Norwich Film Festival: ten days of indie cinema

Norwich is about to get ten days of independent cinema, and it's one of those festivals that punches well above its weight. The Norwich Film Festival returns from 6 to 15 November, with Cinema City as its home, and it's a proper short-film festival at heart, carrying BAFTA accreditation and BIFA recognition.

It's worth knowing the pedigree here. Kellen Playford started the festival back in 2009, and since then it's launched films that have gone on to win BAFTAs, Oscars, and awards at Sundance, Tribeca and South by Southwest. This year's programme has shortlisted 136 short films from 1,399 submissions, spread across 21 curated thematic screenings, alongside feature films, 35mm prints, live music, filmmaker Q&As and special events. A good chunk of it also spills over to the Norwich Playhouse.

Cinema City itself is a great part of the experience. It's a three-screen cinema set inside the historic 17th-century Suckling House on St Andrew's Street, with parts of the building going back to the 14th century, and it comes with a courtyard and the restaurant-bar The Dining Rooms. It's part of the Picturehouse chain, so it's a comfortable place to settle in for a few hours.

If you're picking and choosing, there are a few standouts. On Saturday 7 November at 7.30pm, the festival teams up with MINIMA at the Norwich Playhouse for a screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the 1920 silent masterpiece of German expressionism, with a live original score. On Monday 9 November at 6pm, Cinema City shows Ghost in the Shell on 35mm, and on 10 November at 8pm, Cristian Mungiu's Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, makes an appearance. The whole thing wraps up on Sunday 15 November with Ali Plumb's Untitled Film Quiz Project, hosted by the BBC Radio 1 film critic, complete with large-screen video rounds, film puzzles, music and prizes.

For the short-film sessions, most are 18-rated and run about 90 minutes, at £8 or £6 depending on the ticket. The line-up covers a lot of ground: Comedy Shorts on the 6th, Sci-Fi Stories and the new East Anglian Student Showcase on the 8th, LGBTQ+ Shorts on the 10th, Documentary and Women in Film on the 11th and 12th, and a busy 13th that runs from Shorts for the Planet through to Late Night Shorts. The final short screening on the 15th is the Award Winners Showcase, bringing together the seven films that took home the trophies in categories like British, International, Animation, Documentary, Student, East Anglian and East Anglian Student. If you're planning more than one or two, there are screening passes: three for £15 and five for £25.

Beyond the screenings, the festival keeps working in the background. The Creative Futures programme runs talks, workshops and networking for students and emerging filmmakers, with two dedicated days at Norwich University of the Arts. And if you're a filmmaker yourself, the Colton Lives project, run with the National Centre for Writing and other partners, supports three aspiring Norfolk documentary makers to film people living and working in the parish of St Giles de Norwich, with a £1,500 bursary and a world premiere at the festival in 2028. Applications for that close at midnight on Friday 30 October, so it's the one thing to act on before the festival even begins.