The festival, 2011–2015
A record of the Greenhorn Short Film Festival: five editions in London for first-time and early-career filmmakers, built from press coverage, venue listings and public records.
- 2011 1st edition, New Diorama Theatre The festival began in October 2011 as one evening of curated short films at the New Diorama Theatre in London.
- 2012 2nd edition The second Greenhorn festival in 2012, whose programme included Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, the puppet short that went on to reach millions online.
- 2013 3rd edition, New Diorama Theatre The third Greenhorn, on 6 October 2013 at the New Diorama Theatre, paired screenings with a panel on where short film ends and artist moving image begins.
- 2014 4th edition, ArtHouse Crouch End The fourth Greenhorn moved to the ArtHouse in Crouch End, grew to three days and launched the Young Greenhorn award, won by Ed Chappell's Sandyman.
- 2015 5th edition, ArtHouse Crouch End Greenhorn's fifth festival, 11–15 November 2015 at the ArtHouse Crouch End, with a ten-film selection, a Japan strand and a Best of the Fest award for Charity.
What Greenhorn was
The Greenhorn Short Film Festival was an independent festival for first-time and early-career filmmakers. Alix Taylor and Flora Bradwell founded it in London in 2011. It started as a single evening of curated shorts at the New Diorama Theatre, a small theatre near Warren Street. By 2014 it had become a three-day programme with screenings, script writing workshops, industry panels and networking lunches.
Its official selections were small, around a dozen films. The festival favoured shorts with what one reviewer called an “unusual slant”: offbeat animation, black comedy, eerie drama, documentary and music videos. Its 2014 call for entries asked for films under 15 minutes, made by filmmakers at the start of their careers.
The festival was funded by donations, ticket sales and crowdfunding, with no major sponsor. Director Mike Leigh was its patron. Its later editions moved to the ArtHouse cinema in Crouch End, north London, and added themed strands, including programmes of short films from Japan made in partnership with Tokyo’s Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia.
The company behind the festival was dissolved in December 2016. We found no evidence of an edition after 2015.
About this archive
These pages are put together from what remains in public: press reviews, venue listings, a Kickstarter page, event calendars and Companies House records. Each page lists its sources. Where we don’t know something, such as a full programme, we say so instead of guessing.
Films in the archive
- 2012, dir. Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling's puppet short, which looks like a children's programme until it doesn't. Greenhorn screened it in 2012.
- 2014, dir. Christine Hooper
On Loop
Christine Hooper's five-minute film about lying awake at night, built from collaged live action and stop-motion. Shown at Greenhorn in 2014.
- 2014, dir. Ed Chappell
Sandyman
Ed Chappell's short documentary about a man who draws vast patterns on the beach before the tide takes them. Winner of the first Young Greenhorn award, 2014.
- 2014, dir. Jake Lushington
The North London Book of the Dead
Jake Lushington's comedy drama, from a Will Self story, about a man who finds his dead mother living in a London suburb. In the Greenhorn 2014 selection.
- 2015, dir. Jimmy Dean
Charity
Jimmy Dean and Ellie Gocher's 16mm drama about a teenage girl from a travelling family whose brother comes home from prison. Best of the Fest, Greenhorn 2015.
- 2015, dir. Rory Waudby-Tolley
Tusk
Rory Waudby-Tolley's animated short about a mammoth thawed out into a future it doesn't recognise. Screened in Greenhorn's Strange World programme, 2015.
- 2015, dir. Will Bishop-Stephens and Chris Eales
Two Films About Loneliness
Will Bishop-Stephens and Chris Eales's split-screen, bilingual stop-motion short, which played Sundance and Oberhausen and the Greenhorn 2015 selection.