Roll of Honour

Encounters has screened over 7,100 films from more than 100 countries since 1995. Among the filmmakers whose work has appeared at the festival are more than 30 Academy Award winners, 5 Palme d'Or winners, and over 250 directors who hold major international award wins or nominations. Many have returned to give masterclasses, serve on juries, and deliver keynote talks — from Sir Anthony Minghella and Hayao Miyazaki to Charlie Kaufman and Andrea Arnold.

Headline Numbers

  • 30+ Academy Award winners

  • 5 Palme d'Or winners

  • 10 Berlin Golden Bear winners (short film)

  • 2 Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or winners

  • 250+ directors with major international award wins or nominations

Explore the Alumni Network → — an interactive visualization mapping the connections between filmmakers, films, actors and the festival.

Academy Award Winners

Best Director

Ang Lee screened Chosen in 2002. He won Best Director twice, for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012).

Sir Anthony Minghella screened Play at the 2000 festival and returned in person in 2004 to deliver the Brief Lecture — the festival's keynote address — on the opening day of the 10th anniversary edition. He won Best Director for The English Patient (1996).

Alejandro González Iñárritu screened Powder Keg in 2002. He won Best Director in consecutive years for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015).

Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) screened Cry Like a Ghost (a Passion Pit music video) in 2013. They won Best Director for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

Best International Feature Film

Joachim Trier screened Procter at the 2003 festival. He won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for Sentimental Value (2025).

Best Animated Short Film

Nick Park has screened at Encounters six times, including Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. Based at Bristol's Aardman Animations, Park has been closely connected to the festival from its earliest years. He won three Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, four BAFTAs, and an Annie Award.

Michaël Dudok de Wit screened both The Monk and the Fish and Father and Daughter at Encounters. Father and Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short (2000). He returned for Desert Island Flicks in 2017.

Suzie Templeton screened Dog at Encounters. She won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for Peter and the Wolf (2007).

Torill Kove screened Moulton og meg in 2014. She won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for The Danish Poet (2006) and received two further nominations.

Chris Landreth screened Subconscious Password in 2014. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for Ryan (2004).

Adam Elliot has screened five films at Encounters, from Cousin (1999) to Ernie Biscuit (2015). He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short for Harvie Krumpet (2003).

Richard Williams, voted "the animators' animator" by his peers in the Observer, was a regular and much-loved presence at the festival. He gave masterclasses in 2008 and 2009, drawing on his legendary Animator's Survival Kit and a 50-year career that included directing the animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (for which he won two Academy Awards). The festival celebrated his 80th birthday in 2013 with a career-spanning retrospective and Q&A, and we screened his final short Prologue in 2015 and again in 2019. His three Academy Awards include Best Animated Short for A Christmas Carol (1972), three BAFTAs, and over 260 international prizes. Dick was a great friend to the festival and his presence is much missed.

Alison Snowden and David Fine screened Bob's Birthday at Encounters across three editions. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short (1994).

Best Live Action Short Film

Andrea Arnold screened seven films at Encounters between 2001 and 2009, including Dog, which won the Jameson Award at the 2001 festival, and Wasp, which screened at the 2003 festival before going on to win the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. Arnold returned as a jury member in 2004 and again in 2009, when she also presented a special screening of her debut feature Fish Tank with a director's Q&A. She won the BAFTA Outstanding Debut award for Red Road.

Peter Capaldi screened Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life at the 1995 and 1998 festivals. The film won both the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (1993) and the BAFTA for Best Short Film.

Martin McDonagh screened Six Shooter in 2005. The film won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (2004).

Aneil Karia screened three films at Encounters between 2008 and 2017. His The Long Goodbye won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (2021) and the BIFA Best Short.

Chris Overton screened The Silent Child in 2017, where it won the Deaf Shorts Award. Just a few months later, the film won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short.

Benjamin Cleary screened Stutterer and Wave at Encounters. Stutterer won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (2015).

Martin Strange-Hansen screened This Charming Man and two further films. This Charming Man won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (2002).

Best Animated Feature

Hayao Miyazaki — indisputably one of the world's greatest animated filmmakers — competed at the 2003 festival with a rare screening of Imaginary Flying Machines and was himself a guest of the festival in 2005 for a special screening of Howl's Moving Castle. My Neighbour Totoro was screened in the Shorts 2 Features strand in 2019. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature twice, for Spirited Away (2002) and The Boy and the Heron (2023).

Ugo Bienvenu screened Sphere of Existence in 2019. His Arco won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 2026 ceremony.

Steve Box screened Stagefright in 1997. He co-directed Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (2005).

