UNBROKEN – A mental health awareness festival

UNBROKEN 2020 POSTPONED

It is with much regret that we have to announce the postponement of the 2020 UNBROKEN Festival & Short Film Prize, due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

UPDATE: We had hoped to be able to offer a reduced programme of events in October 2020 but, with the ongoing uncertainty, it has become clear that will not be possible. As a result, the festival events we had planned – including some new ones due to be offered in partnership with the Society of Authors – will now be postponed until 2021.

We are delighted, however, that the 2020 Short Film Prize will still be able to go ahead! It will be held online for the first time, with international audiences invited to watch and vote for your favourite shortlisted film. The winners, and the recipient of the Audience’s Choice Award, will then be announced on October 10th: World Mental Health Day.

Please visit our 2020 Shortlisted Films page to watch our chosen short films. We are delighted that this year we have received our largest number of entries ever, submitted from countries as far-flung as Denmark, Sweden and Spain to Canada, Bulgaria and Thailand!

We look forward to sharing the shortlist with you later in the year and hope you stay safe and well in the meantime.

UNBROKEN made its debut as a mixed arts ‘mini-festival’, produced by Shadow Road – a small company with an enduring interest in mental health – at Theatre503 on World Mental Health Day 2016, with the aim of increasing awareness of the issues, reducing the stigma surrounding them by opening up the conversation, and confounding expectations as to what a production about ‘mental health’ might involve! Following an extremely successful and at times deeply moving day, we were determined to return in 2017 and build upon the foundations laid in the previous year.

The 2017 festival, expanding from one day to three, returned to Theatre503 and new venue The Frontline Club in October, with an exciting programme of events. We were particularly pleased that one of these was the inaugural UNBROKEN Short Film Prize which allowed us to explore the issues surrounding mental health through yet another art form!

In 2018, we were delighted to move to a new venue – the OSO Arts Centre – which enabled us to bring all of the festival’s events under a single roof in beautiful surroundings. That year the festival took place from Friday August 31st until Sunday 2nd September – the first step on our way from October to May in order to coincide with UK Mental Health Awareness Week.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 our full in person festival was sadly not possible. Instead we held the 2020 UNBROKEN film prize online for the first time! We were delighted to receive our largest number of entries ever, submitted from countries as far-flung as Denmark, Sweden and Spain to Canada, Bulgaria and Thailand! Holding this festival online allowed people across the world to watch our shortlisted films and vote for their favourite for our Audience Choice Award, where we had a staggering 877 individual votes cast! Please visit our 2020 Shortlisted Films page to learn more about our chosen short films and view 2020’s prize winners.

Due to the ongoing pandemic our plans for the next in person festival are still on hold. However, on the success of last years digital Short Film Prize, we will continue to hold the Short Film festival online with hopefully an in person screening, if safely feasible.

Submissions for 2021’s Short Film Festival are now open. And you can submit via Filmfreeway here.

Our submissions window for 2020 has not opened yet. Details and dates will be announced on this website as soon as we have them confirmed.
In the meantime, please do get in touch if you are interested in getting involved in the 2020 festival in any way – whether as a playwright, director, performer, artist, creative writer, collaborator, speaker, festival volunteer or sponsor. We’d love to hear from you! 🙂