Osprey Short Film Awards - Now Accepting Entries

We are now accepting entries for the 2027 Osprey Short Film Awards. Once again we are looking for new short films, under 15 minutes with a link to Cumbira. A selection of the best films will be shown at the Film Festival in March. For full details on how to enter please visit our Shorts page.

Osprey Short Film Awards - Now Accepting Entries

We are now accepting entries for the 2026 Osprey Short Film Awards. We are looking for films with a Cumbrian connection (e.g made in Cumbria or by Cumbrians), made after 2024 and under 15 minutes. For full details on how to enter please visit our Shorts page.

Osprey Short Film Award Winners

Congratulations to all of the short films that were screened at the Theatre By The Lake on Saturday afternoon. 

David and Michael Groom, the brothers behind Between The Lights which opened the Festival to a sold out full house on Thursday, announced the winners. The Student Prize (which is for any film made by students or film makers under the age of 19) went to MISJUDGED. Crafted by the creative minds of first-time filmmakers aged 8-11 at Signal Starters it features a plasticine seagull and a tentacled sea-witch who come together to share tales of hasty judgments.

Signal Film & Media were also behind WISHBONE which picked up the judges prize in the Open category and the Audience Award voted for by the 100 plus people who came along to watch the films. This film is a heartfelt journey through the life of a determined Barrovian living on Duke Street and you can now watch it for free here: https://signalfilmandmedia.com/wishbone/

Many thanks also to Caris Rianne from Rianne Pictures and the Women X Film Festival who joined the judging panel this year and did a brilliant job of hosting the event on Saturday and to all the team at the Theatre for getting the films on the big screen. 

Osprey Short Film Awards 2023

Our judges have selected 10 films for the 2023 Osprey Short Film Awards which will be screened at the Theatre By The Lake on Saturday 25th February from 2pm. There'll be a chance to vote for the audience award on the day and we hope to be joined by directors Sarah Beddington (Fadia's Tree, showing before the Ospreys at 11am) and Hassan Nazer (Winners, Friday 24th at 9pm) to announce the winners.

The films all have a link to Cumbria and the selection includes animations, documentaries, dramas and comedies. Expect to see a flatulent wolf cub, mysterious strangers, explorations of memory through sound, running a Wainwright, dancing in nature, life contemplations, memories from artist Kurt Schwitters, an important look at virtue signalling and the work of the Wild Ennerdale partnership.

More details on all of the films can be found on our Shorts page.

Osprey Short Film Awards 2023 - Still Open For Entries

Have you made a short film with a Cumbrian connection? If so it could be part of Keswick Film Festival next year. We're looking for new short films under 10 minutes and you have until the end of the year to submit. A panel of judges will select a number of films to show at the Festival and award prizes. For more details see our webpage or FilmFreeway page.

More Short Films For Saturday

On Saturday 26th March, in association with the Osprey Short Film Awards, long-time friend of the festival Carl Hunter (Sometimes Always Never, Grow Your Own) will be showing two of his short films. In More Than Time he documents the streets of Liverpool as they have never been seen before. During lockdown, anonymous messages about 'missing and memory'; were left on an answer machine. These ghostly messages float above still photographs of an empty Liverpool. The film is a place where memory populates the streets of a once vibrant city, instead of its people. 

He will also be screening Still Rings a poetic reflection to the second lockdown in the COVID pandemic, in the company of award winning poet Jacqueline Saphra. Carl took a photograph from the same place on Crosby beach every day and Jacqueline wrote a poem every day. Words and pictures take us on a journey where sound is used to reimagine memory, creating sonic ghosts that serve to help us remember what we were missing.

Osprey Short Films 2022

The judging panel has chosen 10 short films to screen at the Theatre by the Lake on Saturday 26th March. All of the films have a connection to Cumbria, whether that be on screen or behind the camera. The films range in length from a little over one minute to eleven minutes and cover an eclectic mix of subjects - running, walking and bouldering in the Lakes, a study of the Duddon Valley, stories of friendship and relationships, living with and alongside dementia and the modern-day disaster that is losing your mobile phone! 