Best Documentary Short Film

Roger Ross Williams screened Traveling While Black in 2019. He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for Music by Prudence (2009).

Best Original Screenplay

Charlie Kaufman presented How To Shoot A Ghost’s UK premiere at the 30th anniversary festival in 2025 and appeared in person alongside Michel Gondry for a special screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and in-conversation event at Bristol Beacon. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine (2004).

Michel Gondry appeared in person at the 30th anniversary festival in 2025 for the UK premiere of Maya Give Me A Title with a Q&A, and joined Charlie Kaufman for the Eternal Sunshine in-conversation event. He shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

Palme d'Or Winners

Ruben Östlund screened at Encounters in 2011 and returned in 2025 with Incident by a Bank. He also won the Berlin Golden Bear for Best Short Film (2010). He won the Palme d'Or twice, for The Square (2017) and Triangle of Sadness (2022).

Julia Ducournau screened Junior in 2012. She went on to direct Raw (2016), which became a breakout hit, before winning the Palme d'Or for Titane (2021).

Mike Leigh screened The Short and Curlies at the inaugural 1995 festival. He won the Palme d'Or for Secrets & Lies (1996).

Gus Van Sant screened Ballad of the Skeletons (1998) and The Discipline of D.E. (2006) at Encounters. He won the Palme d'Or for Elephant (2003).

Jane Campion showed Peel and A Girl's Own Story at the 1996 festival. She won the Palme d'Or for The Piano (1993).

Berlin Golden Bear Winners (Short Film)

The archive includes work by 10 directors who won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival: Michaela Pavlátová (1995), Per Carleson (1997), Martin Jones (2002), Cristi Puiu (2004), Jonas Odell (2006), Ruben Östlund (2010), Park Chan-wook (2011), João Salaviza (2012), Jean-Bernard Marlin (2013), and Diogo Costa Amarante (2017). Anastasia Veber, who won the Golden Bear in 2022, also won the Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or in 2023, with her Encounters screening of Trap falling between the two prizes.

Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or Winners

Bálint Kenyeres screened Before Dawn at Encounters in 2006, the same year the film won both the Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or and the European Film Award for Best Short Film.

Anastasia Veber screened Trap at Encounters in 2022, between winning the Berlin Golden Bear (2022) and the Cannes Short Film Palme d'Or (2023).

Oscar-Nominated Directors

Beyond the winners listed above, the archive contains work by more than 40 further Academy Award nominees, including:

Oscar Best Director nominees — Denis Villeneuve, Yorgos Lanthimos, Thomas Vinterberg, Richard Linklater, Spike Jonze, David Lynch, Atom Egoyan, Gus Van Sant, Fernando Meirelles, Jason Reitman, Mike Leigh

Oscar Best Animated Short nominees — Joanna Quinn (2 nominations), Mark Baker (2 nominations), Peter Lord, Barry Purves, Grant Orchard, Mikey Please, Don Hertzfeldt, Bill Plympton, Sylvain Chomet, Konstantin Bronzit, Theodore Ushev, Kōji Yamamura

Oscar Best Live Action Short nominees — Damien O'Donnell, Basil Khalil, Xavier Legrand, Jeremy Comte, Mo Harawe, Jay Rosenblatt, Delphine Girard

Oscar Best Animated Feature nominees — Tim Burton, Henry Selick, John Lasseter, Nora Twomey, Gints Zilbalodis, Ari Folman, Dorota Kobiela, Chris Butler

Oscar Best International Feature nominees — Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Park Chan-wook, Abderrahmane Sissako, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villeneuve

BAFTA Winners

The archive contains work by numerous BAFTA winners across categories. Among them:

BAFTA Short Film winners — Esther May Campbell, Daniel Mulloy (2 wins), Lynne Ramsay, John Maclean, Paul Wright, Paddy Considine, Martina Amati, Adrian McDowall

BAFTA Short Animation winners — Nina Gantz (2 wins), Jonathan Hodgson (2 wins), Ainslie Henderson, Peter Baynton, Marc Craste, Mikey Please, Grant Orchard, Daisy Jacobs, Ian Gouldstone, Luis Cook, Emma Lazenby, Maryam Mohajer, Simon Cartwright, Gaëlle Denis, Baz Sells

BAFTA Outstanding Debut winners — Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher), Andrea Arnold (Red Road), Paddy Considine (Tyrannosaur), Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch), Charlotte Regan (Scrapper), Mark Jenkin (Bait), Paul Wright (For Those in Peril)

BIFA Winners

British Independent Film Award for Best Short winners in the archive include Chris Shepherd, Jake Polonsky, Martin McDonagh, Tom Harper, Paddy Considine, Simon Ellis, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Daniel Mulloy, Martina Amati, Lynne Ramsay, Rungano Nyoni, Oscar Sharp, Nina Gantz (2 wins), and Aneil Karia.

