Winners of last month’s Northampton Film Festival and where to see them

Among the winners were ‘Opening Up’ by Oz Arshad for Best Narrative Short; Best Narrative Feature went to ‘Mr Doom’ by Leif Johnson, featuring the music of Northampton band Phantom Isle, and Best Documentary Feature went to Simon Chambers for ‘Much Ado About Dying’. You can see the full line up of winners below.

If you missed the festival, here are the next opportunities to see some of the winning films:

You can watch the short films ‘REMEMBERING’, ‘The Brutalist’ and documentary ‘Retro Revolution - The Game Isn’t Over’ on the Northampton Film Festival (NFF) website now, plus trailers to the two winning feature films - ‘Mr Doom’ and ‘Much Ado About Dying’ Films – Northampton Film Festival

The multi-award-winning documentary feature ‘Much Ado About Dying’ is screening at selected cinemas across the UK from 3rd May, including Arts Cinema Crouch End and Genesis Cinema in London, Glasgow Film Theatre, Newbury’s Corn Exchange and Tyneside Cinema Newcastle. In the film we meet filmmaker Simon who is looking after his elderly, madcap gay uncle whose life is engulfed in a whirl of Shakespeare and clutter. To Simon’s dismay, uncle David lends his credit card to neighbours and greets visitors in the nude, but also teaches Simon a profound lesson on dying happy.

You can catch both the short film ‘Opening Up’ and feature film ‘Mr Doom’ at Romford Film Festival on Sunday 26th May, with ‘Opening Up’ also playing at Fastnet Film Festival in Ireland, Sunderland Short Film Festival and Bute Street Festival. If you’d like to watch the winner of the Best Northamptonshire Narrative Short film ‘Fifty-Four Days’ from Northamptonian Actor and Filmmaker Cat White, starring Celia Imrie, it is currently screening on all American Airlines flights as well as at the Poppy Jasper Film Festival in California, and there’s rumours of a special screening at the next Cannes Film Festival.

The rest of the films are continuing on their film festival journeys hoping to pick up laurels at other festivals around the world. Northampton Film Festival will be sharing news of the 2024 winning and shortlisted films on their social media @NNFilmFestival and via their newsletter as they get it Sign up to Northampton Film Festival's mailing list here (ck.page)

Here is the full list of winners:

16yrs and Under

Leighton Buzzard filmmaker El Green with the short film ‘Doors’,

Best Northamptonshire 16yrs and Under film - St Luke’s Primary School Duston for their film ‘Dyslexia & Me’.

The 17-23yrs New Filmmaker

Sheffield’s Dylan Scott for his dance short film ‘REMEMBERIN|G’

Best Northamptonshire short film - Emily Jane Matthews with ‘Bite The Hand’

Misfits and Mavericks category

Dylan Scott - ‘REMEMBERIN|G’

The Best Northamptonshire Misfits and Mavericks film - Kettering’s Joseph Burden for ‘The Brutalist’

Best Documentary Short

Northampton’s Kyle Adams ‘Retro Revolution – The Game Isn’t Over’

Best Documentary Feature

Simon Chambers’ ‘Much Ado About Dying’

Best Narrative Short

Oz Arshad’s ‘Opening Up’

Best Northamptonshire Narrative Short - Cat White for ‘Fifty-Four Days’

Best Narrative Feature

Leif Johnson’s ‘Mr Doom’ featuring the music of Northampton band Phantom Isle.

Northampton Film Festival attracted over 1200 admissions with many coming from outside the county including from Brighton, Sheffield and Manchester. The festival held 16 events over 11 days, showing over 70 films. It took place at Delapre Abbey, the University of Northampton, Northampton Filmhouse, Forum Cinema and Cineworld Northampton, starting with a special Opening Gala, which this year marked International Women’s Day and celebrated female filmmakers.

The festival was made possible by the support from Northampton Town Council, all the film screening venues, Panavision, CARRIER-media, Sage Communications and Haymarg Productions. Watch this space for announcements about the 2025 dates.