The results of the 2026 Stafford Film Festival. Eighteen winners and twenty honourable mentions were chosen from the official selection by our international jury, using point based scoring across every category.
Congratulations to every winner, and to every filmmaker and writer in the selection. The full line-up remains on the 2026 official selection page.
18
WINNERS
20
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
18
CATEGORIES
26
COUNTRIES REPRESENTED
JUMP TO A CATEGORY
BEST FEATURE FILM
BEST TV PILOT / WEB SERIES
BEST SHORT FILM
BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
BEST ANIMATION
BEST SHORT ANIMATION
BEST STUDENT ANIMATION
BEST AI GENERATED FILM
BEST MUSIC / PERFORMANCE VIDEO
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
BEST ONE MINUTE FILM
BEST FIRST TIME FILMMAKER
BEST FEATURE SCRIPT
BEST SHORT SCRIPT
STAFFORDSHIRE FILMMAKER
BEST FEATURE FILM
★ WINNER
Invincible
United Kingdom · 109 min
Emma Croft
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ALSO NOMINATED
Mags and Julie Go On A Road Trip United States · 127 min
Ryann Liebl
Spades United States · 116 min
Johnny Yong Bosch
The Night and Gail United States · 90 min
Benjamin Justin Ehnert
BEST TV PILOT / WEB SERIES
★ WINNER
Murder For Dummies (Episode 01: Victim)
United Kingdom · 23 min
J.W. Roberts
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ALSO NOMINATED
Burger Dude: Pilot (The Burginning) United Kingdom · 15 min
Jackson Chaddock
BEST SHORT FILM
★ WINNER
Largo
United Kingdom · 19 min
Rachid Sabitri, Charles Meunier
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HONOURABLE MENTION
The Glass Magazine
United Kingdom · 42 min
Josu Vaquerizo
ALSO NOMINATED
GALAR Ireland · 25 min
Niall Duffy
Petrol Head United Kingdom · 15 min
Patrick Swain, Jasper Frost
Salem Not Salem Bahrain · 28 min
Omar Farooq
The Liars of Black Mountain Road United States · 13 min
Parker Croft
BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM
★ WINNER
Just A Wish Away
United Kingdom · 16 min
Stephen Peers
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HONOURABLE MENTION
Three Trees
China, United States · 15 min
Jingshu Lu
The Donkey with the Baby on her Back
United Kingdom · 13 min
Isabella Chaves Gutierrez
ALSO NOMINATED
Brown Sheep United Kingdom · 13 min
Konna Thomson
The Missing Part Netherlands · 12 min
Marv Hathim
The Village It Took United States · 15 min
Victoria Wilcox
To The End United States · 14 min
Ruiying Sun
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
★ WINNER
An Alternate Pond
United States · 10 min
C Thomas Lewis
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ALSO NOMINATED
1000 O Switzerland · 7 min
Barbara Peikert
Prayer of the Sea Germany · 7 min
Martin Gerigk
Substance of Venom United States · 9 min
Cherie Sampson
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
★ WINNER
I Am Gitxsan
Canada · 64 min
Hossein Martin Fazeli
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HONOURABLE MENTION
Experiencer
United States · 107 min
Nicco Renna
Liz Lira: La Reina de Bolivia
United States · 75 min
Dilip Khatri
Rooted
United Arab Emirates · 105 min
Sailesh Rajan Israni
The Skin of Light
India · 39 min
Premjish Achari
ALSO NOMINATED
8 seconds France · 79 min
Jean-Marie Vinclair
GOING LONG Italy · 82 min
Vasilii Mozzhukhin
Penalty Mexico · 40 min
Ivan Francisco Barrera
Rave Culture, a new era Spain · 87 min
Eduardo Cubillo Blasco
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
★ WINNER
The Land We Fight For
Estonia · 39 min
Dimitri Nasennik
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HONOURABLE MENTION
AI’s Silent Omissions
Japan · 24 min
Nozomu Kubota
GRIMDARK
United Kingdom · 46 min
Rick McCullagh
ALSO NOMINATED
Alone Across Gola United Kingdom · 20 min
Jude Kriwald
Grappling Grace United Kingdom · 20 min
Alexander Kiehl, Misha Novak
The Last Impression Germany, Switzerland · 30 min
Milan Büttner
BEST ANIMATION
★ WINNER
Finnick
United Arab Emirates · 90 min
Denis Chernov
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ALSO NOMINATED
