about the festival
The Fisheye Film Festival aims to “bring the world of films to our screens” and capture the imagination of the local community. It does this by hosting film competitions, as well as showing films less likely to be seen at our local mainstream cinema.
Through the International Film Competition, Fisheye Film Festival promotes the work of up-and-coming filmmakers from the UK and around the world, providing a platform for a diversity of films to be shown locally.
In addition to the competitions, the festival holds a variety of film related events that are interactive, entertain, challenge perceptions, but most importantly are enjoyable for people to participate in.
Through all of these activities, Fisheye Film Festival offers filmmakers the chance to meet and pitch their films against other global entries, whilst enabling audiences to “experience the bigger picture” and discover a world of new films.
history
In 2026, Fisheye Film Festival will be 11 years old and in its 10th edition, continuing to grow and improve year on year.
The festival was hatched in early 2015 after a conversation between Mariko Francombe and Simon Kearey. Mariko was one of the founders of a local filmmakers group, The Ellipsis Network, and Simon was developing the Wycombe Arts Forum. Along with Greg Witek and Peter Lee-Wright, the group organised the first community film festival in September 2015. On offer was a variety of feature films, masterclasses, the opportunity for local filmmakers to participate in the “Show Off Your Shorts” event and a 48-hour film challenge.
2016 saw the introduction of our first international short film competition, which was free to enter and attracted a huge response from filmmakers around the world. As a result, we showed around 50 excellent short films and awarded our first laurels.
In 2017, we held our first Awards ceremony at Cineworld, attracting filmmakers to a special Gala night. During the day we screened a selection of short films, then announced the award winners and gave out the certificates during the evening. Afterwards we celebrated their success in the bar! The 2017 independent feature film programme was cutting edge, screening films which subsequently won British Independent Film Awards and went on to BAFTA success.
In 2018, we had even more creative talent to showcase with the addition of the Creative Challenge to our already incredibly successful International Film Competition.
In 2019 we took stock and changed the dates of our festival to run at the end of the film calendar, not too long after the film Awards season culminated in February 2020. The 2020 festival was our most accomplished in-person festival, delivered just before the UK lockdown. We adapted to the global situation, and hosted our 2021 festival using online technology, which created a positive experience for all involved.
Fisheye 2023 saw a welcome return to live events, this time focussing on delivering the film competition. Taking the hybrid approach of offering virtual screenings too enabled more access to the festival. It worked not only for people joining in remotely but also for some keen audience members to catch up with films online as well as attend in person.
The 2024 festival improved on the previous year’s approach with in-person screenings spread over a ten-day period, bookended by exciting celebratory events at the launch and the finale, and with films also available to watch online. It was the best attended by filmmakers of all our festivals and audience numbers were on the rise once again.
The 2025 festival celebrated 10 years since the first Fisheye Film Festival and added some novel aspects to the usual programme; a local filmmakers ‘open mic’ session; Fisheye Fusion exploring a space ‘where arts and film collide’; and a Film Futures Forum supported by Marlow Film Studios which convened local influencers working towards a healthy future industry.
people
The Fisheye Film Festival could not happen without the team of volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes to plan, organise and market events, then run the festival when it lands in and around High Wycombe.
We would like to mention the following people for their valuable contribution to this year’s event:
Mariko Francombe
Richard Rowntree
Jerry Joseph
Simon Kearey
Mark Singer
Jamie Terry
Barbara Muston
Fiona O’Brien
Jack Mundy
Neil Marshment
Lawrence Fernando
supporters
The festival could not happen without the generousity of our Sponsors who are based in and around High Wycombe.
We would like to show our gratitude to the following organisations:
sponsor
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Venue Sponsors
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