European Film Award Winners

European Film Award for Best Short Film winners in the archive include Toby MacDonald (2001), Ahmed Imamovic (2002), Bálint Kenyeres (2006), Darren Thornton (2008), and Anastasia Veber (nominated). The archive also contains work by numerous EFA Short Film nominees.

Notable Festival Guests

Over three decades, Encounters has welcomed an extraordinary range of creative figures to Bristol — not only as filmmakers, but as speakers, jury members, and special guests.

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, was the headline guest at the 2002 festival, choosing his ten favourite cartoons for a Desert Island Flicks event hosted by Phill Jupitus. John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren & Stimpy, did the same in 2011. Pierre Coffin, creator and voice of the Minions, was a headline guest in 2017. Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, spent a full day at the 2005 festival — in conversation with Aardman co-founder David Sproxton in the afternoon, then choosing his Desert Island Flicks with Mark Kermode in the evening. Adam Buxton opened the 2017 edition with his acclaimed Best of BUG live show at Colston Hall.

Grammy-winning filmmaker, DJ and musician Don Letts gave an in-conversation event at the 2016 festival, tracing his cultural journey from the Roxy Club to The Clash: Westway to the World. Huey Morgan and Will Self have also appeared as festival guests. Writer and broadcaster Paul Mason attended in 2016, and filmmaker and visual artist Jenn Nkiru — whose collaborators include Beyoncé, Kamasi Washington and Flying Lotus — served on the jury in 2018.

Monty Python's Terry Jones was guest of honour at the 1996 edition, and Terry Gilliam — who began his film career making animation for Monty Python's Flying Circus — presented Desert Island Flicks at the 2001 festival. Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession and Peep Show, screened two short films at the festival and served on the jury — his 2016 entry Incident on the Northern Line starred Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Before They Were Famous

Short films have always been a proving ground for acting talent, and the Encounters archive is full of early screen appearances by performers who went on to become household names.

Daniel Kaluuya appeared in Daniel Mulloy's BAFTA-winning short at the 2011 festival — six years before Get Out and a decade before his Academy Award for Judas and the Black Messiah. David Tennant starred in a short at the 2001 festival, four years before taking on the role of the Doctor. Joe Cole had an early screen credit at Encounters in 2011, two years before Peaky Blinders. Peter Mullan directed and starred in Fridge, which won the International Prize at the 1996 festival — two years before his Cannes Best Actor award for My Name is Joe.

George MacKay appeared at the 2013 festival in Paul Wright's For Those in Peril, six years before starring in 1917. Jodie Whittaker appeared alongside Alan Rickman in a short at the same edition. Michael Fassbender starred in John Maclean's BAFTA-winning short at the 2011 festival alongside Liam Cunningham. Phoebe Waller-Bridge appeared in Jesse Armstrong's Incident on the Northern Line at the 2016 festival, the same year Fleabag transferred to television.

The archive also features short film appearances by Ben Whishaw, Olivia Colman, Riz Ahmed, Helena Bonham Carter, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Mackenzie Crook, Rhys Ifans, Maxine Peake, Ray Winstone, Jack O'Connell and Thomas Turgoose.

Rising Careers

Several directors currently building significant careers first showed work at Encounters:

Encounters was the first festival to ever select work from Charlotte Wells and the only festival to have screened all of her shorts before her debut feature Aftersun earned a BAFTA Outstanding British Film nomination.

Harry Lighton screened LEASH in 2018, before winning the Cannes Un Certain Regard prize (2025), BIFA Best British Independent Film (2025), and BAFTA Outstanding Debut nomination (2025) for Pillion.

Molly Manning Walker screened Good Thanks, You? in 2020, before her debut feature How to Have Sex won the Cannes Un Certain Regard prize and a BAFTA Outstanding Debut nomination.

Gints Zilbalodis screened Priorities in 2018, before his animated feature Flow won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (2024).

Charlotte Regan screened Drug Runner in 2018, before her debut feature Scrapper won the BAFTA Outstanding Debut award.

Nida Manzoor screened Arcade in the Fresh Flix strand in 2013. She went on to create We Are Lady Parts for Channel 4 and direct the feature film Polite Society.

Explore the Alumni Network → — see how all these filmmakers, films and actors connect in an interactive visualization. Or search the full archive of 7,100+ films at archive.encounters.film.