The Smalls Film Festival 2026
About this Event
Across two days, audiences can dive into an inspiring mix of Animation, Change, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Music Video and Student Film - discovering bold new voices, unforgettable characters and stories that surprise, move and entertain. Whether you're a film lover, creative or simply curious, this year's selection showcases the incredible range and vision that makes short film one of the most exciting forms of cinema today.
Tickets are on sale now for £5 per screening. Explore the full programme and join us for a weekend celebrating the magic of short film.
Film Programme
Student Film - Saturday 26th September 12.30pm
A new generation takes centre stage in Student Film, bringing together playful, poignant, and wonderfully inventive shorts that leap between childhood memories, unlikely friendships, first loves, acts of rebellion, and eye-popping adventures. Full of fresh ideas and distinctive voices, this is a glimpse of the filmmakers shaping the future.
Animation 1 - Saturday 26th September 2.35pm
An adventure from acidic oceans and intergalactic cruises to virtual dreamscapes and neighbourhoods where fantasy reshapes everyday life. Funny, surreal and moving, the films in Animation 1 explore art, science, ambition and community with boundless imagination - revealing extraordinary worlds where human connection takes unexpected forms.
Documentary - Saturday 26th September 4.40pm
This year’s Documentary programme finds unforgettable true stories hiding in plain sight. Featuring daredevil divers, superstar show jumpers, and a family facing the past through the present, these films reveal captivating worlds and extraordinary characters. Spanning cultures and generations, expect to look again at the people, places and creatures we think we know.
Comedy - Saturday 26th September 6.35pm
Things get messy in Comedy. Whether it’s sex, marriage, friendship, fatherhood, hair loss, or wildly relatable obsessions, nothing is off limits. These sharp and irreverent shorts expose the ridiculousness of modern life - and the strange, sometimes desperate things we do to feel loved, wanted, or simply understood.
Change - Sunday 27th September 12.30pm
Confronting some of the defining issues of our time, the compelling documentaries in Change reflect on justice, identity, migration, conservation, ageing, and grief. Across vastly different lives and landscapes, these films reveal the personal stories behind global topics, inviting us to look closer, question what we accept, and consider what it takes to make a difference.
Drama - Sunday 27th September 2.15pm
Go behind closed doors, beneath crowded streets, and inside the noise of modern life. Drama brings together gripping shorts that explore fractured relationships, buried secrets, identity, and the need to belong. With complex characters and stunning scripts, these stories linger in the spaces between what we feel, what we hide - and what we cannot let go.
Music Video - Sunday 27th September 4.15pm
Moving between dreams, desire, dance and defiance, this year’s Music Video programme showcases the raw and inventive ways that filmmakers tell stories both intimate and epic. From pulsating hand-painted animation to mind-blowing spectacle, these videos transform songs into vivid visual worlds and bend cinematic language into something entirely its own.
Animation 2 - Sunday 27th September 5.30pm
Some wounds never close; some memories refuse to stay buried. Nothing is quite what it seems in Animation 2. A whisper becomes a haunting, a sketch becomes a confession, and a spaceship becomes a place to grieve. Strange, soulful, and visually masterful, these films venture into the hidden landscapes of memory and identity.
Please note, tickets and entry are available to adults aged 18+ only.
Find out more at thesmallsfilmfestival.com
Where is it happening?
GBP 5.00