Official Selection 2022

• A Perfect Day For Piracy by Pete Winterbottom (5 mins 26 secs)
• I Think I Know My Own Mind by Ronald Amanze, Jilly Jarman & Sarah Wallcook (5 mins 4 secs)
• #HELLP! by M J Poynton (5 mins 30 secs)
• Midair by Louis-Jack (4 mins)
• Rambler Man by Angus Imrie (11 mins 22 secs)
• Sing To Encounter Me by Laurence Campbell (8 mins 55 secs)
• Tender Buttons by Kitty Handley (8 mins 21 secs)
• The Show by Richard Rowden (9 mins 18 secs)
• Touching The Water by Hannah Maia, Maia Media (7 mins)
• War Torn by Luke Bain & Alexander Dodds (1 mins 3 secs)

More details on all these films can be found on our Osprey page.

Osprey Winners

More than a hundred people came along to watch the Osprey Short Film Awards on Saturday afternoon. Directors James Gardner (Jellyfish) and Mike Tweddle (Sparrowhawk) helped hand out the certificates to all of the filmmakers.

The main prizes were awarded as follows:

Open Category: A Mercy Kill by Richard Skelton
Student Category: Cake by Alana Barton
Audience Award: Holding Space by Rebecca Kenyon

You can find more details about all of the films on our website and photos from the event are available on our Facebook Page.

Osprey Short Films 18 & Under Winner: The Eletheromaniac and the Nostalgic

Watch the winning short film in the 18 & Under category from Harriet Wigginton and read about it in the Times & Star.

The Eletheromaniac and the Nostalgic from Hatty Wigginton on Vimeo.

Osprey Short Film Award Winners

Congratulations to all eleven films shortlist for this year's Osprey Short Film Award. All of the films screened at The Alhambra on Saturday received 'Highly Commended' certificates. Many thanks to Rayna Campbell, the director of Lapse of Honour for announcing the winners in each category as follows:

18 & Under: The Eleutheromaniac and the Nostalgic by Harriet Wigginton
Open: Mourning by N. Andrew Elliot
Audience Award: Autumn Veil by BFI Film Academy

Osprey Short Films

You can now watch most of this year's films here on the website.

Open Winner & Audience Award

A Bit More Sleep

Under 19 Winner

Perception

Under 19 Highly Commended

Big & Small

Driven

Open Category Highly Commended

Circa

If We Never Came Down

The final highly commended film was This Is Halloween by NADT Film Project & Unconventional Media, unfortunately this film is currently not available online.

Osprey Winners

More than a hundred people came to The Alhambra to watch the Osprey Short Films this afternoon. The winner of the the young category was Matthew Wood's Perception. The judges and audience agreed and A Bit More Sleep by True Productions won the prize in the open category and the audience award. Congratulations to all the film-makers and thanks to everybody who came and made it a great event.

The Lake - A Short Film Made at KFF15

Last year, at the festival, students from Carlisle College collaborated with our guests Charlie Cattrall and Dame Janet Suzman to make a short film called The Lake which can be viewed online:

Osprey Short Film Awards Winners

It was great to see such a large turnout for the Osprey Short Film Awards. Many congratulations to everybody who entered and a big thank you to Jack Gold and Carl Hunter for their inspiring words.

The winners are as follows:

Under 18s

Gold: Coast Of Soap Ships by Signal Films
Silver: The Solway Spaceman by Activity Films
Bronze: A Frosty Reception by Moonbeam Media

Open Category

Gold: Stuck by Ola Omotoso
Silver: The Deer by Ross Cunningham
Bronze: Endangered Species: Fell Pony Breeders by Dreamtime Films

We're really sorry that we couldn't get any of the Fell Pony Breeder films to show at the cinema but you can now view the film on our website and the rest of the series on Dreamtime Film's Vimeo page.

Most of the other shortlisted films are also available online, see our page on the website for full details.