The Stafford Gatehouse Theatre and our first in person edition

For its first three editions the Stafford Film Festival existed as a judging process and a published list of winners. On Friday 31 January 2025 it became an evening at the Stafford Gatehouse Theatre instead.

What changed

Everything downstream of the films. A results page tells a filmmaker they won. A room tells them why, in the faces of people watching, and then lets them answer questions about it afterwards. The Q&As turned out to be the part people talked about on the way out.

What we learned

That a mixed programme works better than a themed one for a general audience. That people will happily watch a documentary they would never have chosen if it is sitting between two things they liked. And that the conversation afterwards needs as much planning as the screening itself, because it is where the value is.

Where it goes next

The 2026 UK screening moves to the Mitchell Arts Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, provisionally on Sunday 6 September 2026. That date and venue are provisional and awaiting final confirmation. It is a deliberate broadening of the festival across Staffordshire rather than a move away from Stafford.

The 2025 results are in the archive, and details of the 2026 edition are on the 2026 festival page.