Henley 72 Hour Short Film Festival
(Part of the Henley Drama Festival 6th May – 10th May 2025).
A test of your filmmaking and creativity skills!
Write, shoot and edit a short film all inside the official time period of 72hours including the 3 required elements (prop, line of dialogue, character).
The event is limited to 20 Productions, and based on the first 20 Productions to register with full payment. The 72 Hour Challenge is open to filmmakers at any stage of their career – from first-time filmmakers through to experienced directors. Anyone can participate. 72 Hours aims to create an event that provides opportunities for emerging and established filmmakers to make short films in an environment that encourages creative and fast paced decisions and building collaborations. Apart from being fun and insane, other reasons to compete in 72 Hours include getting to see your creation on the big screen with an enthusiastic audience, meeting fellow movie buffs and the chance to win an award (ooh). After the competition, you will have a completed film to add to your portfolio.
- Registration deadline by Sunday 6th April. Payment of £20 entry cost (ticket for attending screening can be purchased separately)
- Notification of 3 Required Elements and beginning of 72 hours: Thursday 1stMay 12pm
- Submission of completed film: Sunday 4thMay 12pm
Rules:
- The finished film must be a minimum of 4 minutes and a maximum of 6 minutes excluding credits at the end.In other words, the official running time begins after the required 72HDF slate (72 hours Henley Drama Festival) and ends prior to the end credits. Slate must include your team/production name and 72HDF plus the year of the competitiong ‘A.Non Productions 72HDF 2025’. No pre-credits except the title of the film.
- Time begins after the 72HDF slate which is shown at the very start followed by the title of film. Time finishes when ‘The End’ is shownbetween end of final scene and end credits.
- The films may contain mature content and themes but may not contain real-life violence, hate speech or anyforms of pornography and should be appropriate for an audience aged no higher than an equivalent of a 15 rating.
- No advanced screenings: Once completed, you are not permitted to screen your film to any audience, including cast and crew, in advance of the HDF screening. Your short must premiere at the festival.
- Any type of camera/phone may be used and there is no limit to the number of cameras/phones that can be used.
- No stock footage or footage created at another time outside of the 72 Hoursmay be used in the finished film.
- Animation and digital effects are permitted, but must be created during the 72 hour time period.
- Use of identifiable songs/music not permitted (due to copyright) though filmmakers are encouraged to work with composers/musicians to write and record for the film (hence best original score award).
Required Elements
The 3 elements MUST be included in the film to be eligible. The required elements will be sent out by the organisers at a set time on a given date to mark the beginning of the 72 hours. Elements used in the end credits of the film do not count. Any film not submitted by the 72 hour deadline may be screened but not eligible for competition.
Prop: The required prop (object) must be seen and used in some way in your film.
Character: The required character does not have to be the leading role and his/her name does not have to be spoken out loud provided we can clearly infer who they are. We must actually see that character on screen.
Line of Dialogue: The required line must be spoken, sung, or written down. If it is used in a language other than English – subtitles must be used (use them creatively, don’t throw them away or let them take over the whole film).
All creativity must take place during the Official Time Period of 72 hours. Creative work includes, but is not limited to:
Writing the script
Rehearsing
Shooting
Costume
Editing
Sound/score
Productions can put their editors to work the second the first scene is shot.
The only work to begin prior to the Official Time Period is:
Organising Cast & Crew
Securing Equipment & Locations
Video files to be supplied as MP4s, WMV, MPG or MOV in no higher resolution than Full HD (the projector doesn’t support 4k) via WeTransfer. These can then be preloaded and tested in advance.
The judges look to see how well teams have integrated the required elements into the finished film. Judges also look at innovative story and scriptwriting, entertainment, directing, acting and production. The ultimate goal for filmmakers is to make a short film that stands on its own outside the competition, but complies with all the rules of the challenge. Consider use of genres such as drama, comedy, horror, action, adventure, noir, crime, rom com, musical, spy, sci fi, fantasy, western, mockumentary, thriller etc.
Awards
Best Film Voted by Judges
Best Film Voted by Audience
Best Film Runner Up
Best Actor (M)
Best Actor (F)
Best Supporting Actor (M or F)
Best Original Score