After a successful first year, the Mansfield Town Film Festival is ready to return to the Mansfield Palace Theatre for another year from 26^th – 28^th July 2024.

The festival was born of an ethos to promote diverse working class talent, and took place in July 2023 where filmmakers and film goers from all over the world celebrated up and coming filmmaking talent.

The three-day festival had over 100 short film screenings as well as breakout sessions with industry experts and local artistic organisations such as Film Hub Midlands and Real Talk TV.

The festival also attracted the attention of three-time BAFTA winning filmmaker Ken Loach who spoke on the opening night.

“I think this is going to be a great event. It’s important that towns like Mansfield have artistic and cultural events like this one”, the director said.

“We tend to get forgotten when the grants are dished out and never seem to get the big events like this one that we should have”.

“Art is important. Films are worth more than just the commercial events we get in the multiplexes. Films show us many different cultures, different experiences, and different backgrounds. It’s important because we see our world better when we see it reflected on the big screen. We laugh together, we smile, we weep, we get angry, and maybe we see our own world a little more clearly", Loach added.

The festival concluded with the very first Mansfield Film Awards, which saw local Mansfield talent taking home two of the biggest awards of the night.