Past Encounters

Encounters was the first festival to invite any of my films (and the only to screen all three of my shorts) and the first I attended as a filmmaker. Other invitations followed that first screening and I feel certain that Encounters opened the door to the industry for me. I feel forever grateful for that, and for the talks and events I attended.
— Charlotte Wells, writer & director of Aftersun

We’re marking the 30th edition of Encounters Festival (24 - 28 Sept) with a selection of first features from a few notable alumni, showing on Sundays throughout September. 

Encounters has been a major champion of new filmmaking talent over the last three decades, supporting their development through programmes like Shorts2Features and providing a platform for emerging early-career filmmakers who have since gone on to become significant feature filmmakers. 

This short season showcases the debut features of award-winning British director Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Sun 7 Sept) and Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier (Reprise, Sun 14 Sept), whose new feature Sentimental Value won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes and will be released here in late December. Arnold’s Oscar®-winning short Wasp and Trier’s NFTS graduation short Proctor both played in the 2003 edition of Encounters. 

We’re also showing the debut feature from Australian animator Adam Elliot, who paid us a visit earlier this year for the release of his latest film Memoir of a Snail. Elliot’s 2009 feature Mary and Max (Sun 21 Sept) followed a whole host of acclaimed short films, many of which played at Encounters throughout the 90s and early 00s, including Harvie Krumpet which won the Oscar® for Best Animated Short in 2003. 

The season concludes with a special screening of Charlotte Wells’ first feature during the festival weekend (Sun 28 Sept) – the Scottish filmmaker’s first short Tuesday premiered at Encounters in 2015, and her 2022 feature debut Aftersun announced her as a formidable filmmaking talent. 

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