Sheffield Adventure Film Festival

The Sheffield Adventure Film Festival has a well earned reputation for being a friendly festival, welcoming everyone whether you're an outdoors enthusiast or an armchair adventurer who just loves a good story.

As well as watching films, you can share a ShAFF beer with adventure sports athletes and filmmakers in the bar, check out the exhibitors area in the Outpost, take inspiration from our free ShED Talks or get involved in a range of outdoor activities. And that's just ShAFF. Since Sheffield re-branded itself a few years ago as The Outdoor City the weekend has become the UK's biggest weekend on the outdoor calendar. The Outdoor Weekender boasts ShAFF, the Climbing Works International Festival (one of the biggest bouldering competitions in the world), The Magnificent 7 (a road cycling race taking in 7 of Sheffield's toughest hills), The Howard Street Duel (mountain bikes racing two at a time through Sheffield City Centre) and plenty more besides.

Each summer Festival Director Matt Heason starts watching the hundreds and hundreds of films which are submitted to ShAFF. It's a labour of love. Around one hundred make the Official Selection each year. Matt's more than happy to give feedback on any films that don't make the final cut and we're particularly keen to work with producers to bring new talent to the screen, including young, up and coming directors, local producers and female filmmakers.

We publish the official programme in January and unlike most other festivals we announce the winners the week before the festival. We want to give the audience the chance to see if they agree with our panel of judges. We do this with a cutting edge scoring system which people can use immediately after their film sessions have ended.