One minute movie and sixty word story competitions 2026

Partnering with the Department’s DIY Arts Festival, this year’s theme is 'Resistance’. We invite students, alumni and colleagues from any discipline or area of the University to submit short films or written pieces based on the idea of resistance. Our special judging panel is to be announced soon.

You can interpret the theme however you choose and take any approach you like - fact or fiction, literal or abstract, it’s up to you. Tell us a story, in just sixty seconds or sixty words, that responds to or takes inspiration from the word ‘resistance’.

The competition is open to all University of Birmingham students (undergraduate and postgraduate) as well as staff and alumni. The winners will be announced at a special event to be held in June 2026 during UoB Xtra and prizes will be awarded across both strands.

• View the winning film ‘From You, 125 Days Ago’ and other entries from 2025 (theme: 125)

The rules

Your film or piece of writing must work with the theme of 'Resistance’.

You must have copyright control of any audio or visual material that goes into your film and cannot replicate existing published works in your story. This means either filming it yourself or using audiovisual material to which you have copyright permission.

There are many sources of copyright free images, videos, music and other audio material available online that can be used under appropriate Creative Commons licenses, or because they are already in the public domain.

Your film must not exceed one minute (60 seconds) in length – this includes any credits! Likewise, stories must not exceed 60 words (but this does not include the title).

You are welcome to be creative with the written format of your story.

You may enter a maximum of three times, whether in one category or across both.

Deadline for submissions

• 13:00 UK time on Friday 1 May 2026

Submission format

Films can be submitted via a service such as WeTransfer or OneDrive to ftv@contacts.bham.ac.uk. Please ensure that download permissions are enabled.

Stories should be submitted as a word document attachment, emailed to ftv@contacts.bham.ac.uk

• Please give your film/story a title and include this alongside your ID number (if a student) in the file name.
• If you are entering in the staff or alumni category, please specify this when sending in your film/story.

By entering the competition, you consent to your film or story being shown/read aloud at the showcase event in June and published online or in other campus platforms afterwards.

Questions

If you have any questions about format, content, copyright, or anything else related to the competition, then please email ftv@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Further inspiration

• View the winning film and read the winning stories from 2024 (theme: fluidity)
• View the winning film from 2023, ‘La Tête Parlante’, and other entries from 2022-23 (theme: transition)
• View the winning film from 2019, ‘Synchronicity’, and other entries from the 2018-19 competition (theme: how green is your heart?)
• View the winning film from 2018, ‘The Third Law’, and other entries from the 2017-18 competition(theme: stop/start)
• View the winning film from 2017, ‘What does water mean to you?’ and other entries from the 2016-17 competition(theme: land and water)
• View the winning film from 2016, ‘One Day’ and other entries from the 2015-16 competition(theme: memory and forgetting)