Encounters Film Festival Announce 2026 Official Selection

21 August 2026 // News

Skwigly

The Encounters Film Festival 2026 competition programme brings together 142 exceptional films from fresh voices and celebrated filmmakers around the world. The 31st edition showcases the very best in contemporary short film, spanning live action, animation and documentary across the Brief Encounters, Animated Encounters and Documentary Grand Prix competitions, the Children’s Jury programmes and the DepicT! competition for films under 90 seconds.

71 Premieres and Films from 39 Countries

This year’s selection features 71 premieres, including 17 world premieres, 7 international premieres and 47 UK premieres, with new work drawn from 39 countries, from Afghanistan and Cambodia to Mexico, Palestine, Taiwan and Ukraine. Half the competition has never been seen in the UK before, so audiences in Bristol will be among the very first anywhere to discover the next wave of cinematic talent.

HAG (Dir. Anna Ginsburg. Image: Strange Beast/Passion Pictures)

Animation lovers can look forward to new work from Don Hertzfeldt (Paper Trail), Anna Mantzaris (PLEASE), Theodore Ushev (Life with an idiot), Anna Ginsburg (HAG), Emma Calder and Coco Cripps (House of Love) and Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (The Girl Who Cried Pearls) , plus Jamie Hewlett and Max Taylor’s Gorillaz film The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God. Viral filmmaking phenomenon Wesley Wang brings the international festival premiere of Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank.

The 2026 Official Selection celebrates the vitality of British filmmaking alongside cinema’s universal language, with premieres arriving from every corner of the globe.

Animation Selections

A Clayful Adventure, dir. Florrie Macleod (United Kingdom)
A Little Death, dir. Leto Meade, Jonathan Rockefeller (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
A Pint of Bitter, dir. Conor Kehelly (Ireland, United Kingdom)
Action Bog, dir. Winston Hacking (Canada)
Adgwa-Ata, dir. Zsuzsanna Kreif (Hungary, France) UK Premiere
Babyface, dir. Sacha Beeley (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
Ball Face, dir. Laurence Thérien (Canada, United Kingdom)
Bisou Sauvage, dir. Bahij Jaroudi (Canada) UK Premiere
Bread Will Walk, dir. Alex Boya (Canada)
Bwgan, dir. Hywel Pryterch Roberts (Wales, United Kingdom) UK Premiere
Cell Buddies, dir. Melle Windig, Hidde Alberts, Miguel Reyes, Jurgen de Smit, Arjen van der Plas (Netherlands)
Clot, dir. Levi Stoops (Belgium)
Dance of The Spirits, dir. Andreea-Lorena Florea (United Kingdom)
Death’s Peak, dir. Willy Fair (United Kingdom)
Dog Alone, dir. Marta Reis Andrade (Portugal, France)
Dollhouse Elephant, dir. Jenny Jokela (Finland)
Ducks, dir. AJ Jefferies (United Kingdom)
Duet, dir. Léo Brunel (France)
Endo, dir. Eleanor Szydlowska (United Kingdom)
Ever Ending Summer, dir. Nikki Girod, Sylvia Jorde (Germany) UK Premiere
Extinction, dir. Molly Allen (Wales)
Fingerbang, dir. Kim Yeonwoo (South Korea)
Foil Guy vs ANVIL, dir. Malcolm Lamont (United States)
Full Nest, dir. Elena Walf (Germany, Croatia)
Full Set, dir. Caitlin McCarthy (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
Future Of…, dir. Scott Coello (United Kingdom)
Gaïa, dir. Gwenola Heck (Germany) UK Premiere
Growing Stones, Flying Papers, dir. Roozbeh Gezerseh, Soraya Shamsi (Germany) UK Premiere
HAG, dir. Anna Ginsburg (United Kingdom)
Happy New Year, dir. Radu Gaciu (Romania) World Premiere
House of Love, dir. Emma Calder, Coco Cripps (United Kingdom)
Hyena, dir. Altay Ulan Yang (China, United States)
I Beg Your Pardon, dir. John W. Lustig (United States)
I Have a, dir. Rory Waudby-Tolley (United Kingdom)
I’m not sure, dir. Luisa Zürcher (Switzerland)
Into The Forest, dir. Antonin Niclass (Switzerland)
Just One Peek, dir. Mulan Fu (United States)
Land of No Man, dir. Muling Tzai, Olivia Lin (United States, Taiwan) UK Premiere
Life with an idiot, dir. Theodore Ushev (France)
Lost Touch, dir. Justine Klaiber (Switzerland)
Making a Mother, dir. Emily Downe (United Kingdom)
Meal Deal, dir. Niamh McArdle, Amy Mulcahy, Anaïs Kheir (United Kingdom)
Vapey Man, dir. Hugo Docking (United Kingdom)
On Saint Nicholas’ Eve, dir. Emy Mirel Ivașcă (Romania)
Once in a body, dir. María Cristina Pérez González (Colombia, United States)
Other I, dir. Alina Popescu (France)
Paper Daughter, dir. Cami Kwan (United States) UK Premiere
Paper Trail, dir. Don Hertzfeldt (United States)
Pickled, dir. Fanny Capu (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
Please, dir. Anna Mantzaris (Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland)
POOB, dir. AJ Jefferies (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
Praying Mantis, dir. Joe Hsieh (Taiwan)
Sausage Poem, dir. Rob Ling (United Kingdom)
Send Nudes, dir. David Sick (Germany)
The Death of the Fish, dir. Eva Lusbaronian (France) UK Premiere
The Flower Witch, dir. Zoë Hutber (United Kingdom) World Premiere
The Girl Who Cried Pearls, dir. Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (Canada)
The Hedgehog, dir. Zuzanna Heller (Poland) UK Premiere
The Midnight Witch, dir. Jon Dunleavy (United Kingdom) UK Premiere
The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God, dir. Jamie Hewlett, Max Taylor (United Kingdom)
The Rossini Garden, dir. William Burger, Tara Rewal, Siméon Jacob, Odelia Laine, Garance Mondamert, Mathilde Vergereau, Arthur Wong (France) UK Premiere
Trading Cards, dir. Radheya Jang (Australia, United Kingdom)
Ultra Strong, dir. Catherine Lepage (Canada) UK Premiere
Uncle Filmi, dir. Nazgol Kashani (Germany) World Premiere
Violet and Marlowe Rob a Bank, dir. Wesley Wang (United States) International Premiere
Wavelength, dir. Kate Auster, Holly Warburton (United Kingdom)
Why Did Kai Stop Painting, dir. Hao Yu (Germany) World Premiere
Winter in March, dir. Natalya Mirzoyan (Estonia, Armenia, France, Belgium)
With Tapes and Toasts in the Car, dir. Kiana Naghshineh (Germany, France) UK Premiere

For the full selection visit encounters.film/programme
Encounters Film Festival 2026, 23 to 27 September, Bristol. Passes are available now.