Women X is an exciting, fresh short film festival based in the North of England, celebrating the achievements of emerging and established talent from women and gender nonconforming directors, writers, and producers. Our programme strives to include stories that open our eyes, break our hearts, make us laugh, and question our perceptions with a variety of genres and filmmaking styles to provide every film lover with someone to watch and enjoy!

Back for our fifth year, we are now BIFA accredited! Alongside our film programme you can expect an exciting variety of workshops, filmmaker roundtables, keynote speakers, networking events, wellbeing sessions and crafts, evening entertainment and of course our awards show. Attracting a wide audience from across the UK, film lovers and filmmakers unite in a fun and inspiring weekend in the North East at our beautiful venue, Darlington Hippodrome and The Hullaballoo Theatre.

With our core team having years of experience at established festivals throughout the UK, we used that knowledge to create Women X back in 2019, with the X standing for ‘miscellaneous’ as we wanted our event to be one of kind with room for experimentation.

It's time for your film (and you) to be spotlighted at a festival that gives an inclusive and enjoyable all-around experience, one to not forget.

Please note we do not grant free submissions to the festival, all submissions are treated equal as part of our programming process and therefore pay a fee, please do not email asking for a waiver code.

We celebrate the amazing achievements of the filmmakers we feature at our festival through multiple awards, reviewing each year how we can further acknowledge and support growth in independent short film.

Best British Film, Best International Film, Best Student Film, Best Animatinated Film*, Best Documentary Film*, Best Northern Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Producer, Best Lead Performance, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Production Design*, Best Costume Design*, Youth Jury Award, and the Rianne Pictures Rising Star Award for those emerging in their early career.

*These particular awards are dependent on the number of relevant films within our final programme.

We also host our Women X Script Competition, celebrating writers who have completed scripts that are not yet in production, we award 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes as well as inviting along 10+ finalists to our festival, more information on this is available on our website.

Since opening our festival we have strived to charge less than the average rate of festivals in the UK and continue to do so while adapting to the change in costs for running events in the UK and the cost of living crisis. We do not grant waiver codes, please do not email us requesting waiver codes. We do not accept email entries, all information must be completed via Filmfreeway.

Our rules are pretty simple, but if you need a little bit of guidance just pop us an email!

1. All films must be directed or written or produced by a woman or gender nonconforming filmmaker. Yes, Short films by anyone are accepted if at least one of the three main roles (director, writer, producer) is led by a woman or gender nonconforming filmmaker.

2. Films must be less than 20 minutes in length, including credits.

3. All rights to the film must be owned by the filmmakers and cleared (Please check your music! And your archive footage!)

4. If your film is not in the English language, English subtitles will be required.

5. As a festival striving for equality and accessibility in the film industry, we ask that you kindly provide CC on all films to accommodate to disabled or D/deaf audience members and members of our team. You can submit your film without CC, but we ask that if you are selected, they are added before the screening.

6. Films must have been completed after January 2019.

7. Films that do not follow our rules and terms will not be watched or considered for the festival, so please ensure that you adhere to the guidelines before submitting.

8. We do not refund submissions or offer waiver codes, the cost of running our festival means we are unable to accommodate to this. This also applies to distribution companies with multiple films.

9. To keep our submission costs low, we are unable to provide feedback on submissions as we are a volunteer run organisation.

10. We have a zero policy on rude or threatening emails from filmmakers regarding the outcome of their submission, our programmers decision is final.

11. We are unable to provide travel and accommodation funding for selected filmmakers.

12. All films submitted must be completed, we do not accept works in progress.

For any questions just get in touch!

Overall Rating
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  • sophie broadgate

    I had my most enjoyable festival experience at Women X. The atmosphere was unlike anything I've ever experienced. I've never felt so supported and relaxed at any other film event. I felt like I could be myself and really let my guard down. I met so many kind and talented people through the festival. The networking felt so much more natural and authentic. I am autistic and sometimes find networking events to be stressful. At Women X I felt excited to meet people and had so much fun. I could write an essay on how wonderful this festival is. I will continue to submit and support this festival because having spaces like this is so vital to our industry.

    March 2024
  • Cat White

    Love what the team at Women X are doing and was so proud to bring Fifty-Four Days, Ceres and Measure to the festival this year. I look forward to submitting many more films in future!

    November 2023
  • Gemma Whitworth

    Women X was great. Loads of fun and a great vibe.

    October 2023
  • Misha McCullagh

    Women X is such a joyful festival, with so many brilliant women working to make every event inclusive, supportive and enjoyable. It's the kind of festival i would travel to attend even without a film showing. I can't wait for the next year!

    October 2023
  • Alison Peirse

    A wonderful event and organisation. Recommended.

    October 2023