SET Film Festival Accelerator Programme
The SET Film Festival Accelerator Programme is a dedicated development initiative offering three months of bespoke curatorial support to three UK-based artists and filmmakers.
Running from 15 July to 15 October 2026, the programme offers the selected cohort the opportunity to refine and complete a film or video project currently in the production or post-production stage.
Launched in response to the challenges of the current funding landscape and the unique obstacles faced by emerging filmmakers, this initiative provides a pragmatic, encouraging, and collaborative space for participants to develop their practice, learn from one another, and realise their projects with clarity, originality, and ambition.
Applications for the 2026 programme are now closed. The SET Film Festival team is currently reviewing all submissions, and all applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by Monday 6 July 2026.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to apply.
What the programme offers
- Bespoke curatorial support: close critical feedback, guidance, and open discussion directly from the SET Film Festival team.
- Professional development: focused sessions and peer-led crits surrounding questions of form, style, creative direction, pitching, funding, and festival promotion.
- Industry network: connections to industry mentors and guest contributors across the spheres of film production, exhibition, and distribution.
- Marketing and exposure: dedicated profile spotlights across SET’s digital channels and marketing campaigns, amplifying each practitioner’s work to broader industry audiences.
- Festival showcase: the opportunity to share completed projects or programme outcomes as part of a dedicated presentation at this year’s festival in November.
Structure and commitment
This inaugural year is viewed as an experimental, flexible lab shaped collaboratively with the chosen filmmakers around their schedules. To accommodate varying practices and locations, the accelerator operates on a flexible, hybrid basis (online and in-person components) depending on where the cohort is based in the UK.
Eligibility and criteria
- Open to emerging artists and filmmakers currently residing anywhere in the UK.
- Projects can be at any stage of production or post-production (from principal photography and found-footage assembly to final editing and rough cuts). Please note: as the programme concludes mid-October ahead of the November showcase, applicants with works still in production must demonstrate a realistic timeline for festival readiness.
- We welcome projects across all genres, including but not limited to artists’ moving image, documentary, narrative, fiction, and experimental cinema.
About SET Film Festival
SET Film Festival is an independent grassroots festival for contemporary, artist, and archival film, run by SET, a London-based arts organisation and registered charity. Founded in 2023 and curated by Amina Ali, Ellie Dobbs and Verity Monroe, the festival presents experimental practices and emerging voices outside conventional exhibition and distribution contexts.
Held each November at our arts and social club, SET Social in Peckham, the festival unfolds across a month of weekly film nights. Screening programmes are shaped through an open call, bringing documentary, narrative, and artists’ movingimage practices into dialogue alongside international features. This year, the festival will run from 5 November to 3 December 2026.
Contact us
For general enquiries, email filmfestival@setspace.uk
For press enquiries, email: press@setspace.uk
Follow @set.filmfestival for programme announcements and updates, or sign up to our mailing list.