Find real festival calls without guessing the deadline.

We're not going to publish a deadline here and let it go stale - festival dates move year to year and a wrong date is worse than no date. What we can give you is the real festivals in and around Manchester worth building into your submission plan, and where to check the actual current call.

Manchester Film Festival. Running since 2015, this is the city's flagship independent film festival, screening across venues including Odeon Great Northern, HOME, Aviva Studios and The Northern Light Cinema, typically in the spring. In-competition entries come through open submissions via FilmFreeway. Check the festival's own submit page for the current call, eligibility rules and deadline - don't rely on a date printed anywhere else.

Grimmfest. Manchester's international festival of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and cult film, running annually every October at Odeon Great Northern since 2009. It's been named among the world's best genre festivals by outlets including MovieMaker Magazine. If your work fits genre or cult cinema, this is the Manchester festival to know. Submission details are on grimmfest.com ahead of each October edition.

Manchester Animation Festival (MAF). The UK's largest animation festival, held over five days at HOME each November. Its international short film competition is Academy Award and BAFTA qualifying, alongside a feature competition, masterclasses and the Animation Nation industry forum. If you make animated work, this is the highest-profile Manchester call available - check the festival's own site for the current submission window.

Kendal Mountain Festival. Not in Manchester itself, but close enough to count as on the doorstep - Kendal is around ninety minutes from the city by car or train via Oxenholme. Held every November, it's one of the world's leading festivals for adventure, mountain and outdoor film, screening features and shorts curated from its own International Film Competition. Relevant if your work is outdoors, adventure or landscape-focused rather than strictly narrative.

How submissions generally work. Most UK festivals, including all of the above, take entries through FilmFreeway rather than email, and most charge a submission fee that rises closer to the deadline - submitting early is usually cheaper. Check the current call on each festival's own site before you pay a fee or plan around a date, because deadlines and eligibility rules change every edition.

Once you've got a completed screening lined up from a submission, you can add it to Manchester's own screening calendar too.

You don't have to be Manchester-based to submit. None of the festivals above require the filmmaker to be local - Manchester Film Festival's competition rules focus on British involvement (director, writer or cast) or a UK setting rather than residency, and Grimmfest and MAF are genuinely international in their programming. What being Manchester-based gets you is proximity: it's cheaper to attend your own premiere, easier to network at the after-parties, and easier to build the kind of local relationships that lead to a second selection next year.

A practical submission strategy. Submit earlier rather than later where you can - most FilmFreeway entries get cheaper the further out from the deadline you submit, and early submission also means your film gets more attention from a programming team that hasn't yet filled its slots. Read each festival's actual eligibility rules before paying a fee - runtime limits, premiere status requirements (some festivals want a film's first UK screening, others don't mind), and genre fit all vary, and a rejection for not meeting eligibility wastes a fee that a careful read would have saved.

Beyond the big four. This page covers the highest-profile Manchester-adjacent festivals rather than every regional call - FilmFreeway itself is the best tool for finding smaller and more specific festivals (student-only, genre-specific, identity-focused) that might be a better fit for a particular film than a large general festival would be.

After a festival accepts your film. Once you have a confirmed screening, make sure you've read the festival's own terms on exclusivity and premiere status before submitting the same film elsewhere - some festivals require a period of exclusivity around their screening, and breaching that can affect future submissions.

FAQ

When do festival submissions open? It varies by festival and by year. Check the festival's own site or its FilmFreeway page rather than trusting a fixed date from anywhere else, including this page.

Do Manchester festivals charge submission fees? Most do, and fees usually increase as the deadline approaches. Confirm the current fee on FilmFreeway or the festival's site.

Is there a Manchester festival specifically for animation? Yes - Manchester Animation Festival, held at HOME every November, with an Academy Award and BAFTA-qualifying short film competition.

Do I need to submit through FilmFreeway, or can I email a festival directly? FilmFreeway is the standard route for all four festivals above. Emailing a festival directly to ask about a submission is fine for questions, but the actual entry almost always needs to go through their listed portal.

Does MCR.CITY track deadlines for me? Not currently - we're deliberately not publishing dates we can't guarantee stay accurate, which is why every festival here links straight to its own site.