straight 8 shootout 2026 opens for entries
Make a two and a half minute film on Super 8mm film, then see it on screen in Cinema Les Arcades, Cannes, and Prince Charles Cinema, London.
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Cinelab Film & Digital present straight 8 shootout 2026 with additional support from APA, shots, Kodak and MachineShop.
Make a two and a half minute short film on just one cartridge of Super 8mm cine film. Open brief. Send your exposed unprocessed film to Cinelab Film & Digital in London, and upload your soundtrack, made ‘blind’. See your work for the very first time at the film’s public premiere in Cannes, and then London.
Enter ASAP before all places are gone only at www.straight8.net/shootout. Shoot and deliver to the lab in London by 29th May. See your film in Cannes morning of Friday June 26th, and London Tuesday 30th June, evening.
Join in and compete with these companies who’ve already confirmed their
places: Born Social, DEPT Agency, Drool, Hereford College of Arts, Mr+Positive, Neverland, New-land, Pulse Films, Siren Music, Tarot, VCCP Girl & Bear.
They’ve shown the courage of their convictions and creativity, now it’s your turn. Straight 8 is not for the faint of heart. Has your team got what it takes to gather around this challenge and make a piece of cinema together that will be judged live by an industry audience?
World Premiere and awards presentation. Cannes - Friday June 26th 2026 -11am-12:45pm + alfresco breakfast 10am sponsored by shots. Cinema les Arcades, 77 Rue Felix Faure, Cannes.
UK Premiere. London - Tuesday June 30th 2026 - 6pm + nearby after-party Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London.
Any kind of creative company is invited to take the straight 8 shootout challenge: to make a 2.5 minute short film created entirely in-camera on just one cartridge of super 8mm film. Every shot is taken in story order, with no opportunity for re-takes or editing. Any visual effects, colouring and titling must be done the old-fashioned way: as part of the shoot, with the camera. Super 8 doesn’t record sound, so soundtracks are made ‘blind’ and must be original. Entrants send their exposed but un developed film cartridges to straight 8 partners Cinelab Film & Digital who will process and scan the films. straight 8 will then line up each soundtrack with the first frame of the film. It’s that ‘simple’.
