How We Select Our Films

BradIFF has a team of in-house and guest programmers for each edition of the festival. These are people who work in the film industry in some capacity.

How we select the films for the festival

Every film is reviewed by between 2-4 members of the festival selection panel.

No selection panel member will be allowed to review a film where they know the submitting filmmaker.

All members of the selection panel must complete unconscious bias training before being allowed to access submitted films.

Each member of the selection panel rates each submission on FilmFreeway leaving a score and notes. During this process, submissions are also flagged as possible award nominees.

Once the submission process is closed, the core festival team meet to decide which films are selected for the official programme. If some films have mixed reviews from the programmers, the core team will watch them again. If there are still borderline films, the selection panel members who rated them will be asked to make an argument for their inclusion. This is also the stage when the nominations are decided.

No submission that involves any of the festival or guest programming team is eligible for nomination.

If a submission is not selected, feedback will be given if requested.

How we judge the films for the festival

Once the nominations are decided, our judges will be asked to choose one overall winner in each category. Our judges are all experienced members of the filmmaking industry. Our core team do not get involved in discussions regarding award winners and the judges’ decision is final.