Blog: Film festivals

Membrana is the Latin word for film, and we are incredibly excited to bring the Membrana Film Festival to you, and to dig deep into the roots of the magic that is filmmaking.

It will be held on August 2ndrd 2026 at the Cultplex Cinema in Manchester, England.

We are very ambitious, and our aim is to become a cornerstone of the local and global film festival calendar, bringing unique and original films to our audience.

The festival's organiser is a filmmaker, and understands the love, care, passion, dedication, and hard work that it takes to create your film, and to bring it to the big screen.

The festival will promote and celebrate the filmmaking process, and is looking for films that push boundaries, and that teach us about the world we live in.

We are looking for arthouse, independent films, we want to be surprised by your submissions, and we appreciate that we cannot build our festival without your films, and that we will set ourselves apart by the quality of films we receive and exhibit.

We welcome all genres, in any language, and enjoy to watch subtitled films that open us to new worlds, and take us to a land far far away.

We welcome shorts and features, across live action narrative, animation, and documentary, and we look forward to receiving and watching your films.

For the 2026 Membrana Film Festival, we have opened up a Script Competition, with separate categories for Short Films, and Feature Films - all genres are welcome, and we also have the option for you to receive written coverage on your work.