First NSF: Reading, UK. Summer 2026.

The first NSF will debut at "Biscuit Town", Reading, UK. A cultural haven that is located a short twenty minutes, one-stop ride, from London Paddington. Applications will open December/25 on Film Freeway.

A little about our hyper-local-location: The Biscuit Factory
Once the home of the largest biscuit factory in the entire world, now a three-screen cinema, bar, coffee shop, live performance space and community hub situated at the heart of Reading’s town centre. We couldn't be happier to have such a hyper-local space to kick-off this initiative and shape up the blueprint for what NSF can become.
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Amazing screening rooms equipped with top-quality projection and sound.

Gathering space with a bar, music and lots of room to socialize.

Workshop space, for the Filmmakers' exchange workshop.

An unique, hyper-local, fully trendy and London-accessible cinema space.

NSF core principles:

No profit, no barrier, shared costs: NonDe is about collectively building bridges.
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At NSF there is only a small participation fee at submission stage and this participation fee is returned in value to all filmmakers (selected or not). Only filmmakers that are selected to screen pay the full event contribution. This contribution goes straight into real costs: cinema hire, projection, running the event. Everything is done with a small team of chapter founders. Costs are shared transparently with the filmmakers and everything goes towards the event. There is no profit. ‍

Rejection into participation: NonDe is about inclusion.
‍Non-selected filmmakers receive their participation fee back in value and perks such as access to free tickets, one week private online access (post event) to the shorts, recording access to the lab that takes place during the festival, and access to the Community Film Lab toolbox.  

‍Hyper-local and replicable: NonDe is about going local, first.
We are starting with the UK edition, first event will be open for UK short films. Then we will be using the learnings to set up a replicable blueprint (think TEDx), so more organizers can replicate the initiative and ignite their own local, regional, NSF editions. The goal is harnessing the full power of micro-community collaboration.

‍Focus on shorts: The NonDe mindset should be ingrained early.
Shorts are where most filmmakers start. This is where we want NSF to focus on. We feel there is the need to lay strong foundations, early, so filmmakers can feel supported and gain confidence in the early-stages.

Community exchanges: NonDe is about peer-guidance.
We want the festival to have a strong peer to peer educational drive, leveraging the potential of open and honest post-mortem filmmaking sharing sessions. These labs will be organized as a real exchange arena where people can learn, connect and leave feeling empowered, knowing they are not alone. These workshops will be in place so filmmakers can share learnings, tools and contacts. This material will feed into the Film Lab toolbox.

Film Lab Toolbox: NonDe is about sharing key resources.
As a result from the exchange labs, at each edition, we will compile a local community toolbox that is accessible to non-selected and selected filmmakers. This toolbox is a direct reflection of the solutions presented by the filmmakers at the Film Lab, and it will grow at every new edition.

‍Audience harvesting model: Our inclusive, no-losers model is designed to make sure there will be an audience in the room when your film screens. Many short-films that make into festivals end up screening to empty rooms. That's a sad reality no one is talking about. One of the causes being, most festivals rely on ticket selling for each block. At NSF each film receives a fair amount of tickets so they can bring crew, talent and guests. The remaining tickets are not "box-officed" but, instead, distributed for free to the non-selected filmmakers and audience, on a first-come first-served basis (FCFS), which combined with the hyper-local nature of the event, helps raise attendance.

Main benefits:

Non-selected filmmakers receive: .
- Online (post-festival) private access to films for a week.
- Recording access to the "How I've Made It" workshops.
- Free tickets for screening days (FCFS).
- Lifetime access to the community toolbox.

Selected filmmakers receive: 
- Screen their film at the festival.
- Online (post-festival) private access to films for a week.
- Contributes to "How I've Made It" workshops.
- A fair amount of free tickets for crew and talent to attend the full event (not only their screening block).
- Lifetime access to the community toolbox.



A word from the founders: 
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As you can see, these guiding principles are designed to reinforce accessibility, education and leverage on community exchanges. As filmmakers we feel the pain, so this is deeply personal to us. We felt its time we bundle together and do something about it.
So, we dared to sit together and design a more inclusive festival model. The design work for NSF was informed by Z expertise in Design Thinking, having authored books and been an influential Service Designer in his past career, and Su's Product Lead experience, having spear-headed tech product launches in Silicon Valley for companies like Apple for decades. Out of this collaboration, and industry cross-pollination, this first iteration of the NSF model was born. That said, this is just v1, and it is out of experiments together with the community that the real NSF will rise.  

NSF is not a replacement for prestige festivals. Awards and recognition are important. NSF was born to be a beacon for community-driven empowerment and participation in the craft of filmmaking.

Our hope is that this initiative can have an impact, even if only a tiny, in how local filmmakers share and co-create value between themselves and local projection spaces.
If you are interested in organising an NSF in your region, or in getting involved in the first UK edition in any capacity, please reach out to us at su@nondeshortsfestival.com.
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