The 2026 UK screening is confirmed at the Mitchell Arts Centre
The venue is confirmed. The 2026 UK screening will take place at the Mitchell Arts Centre in Stoke-on-Trent on Sunday 6 September 2026. Where this date and venue were previously marked provisional, they are provisional no longer.
This one is open to everyone
Unlike Stockholm, the September screening is public. You do not need to be a filmmaker and you do not need to know anything about film festivals to come. If you have never been to one, what happens at a screening is a reasonable place to start.
How the day will run
We have the room for around six hours, divided into six slots of forty five minutes. Each slot is a self contained block of films, so you can come for the whole day or for a single block.
What sits inside each block is being decided now. We are not going to publish a running order that we might then have to change.
What we are waiting on
The programme cannot be finalised until enough projection quality files are in. Stockholm ran from FilmFreeway screeners because that room did not need more. A public cinema screening does, so finalists have been asked for projection quality files and the accompanying documents.
Everything is played from one laptop at that desk, which is why the files matter more than the kit does. Subtitles burned into the picture are fine. A separate subtitle file is not required, and not having one will not affect a film’s place in the programme.
We ask every finalist for materials, not only the films that end up in the September blocks. Further private industry screenings are intended over the coming months, and having files ready is what lets us say yes quickly when a room becomes available.
When the programme goes up
Once enough files are in, the running order will be published here and sent to the newsletter, and only then will we start promoting individual screenings. Announcing a lineup we cannot yet stand behind would waste everyone’s time, including ours.
Ticketing details will follow alongside the programme.