Celebrating its 17th year, Encounters Bristol International Film Festival is now the leading UK gateway to the world’s most prestigious short film and animation awards including the Academy Awards®, the BAFTAs, the European Film Awards and the Cartoon d’Or. One of the best-known showcases and meeting points for emerging talent, the festival seeks to promote the short form as a means to develop and progress the next generation of filmmakers and animators.

The 2011 festival will be held between Wednesday 16 – Sunday 20 November in Bristol, UK.

Submissions for this year’s festival are now open and run until Thursday 30 June 2011. The final, selected films for competition will be divided into the three festival strands; Animated Encounters, dedicated to showcasing short animated films, Brief Encounters which provides a platform for both live action and animated short films, and DepicT!, the competition for 90 second short films. Under 21s are also invited to submit shorts under 5mins into Electric December part of Fresh Flix, Encounters’ young people’s showcase from June onwards.

Encounters accept short films from all over the world completed from 1 Jan 2010, under 30 minutes in length from every genre: animation, live action drama, documentary, experimental and music video, and does NOT have a premiere policy.

So if you’re a budding film maker, visit the Encounters website to find out all the details.