LIFF Shorts 2026: The Winners

LIFF SHORTS celebrates short films of all kinds, from around the world, across the UK and right here in Yorkshire. From nine competitions of short films, curated by our programmers, our teams of juries have selected the winning films. We want to say a huge thank you to our LIFF SHORTS Jurors and programmers for being part of this year's festival.

Yorkshire Short Film Competition

Winner: Nowt directed by Milda Baginskaité
Special Mention: Blue Hour directed by Kate Graham

Leeds Screendance Competition

Winner: Dikra directed by Pierre-Loys Joubert
Special Mention: Weeyagale directed by Ainslie Senfuka

Leeds Music Video Competition

Winner: Tamara Flores by Chinagona directed by Rupert Höller
Special Mention: Rastacid by Kuxon directed by Dianna Szczotka
Special Mention 2: Chimeras Tonight by Dystopia Gently directed by Veronika Neputina
Special Mention 3: Chapel FM Youth Jury Choice: Roll The Dice directed by Cho SeungMin

Leeds Queer Short Film Competition

Winner: The Wind in Ash directed by Sun Kun
Special Mention: If/When directed by Courtney Westbrook
Special Mention 2: The Muscle Knows Better Than To Wait directed by Erica Monde

British Short Film Competition

Winner: Every Time I See a Yellow Car directed by Matt Chandler
Special Mention: Hindsight directed by Remi R.M. Moses
Special Mention 2: Under the Wave Off Little Dragon directed by Luo Jian

Fanomenon Short Film Competition

Winner: Time's Up, I'm Afraid directed by James Button
Special Mention: Night Feeds directed by Rana Roy
Special Mention 2: Burn It All directed by Domenico De Feudis

International Documentary Short Film Competition

Winner: Intersecting Memory directed by Shayma’ Awawdeh
Special Mention: Nothing Happens After Your Absence directed by Ibrahim Omar

World Animation Competition

Winner: So He Grabbed the Knife directed by Sam Kuwa
Special Mention: Uka-Uka directed by Henri Veermaäe
Special Mention 2: El Cuerpo de Cristo directed by Bea Lema

Louis Le Prince International Short Film Competition

Winner: Scorching directed by Beidi Wang
Special Mention: Fried Chicken and Strip Checkers directed by Ophelia Harutyunyan
Special Mention 2: We Were Here directed by Pranav Bhasin

Catch the winning films again at our LIFF Shorts 2026: The Award Winners screenings.