Ema Leland Japan · 30 min
Yu Numata
BEST SHORT ANIMATION
★ WINNER
Hell
United States · 5 min
Parker Croft
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HONOURABLE MENTION
Patch
United States · 2 min
Meg Cook
ALSO NOMINATED
Puny Humans United Kingdom · 4 min
Samuel Joseph Williams, Timothy James Williams
The Intention Invention United States · 5 min
R.J. Sullivan
Underneath Australia · 2 min
Matthew James Bissett-Johnson
Wake Up Call United States · 4 min
Kai Movagh, David Woulard
BEST STUDENT ANIMATION
★ WINNER
The Big Bad Wolf
United Kingdom · 5 min
Leo William Wright
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ALSO NOMINATED
Doomsday 2000 Australia · 2 min
Harrisen Lysaght
Internal Embers United States · 5 min
Alec Tufenkjian
Salt & Pepper India · 4 min
Gunjan Dere
Tesseract Canada · 7 min
Gracie Safranovich
BEST AI GENERATED FILM
★ WINNER
Gentle
United States · 4 min
Alex Naghavi
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HONOURABLE MENTION
August 32nd
South Korea · 15 min
Yunbin An
Godcasting
France · 25 min
Florent Agostini
Railbound
United States · 10 min
Jonathan Perry
Ratvertising
Spain · 3 min
Blanca de Frutos
The Sack Grandpa
South Korea · 7 min
Seulki An, Hyuna Kim, Soyeon Lee, Chaeyeon Hong, Gahyun Lee
ZERO
South Korea · 6 min
Dongha Oh
ALSO NOMINATED
Chairman South Korea · 6 min
Studio 011
Growing Inwards China · 3 min
Shuhan Liao, Xiangrong Wen, Anping Zuo
INSIDE THE MAZE 3 min
Arthur Mikheev
The last Track Venezuela · 1 min
Oscar Sanchez
The Threshold Poland · 8 min
Jacek Kadaj
BEST MUSIC / PERFORMANCE VIDEO
★ WINNER
Marionette (Ava Della Pietra, official music video)
3 min
Nathan Levine-Heaney
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HONOURABLE MENTION
Lullaby
Ukraine · 4 min
Oleksandr Shvets
ALSO NOMINATED
Single for Life (Ava Della Pietra, official music video) 4 min
Luke Orlando
Sky-Sky Ukraine · 3 min
Ilya Noyabrev
Strolling Down Brighton Pier United Kingdom · 5 min
Zach Stevens
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
★ WINNER
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
Marty Dodson, Debra Gussin
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ALSO NOMINATED
Orage (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) 10 min
Jordan Paul Rousseau
RED BALLOON 4 min
Renzo Djordan
STARZ 4 min
Bryan Huynh
BEST ONE MINUTE FILM
★ WINNER
Grown Up
United Kingdom · 1 min
Louis Leivers
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ALSO NOMINATED
Shut your trap! Mexico · 1 min
Luis Ramos
The last Track Venezuela · 1 min
Oscar Sanchez
Xmas Box United Kingdom · 1 min
Adriana Mourelle
BEST FIRST TIME FILMMAKER
★ WINNER
Push The Machine
Australia, France, United Kingdom · 14 min
Max Ward
READ MORE →
ALSO NOMINATED
DOMESTIC United Kingdom · 13 min
Jake Spence Barnes
Gourmanium United Kingdom · 14 min
Benjamin Sitton
BEST FEATURE SCRIPT
★ WINNER
VIGILANTE (2026)
100 pages
Luke Hanlon
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HONOURABLE MENTION
Walker’s Game
93 pages
Luke Ollerton
ALSO NOMINATED
Collector of Sounds 90 pages
Rupert Miles
The Archangel Of Colorado 91 pages
Matty Mahoney
The Farm 113 pages
Craig Urquhart
The Headmaster 92 pages
Felix McEnroy
BEST SHORT SCRIPT
★ WINNER
Lab Partners
United States · 16 pages
Tommy Britt
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ALSO NOMINATED
East London Western 20 pages
George Cameron Gifkins
Say It With Music 12 pages
Christopher James Culberson
The Cart of Absence and the Apple Tree 14 pages
Ozjan M Yeshar
The Visionaries 20 pages
Simon Jones, Kaylee Nicholas
STAFFORDSHIRE FILMMAKER
★ WINNER
Safety Net
United Kingdom · 15 min
Alfie Beard
READ MORE →
HONOURABLE MENTION
How To: Run a Football Club with Zero Budget
United Kingdom · 32 min
Zak Thomas Whitton
We Chosen Few
United Kingdom · 14 min
Ryan Proudlove
ALSO NOMINATED
Party Games United Kingdom · 15 min
Alfie Beard
Philip Hardaker: Sculptured to Speak United Kingdom · 10 min
Henry John Sedgley
Statue in the Garden United Kingdom · 8 min
Qianhui Yu
The Last Call United Kingdom · 16 min
Bailey Mowatt