The Mix Tape Vol. 1 (18)

The Mix Tape Vol. 1 comes to Cinema City on Saturday 7 November, as part of the Norwich Film Festival. It's a session of six short films from the festival's official selection: A Little Death, From This Day Forth, HINDSIGHT, Scene House, We Used To Be Fun and Weekend Warrior. The festival describes it as a hand-curated mixture of narrative, documentary and animated shorts across a range of themes and genres, and they pitch it as the perfect introduction to the official selection.

That's a good way to put it, because this is just one part of a much larger programme. This year the festival has shortlisted 136 films and worked them into 21 themed screenings at Cinema City, with The Mix Tape sitting alongside strands like LGBTQ+, Women in Film, East Anglian talent and Family Friendly. If you're not sure where to start, this is a decent place to dip in.

For a bit of context, the Norwich Film Festival has been running since 2009 as a BAFTA and BIFA qualifying short film festival, showcasing work from local, national and international independent and mainstream filmmakers. It's a registered charity with patrons including Olivia Colman, Stephen Fry, Julian Jarrold, Tim McInnerny, Brian Cox and John Cleese, and it's screened over 1,400 shorts since it started. Some of the films that have come through have gone on to win BAFTAs and Oscars, as well as awards at Sundance, Tribeca and South by Southwest.

There are no adverts or trailers before the screening, and seating is unallocated, so you can just turn up and take whatever's free. It runs from 14:30 to 16:00, and tickets are £8 or £6.