Sunrise Film Festival (SFF) is thrilled to announce the official programme for its highly anticipated 4th edition, taking place in Lowestoft, East Anglia, in May 2025.
Building upon its success as a BIFA qualifying short film festival, SFF 2025 promises an expanded and diverse cinematic experience, showcasing 187 exceptional short films from 42 countries across the world.
This year’s festival will feature a rich tapestry of stories from across their 10 competition categories, highlighting the talent and creativity of emerging filmmakers. The programme includes new additions such as a dedicated ‘SFF for Free’ offering, Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, and the World Premiere of a Lowestoft-based online series entitle Time Travelling with Myself.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming you back to Lowestoft’s very own Sunrise Film Festival. This year marks our fourth annual edition and 2025 is our second edition as a BIFA qualifying short film festival.
We’re proud that our festival continues to be affordable to access whilst the cost of living continues to rise, as well as opportunities to access culture becoming ever more inaccessible.
More than ever a platform like ours is needed to make the industry more equal and representative of the diversity of those who work within the film industry, said Joshua Freemantle, Leading Founder of the Festival.
We look forward to welcoming many of our nominees, filmmakers and audience Behind our selected films to Lowestoft in-person this May, as we continue to grow this celebration of independent film on the East Anglian Coast.”
The festival’s programming reflects a commitment to diversity and accessibility, with thematic strands designed to cater to a wide range of interests. Highlights include:
- East Anglia on Film:Championing local stories and homegrown talent.
- Sharing Our Stories:Exploring the myriads of ways to be human.
- It’s Giving Comedy:Celebrating the breadth of the comedy genre.
- Are You Afraid: A frightful late-night horror and thriller strand.
- The Next Wave:Highlighting the work of exceptional filmmakers at the beginning of their careers.
- Let’s Talk Mental Health & Break the Stigma:Addressing commonly misunderstood topics, amplifying lived experiences and the importance of mental health.
“This year, Sunrise Film Festival welcomed a record number of short film submissions, equating to just over 124 hours of watching. With this spike in submissions came greater diversity in themes, styles and stories than we’ve ever seen before.
The films you’ll see at SFF this year are bold, enlightening and outrageous, telling important stories from across the UK and for the first time ever in-competition from across the world. Our programme is arranged into thematic strands, meaning that whatever you’re interested in, we’ve got it covered, said Chloe Beale, Programming Lead of the Festival.