The English Riviera Film Festival is now open for film submissions from across the world for our 2025 International Awards and 10th Anniversary year.
We are excited to be holding this year’s Awards on March 15 2025 in Pengelly Hall at Torquay Museum.
We have grown from a single day’s event in 2015 to a year-round programme of screening events, workshops, panels and networking, all culminating in the English Riviera International Film Awards. Previous award winners have hailed from the USA, Canada, Italy, Netherlands and Japan and we have been delighted to offer a warm welcome to delegates from across the globe whose films have been shortlisted.
Check out the History of the ERFF Festival events from to 2015 to 2023 on the about page and below previous Award Winners.
2021
Best Film :Guide me home ( Stefan Georgiou )
Audience Award : Replay ( Bridget O’Driscoll and Claire Chassagne )
English Riviera Film Festival Award ( Devon ) : Wake ( Katie Beard and Naomi Turner )
English Riviera Film Festival Award (Devon ) Festival Director’s Choice : Agatha Swims ( Amanda Bluglass and Karen Marshall )
South Devon College Film Makers of the year : Milly Green and Samuel Jordan
Best Director : Bridget O’Driscoll ( Replay )
Best Animated Film : On/Off ( Nicolas P Villarreal )
Best Documentary Film : Best Foot Forward ( Lewis Carter and Kate Beasley)
Best Actress : Amada Santos ( Gods)
Best Actor : Michael Muyunda ( Lifelike )
Best Cinematography : Keidrych Wasley ( Guide me home )
Best Screenplay : Bridget O’Driscoll and Jerome Wiciak ( Relay )
Best Score : Harry Brokensha ( Guide me Home )
Best Newcomer : Melanie Stockton- Brown and Amy Tatum ( Beloved )
2020
Best Film :Shuttlecock ( Tommy Gillard, Simeon Costello and Ashleigh Powell )
English Riviera Film Festival Award : Shuttlecock ( Tommy Gillard, Simeon Costello and Ashleigh Powell )
Best Director : Kieran Stringfellow ( Bulldog)
Best Animated Film : Grit ( Matt Thomas )
Best Documentary Film : Get bigger, get different or get out ( James Cox )
Best Actress : Emmeline Hartley ( Keep Breathing )
Best Actor : Jean Claude-Dreyfus ( Bless me father)
Best Cinematography : Boris Hallvig ( Shuttlecock )
Best Screenplay : Keep Breathing ( Emmeline Hartley, Mark Corden, and Tommy draper)
Best Makeup : The day you long for
Audience Award : 16 Days ( Natasha Moore and Justin Shelvin )
2019
Best Film : Chumbak ( Isabelle van Hoorn and Tobias Edward Theodore Worrall )
Semi Finalist – Best Film : Swivel ( Lois Norman )
English Riviera Film Festival Award : Cut From Cloth ( Tommy Gillard and Simeon Costello )
Best Director : Rosie Westhoff ( Treacle )
Best Animated film : Featherweight ( Kayleigh Gibbons)
Best Actress : Jodie Price ( Safekeeping)
Best Actor : Emerson Pike ( Cut From Cloth)
Best Cinematography : Halyna Hutchins ( Treacle )
Best Comedy : School’s out ( Jamille van Wijngaarden )
Audience Award : School’s out ( Jamille van Wijngaarden )
Runners up : All that Remains and Chumbak
South Devon College Film Maker of the year : Nathan Grant
2018
Best Film : Catastrophe ( Jamille van Wijngaarden ) Holland
English Riviera Film Festival Award : Flies ( Baobab)
Best Director : Bridget O’ Driscoll ( Session no.78)
Best Actor : Ayinde Howell ( Foxes) USA
Best Actress : Christian Hardy ( Fort Box ) UK
Best Screenplay : Tristan Taylor and Garrick Bernard for Foxes
Audience Award : Samsara ( Lucy Townsend )
2017
Best Film : Dear Kate ( Iiona McCrea and Matthew Ackland )
Director : Ilona McCrea ( Dear Kate )
Best Director : Kenjo McCurtain ( Automation )
Best Actor : Yasuhiro Lto (Automation )
Best Actress : Emily Haigh (The Inuring)
Best Screenplay : Ilona McCrea ( Dear Kate)
Audience Award : It Girl – ( Director Simon Lex )
South Devon College Film maker of the year : Team for the film Run: Nicole Rosen, James Bridgeman , Shannon Brown, Riekus Thompson and Sophie Hill Presented by Peter Richardson
Best Director : Kenjo McCurtain ( Automation ) JAPAN
Best Film and ScreenPlay : IIona Elizabeth McCrea ( Dear Kate ) and Producer Matthew Ackland ( Dear Kate ) CANADA