Internationally recognised art and literary critic, writer and cultural producer. Published in ELLE, Glamour, Esquire and Cosmopolitan; member of the Union of Writers.
Most coverage of a film festival is written for the audience. This piece is for the people on the other side of the screen: directors with a finished film, producers planning a release, and writers who want to review films for a living. The 45th Cambridge Film Festival runs from 22 October to 1 November 2026, and for this group it is more useful than its size suggests.
What kind of festival it is
The festival was founded in 1977 and is run by the Cambridge Film Trust, a registered charity, with the BFI as its main funder. Its home is the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse on St Andrew’s Street, with screenings at other venues in the city. The organisers describe the 2026 edition as nearly 100 titles from more than 25 countries, over half of them directed by women, over eleven days. The full programme appears on 30 September. For a picture of an earlier edition, see our report from the 2023 festival.
Two facts matter most for anyone planning a career move around it. First, Cambridge is a BAFTA- and BIFA-qualifying festival. Second, it programmes a large number of UK premieres: 30 of them in 2025, alongside films arriving from Cannes, Berlin and other major festivals. That combination puts it in an unusual position. It is small enough for a first or second feature to be noticed, and its status is high enough for a selection to count.
How the awards are built, and why that matters
The award structure tells you what the festival values, and it rewards a particular release strategy.
Golden Punt Jury Award for Best Discovery Feature. An invited jury picks it. The 2025 winner was Sleepless City (Ciudad sin sueño) by Guillermo Galoe.
Audience Awards for Best Fiction Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Short Film. Only films having their UK premiere at the festival are eligible.
Youth Lab Jury Award, voted by members of the festival’s youth programme.
Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award, which has gone to Emma Thompson, Asif Kapadia and Daniel Kaluuya in recent years.
The detail worth noticing is the premiere rule for the audience prizes. If your film has not yet been released in the UK, a Cambridge selection gives you a UK premiere and a place in the audience awards race at the same time. Once the premiere is spent elsewhere, that route closes. Producers deciding where to launch a film in Britain should weigh this before accepting the first offer.
Submitting a film
Submissions for 2026 are closed: the festival says all selected filmmakers will be contacted by 16 September 2026. The rules are stable enough to plan for 2027 now.
Entry is through FilmFreeway, in two categories: features of 60 minutes or more, and shorts under 30 minutes.
Films must be completed within 18 months of the festival’s start.
Features must not have been released in the UK in any format. Shorts must not be publicly available online in the UK.
Films not in English need embedded English subtitles.
Use of AI must be declared, and a film may not simulate real people without their consent.
Entry is free for filmmakers based in Cambridgeshire and for returning festival directors and producers. Directors from the Global Majority receive a 25% discount.
Selected films must deliver a DCP at least one month before the festival.
The online-availability rule for shorts catches people out. A short that has been sitting on a public video page for a year is not eligible, however good it is. If you plan to enter festivals, keep the film private or password-protected until your festival run is over.
Industry Day
The festival runs an Industry Day with Anglia Ruskin University, a day of workshops, panels and discussions for filmmakers, students and professionals. The 2025 edition was the fourth. For a freelancer based in the East of England it is one of the few structured industry events within reach without travelling to London, and it is cheaper in time and money than most.
For film writers – Reel Voices
The scheme most relevant to critics is CFF Reel Voices, run with Anglia Ruskin University. It offers emerging film journalists tailored mentoring from industry professionals, workshops and one-to-one support, plus early access to festival screenings. Participants produce reviews that are published. For a new critic that last point is the point: published, edited work tied to a recognised festival is what editors ask for when you pitch them.
For young people – Youth Lab and First Steps
CFF Youth Lab is for 16 to 24-year-olds: discussion groups, workshops, networking events, talks from industry professionals and career support. Members also judge the Youth Lab Jury Award, which is early jury experience that looks good on a CV.
First Steps offers volunteering, mentoring and internships, aimed particularly at young people from disadvantaged and minoritised backgrounds, as a route into film industry work.
Using the festival well
A few practical points from how festivals of this size work:
1. Read the programme the day it appears. It is published on 30 September. Screenings with filmmaker Q&As are where you meet people, and they fill first. 2. Go to other people’s Q&As, not only your own. The conversation in the foyer afterwards is where collaborations begin. 3. Treat the premiere as an asset. A UK premiere can be spent only once. Decide where it earns the most. 4. If you write, write during the festival. Reviews published while a film is on screen are read. Reviews published a month later mostly are not.
The festival is eleven days of cinema for the city. For the people who make and write about films, it is also one of the more accessible professional doors in British film. Most of those doors are listed on the festival’s own website, and many close well before the first screening.
Maria Bregman is a film critic and documentary director. Dates, rules and programme details are from the Cambridge Film Festival website, checked on 11 September 2026. Check the official site before booking or submitting.
