PQA Celebrates the 2025 Annual Film Festivals, The Biggest Yet.

The PQA Regional Film Festivals 2025

The Southern Regional Film Festival took place At Cineworld O2 Greenwich on Sunday, 2nd November, moving to a new location this year to accommodate the growing number of attendees. In addition to the Northern Regional Film Festival held at Cineworld Sheffield on Sunday 16th November, we welcomed a combined audience of over 1,500, showcasing over 200 short films, from 90 PQA academies, representing 66 locations across the UK.  

Award-Winning Films Created by Children and Young People

Every film showcased at the PQA Film Festivals are award-winning, celebrating academy projects and filmmaking competitions. Techniques learnt in the classroom are on display, with engaging performances, clever special effects, and story lines from thoughtful and reflective to comedic. Parents said they were so captivated they sank into their cinema seats, popcorn in hand, completely absorbed in the experience.

A selection of the films created in filmmaking classes in academy include:

• Rock Paper Villains by our youngest Main Academy students (Green Group) at PQA Maidenhead AM,

• PQA Blinders by the Blue Group at PQA Welwyn City morning academy

• Grease: Summer Nights performed by our eldest students (Red Group) at Exeter afternoon academy.

PQA’s annual summer filmmaking challenge ‘My Summer of My, had the theme of mindfulness, with young filmmakers encouraged to create a short video journal. At PQA, we use a shared language and gently encourage mindfulness practices to help nurture this awareness in our academies.

The winning entries were celebrated at the Film Festivals and can be seen here:

• Over 12 Category - Amelia from PQA Bexhill (Red Group) for her moving short film, “When the Light Slows Down”

• Under 12 Category - Miles from PQA Worcester (Blue Group) for his beautifully shot piece, “Tranquil Tides”

All the winning films are detailed here at PQATV.com, our dedicated website to showcase the on screen and behind the scenes work created by or students. Check out the Official Selection to see all the winners, and the Special Mentions, also recognised by the judges.

Why Filmmaking at PQA?

Our Film & TV module is one of the things our Main Academy students love most about PQA. Taught by professional filmmakers who bring their real-world experience to our academies students learn everything from planning a story and setting up a shot to acting for the screen and directing a film.

Our newly re-imagined Poppets classes, for 4-6-year-olds, include projects which introduce young children to the magic of filmmaking, preparing them for our Film & TV classes in the Main Academy when they turn six!

To learn more about our film and television classes, visit our Film and TV page.