straight 8

+ 1. we have a winner

spindle films london grabbed gold in our latest company straight 8 shootout on december 3 with their fab comedy 'for the record'. see it here along with all the films entered, including our own warm up film about the berlin based analogue camera shop: click & surr

we've already opened entry for our shootout at cannes (ad fest) in june 2020 - see 6 below

+ 2. HEAR WHAT MAKES OUR JURY TICK

listen to two of our jury members talking film. if you've entered straight 8 2020 or are planning to, it might be an idea to know what they're about!

listen to asif kapadia recently on bbc radio 4's desert island discs

listen to robbie ryan discuss short films and shooting with natural light on the cinematography podcast

+ 3. the big super 8 cheat sheet

find out a ton of stuff about super 8

we've just launched a new resource page for anyone wanting to know more about super 8. 'everything' you need to know is a tall order

but if it's not answered there you can send us a question and we'll add the answer. check it out now and help to build a powerful and useful hive-mind for the world... click here

+ 4. a small handful of reduced price places for straight 8 2020 - hurry

this time last year we opened straight 8 2019 and in two months all 150 places were taken. right now we have less than 90 places left for our straight 8 2020 competition to screen in cannes in may at the film festival

we release 30 on the 8th of each month. all dec/jan/feb places have a deadline of march 8th and are £180/£190/£200 repsectively

however [CHRISTMAS PRESENT ALERT!!] we're offering a few places at just £88.88 with a deadline of feb 8th. grab one before they run out, only here

to take a december place for march 8 deadline while they last, click here

either way entry to straight 8 2020 is a good christmas present idea isn't it?... green, immediate purchase, no items to ship. think about who might love a bit of filmmaking inspiration for next year. if it's you, drop big hints

see who's entered from where on our updated entry map on the 2020 page on our site. and come on asia, africa and south america!! if you have friends there tell them to enter

+ 5. NEW! submit with subtitles! and the best foreign language film goes to...

what are you talking about?

well, it's always good to know what's going on in a film.... and you may not want to make your film in english. so we got our heads round this

now if you want to, you can submit your straight 8 with subtitles if you wish... so long as they are literally subtitles and don't add creatively to the story/idea

to do so, you supply a 4:3 movie file with white helvetica text on a bright green background (or alpha channel if you know how) with your audio on it - as well as sending your audio separately as normal

we will only line it up like we do your audio, to the first frame, and as an overlay on your film. and that's it... no creative advantage but very fair if you want to make your film in your own language. bon chance!

+ 6. straight 8 shootout cannes 2020 OPEN - cowardly companies need not apply

work at a creative company of any kind, anywhere in the world? or know someone who does?

get them entered into our shootout

2.5 minutes of super 8 // no editing // EVERY film gets screened at the cinema premiere in june at cannes ad fest // winners voted by entered companies only // they donate prize pot to charities of their choice

all straight 8 shootout details and entry only here

+ 7. londoners - give a filmmaker a bed!

our friends at london short film festival are trialling a new scheme to make international filmmakers more welcome in london - and you could help them out. check out the idea here - we think it's gr8

and see the programme for this short film festival in january in london here

+ 8. happy holidays and happy new year and thank you...

have a gr8 break wherever you are, whatever you do, and whoever you do it with, have fun!

2020 has a nice ring to it. we're looking forward to it

we know we're gonna meet more great people in may at cannes film festival, as always, and that might be you. and we'll be going back to cannes in june for the company straight 8 shootout

and we'll be making other films and doing other stuff. but first some down time and time to reflect on 2019...

it was our 20th year and it felt great to celebrate with even more great films made, parties, some kick-ass screenings and lots more new friendships made. our heartfelt thanks go to everyone who joined in - whether we met you along the way or not, yet

so we wish you all the best and look forward to seeing many of you on the other side

signing off

straight 8 x