Our Festival

In 2009 Kellen Playford founded Norwich Film Festival after hearing about the difficulties a friend was having trying to organise a local screening of a short film. The festival was re-launched in 2012 as an annual event and has since screened hundreds of fantastic short films in Norwich; while helping to promote and support filmmakers. In 2015 Craig Higgins became co-director of Norwich Film Festival and has been working alongside the team to evolve the festival further. The Norwich Film Festival became a registered charity in 2017 (Registered Charity Number: 1173950)

To advance and promote the high standards of the art of cinema, visual art and cinematography for the benefit of the public in and around the Norwich area by providing and promoting a programme of screenings of films by international, national and local film-makers and associated events to encourage the public to engage with, and educate the public on, the art of cinema, visual art and cinematography.

Previous Festival Judges over the year’s have included:

Alfred Molina (Actor Spiderman 2, Frida), Denise Parkinson (Entertainment Director: The Telegraph), Andrea Gibb (Screenwriter – Swallows and Amazons), Julian Jarrold (Director – Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane, The Girl, The Crown), Steven Hall (DOP/VFX DOP – War Horse, Jack The Giant Slayer, Edge of Tomorrow), Bernard Hill (Actor – The Lord of the Rings, Titanic, Drowning By Numbers) Jane Gull (Director – Sunny Boy, My Feral Heart), Nick Moore (Editor/Director – The Full Monty, Love Actually, Notting Hill), Damian Jones (Producer – The Iron Lady, Dad’s Army, Lady in the Van), Hugh Fraser (Actor – Agatha Christie’s Poirot), Emma Freud (Script editor/Producer – Love Actually, Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral), Martin Walsh (Editor – Cinderella, V for Vendetta, Jack Ryan), Roger Michell (Director – Notting Hill, Morning Glory, Hyde Park on Hudson), Jon Harris (Editor – 127 Hours, Kick Ass, Stardust, Kingsman: The Secret Service), Jim Field Smith (The Wrong Mans, Episodes, She’s out of my league).