AWARDS 2021
Jury
London Short Film Festival are proud to announce their 2021 international jury to deliberate (remotely) on this festival’s official competition selection.
We welcome pioneering British-Nigerian filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah (Welcome II The Terrordome), performer (-painter-curator-composer-film scholar-gender-queer art icon) Vaginal Davis, and curator, producer and former executive director of imagiNATIVE Jason Ryle to award our key prizes to this festival’s competition-qualifying UK and international short films.
Awards
BEST BRITISH SHORT FILM
Sponsored by the British Council
The Best British Short Film Award celebrates groundbreaking short filmmaking from within the UK, using both form and content to produce impactful, challenging work.
Encompassing narrative filmmaking and the more abstract, documentary and animation, this award spotlights the multiplicity and diversity of British creators and creativity.
The Best British Short Film Award winner will receive a £1000 grant towards supporting travel to an international festival, or to attend a training and development opportunity of their choice.
A Special Mention will be awarded £500 grant for the same type of support.

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
The Best International Short Film Award champions filmmaking from across the globe that interprets cultural, political and social concerns in bold and exploratory ways. The qualifying works reflect the diversity in formal innovation, aesthetics and perspective that the international short film community has to offer.
The Best International Short Film award winner will receive a £2000 grant towards their next project.
A Special Mention will be awarded £500 towards their next project.
THE TAASH AWARD FOR COMEDY IN FILM
Sponsored by Mark Rylance and the Van Kampen family
Comedy is always an audience favourite at LSFF, and a beloved genre of our short filmmakers.
Getting a laugh is a rare talent - subjective to each one of us watching, whilst a universal experience when it’s gotten right - and this award acknowledges those filmmakers finessing comedy on screen.
All qualifying UK films can be found in the Funny Shit programme.
In celebration of the life of promising filmmaker Nataasha Van Kampen, this award remembers her boundless talent and humour, as founded and sponsored by her stepfather, Mark Rylance.
The winner of the Taash Award For Comedy In Film will receive an award of £1000 towards their next project.
BEST LO-BUDGET SHORT FILM
In association with Intermission Youth
LSFF has always championed a little DIY rebelliousness in short filmmaking, while being aware there’s a method to that madness.
Our Lo-Budget Mayhem programme has been the festival’s traditional celebration of such filmmaking, and this award recognises work that is imaginative, resourceful and tells stories with limited-to-no resources and a good dose of wit. All qualifying films can be found in the Lo-Budget Mayhem programmes (here, here and here).
This festival’s award will be deliberated on by a jury (Micah Loubon, 23; Rakiya Idris Hasan, 20; Sian-Leigh Moore, 19; Kashif Douglas, 26; Abigail Sewell, 26) selected from Intermission Youth’s filmmaking group.
The Best Lo-Budget Short winner will receive an award of £500.
Intermission Youth gives disadvantaged young Londoners the tools to make positive choices and become the best version of themselves through drama, film and mentoring.
