About Us

Our Story

Encounters Film Festival is a key destination for new and emerging talent.  

Rooted in Bristol, a UNESCO City of Film, each September the festival supports and nurtures new talent in filmmaking by providing a platform for emerging and established filmmakers from around the world. Our purpose is to spotlight short film as a vital and exciting art form, offer validation at a critical crossroad in artists’ careers, equip new talent with the support needed to take their next steps, and create a space where lifelong collaborations can be made.

Connecting industry and audiences, Encounters celebrates the creativity, diversity, and the impact of short form moving image. The festival is a springboard for audiences to encounter rising talent and for artists to progress, exchange knowledge, inform and learn within the evolving global ecology.

The annual festival, launched in 1995, continues to be an inclusive, friendly and relaxed space intended for making connections. Encounters aims to build a vibrant and more representative cultural community in Bristol and beyond. We aspire to be a place where filmmakers of all backgrounds can meet and define where they go next.

Our programming puts diverse, disruptive and original contemporary moving image works to the forefront. Our international competition is one of the world’s leading for visual storytelling. A non-competitive offering, curated in collaboration with international partners, reflects our ambitions to open windows into creative communities around the world. Panels, workshops and masterclasses with key industry figures compliment the artistic programme and shed light on key issues shaping the evolving moving image industries.

Encounters, where the story of film begins.

Encounters is a not-for-profit organisation and registered charity (no. 1058603).