmakers at the beginning of their careers.
- Let’s Talk Mental Health & Break the Stigma: Addressing commonly misunderstood topics, amplifying lived experiences and the importance of mental health.
“This year, Sunrise Film Festival welcomed a record number of short film submissions, equating to just over 124 hours of watching. With this spike in submissions came greater diversity in themes, styles and stories than we’ve ever seen before.
The films you’ll see at SFF this year are bold, enlightening and outrageous, telling important stories from across the UK and, for the first time ever, in competition from across the world. Our programme is arranged into thematic strands, meaning that whatever you’re interested in, we’ve got it covered, said Chloe Beale, Programming Lead of the Festival.
We once again recruited a group of volunteer curators, working alongside our festival’s founding team, to build a bumper programme that showcases the incredible talent and creativity of emerging filmmakers.”
The festival extends its gratitude to the dedicated team of volunteers, including online screening committee members, judges, and the festival committee, who make this event possible. Special thanks are also given to Lowestoft Town Council for their continued backing, our sponsors and partners who have contributed to the festival’s success, including the support from Film Hub South East distributing funding from the BFI Film Audience Network, awarding funds from the National Lottery in order to bring this project to more audiences across the UK.
Sunrise Film Festival has become one of the UK’s largest celebrations of diverse stories and underrepresented filmmakers since its inception in 2021.
For more information about the programme, ticketing, and festival events, please visit https://sunrisefilmfestival.co.uk
