Encounters Film Festival: A Conversation with Executive Director Dave Taylor-Matthews
“We're not necessarily all that well known in Bristol because it's quite a niche thing, right?”
Dave Taylor-Matthews says to me over the phone as he explains the film festival, Encounters, that he is executive director of. Now in its 31st year, the international film festival is the UK’s longest-running short film festival, a gateway to the BAFTAs, BIFA and European Film Awards, and this year, from the 23rd to the 27th of September, the festival will be screening 142 films, including 47 UK premieres, 17 international premieres and 7 worldwide premieres.
Started in 1995 to commemorate the centenary of the moving picture and originally launched as Brief Encounters, the festival celebrated the shorter reels that would have been more pervasive in the early days of film. However, these shorts are not just recognised by the festival as a homage to the early days of film; they are celebrated as an important part of today's media landscape as a platform where filmmakers can find their voice, establish themselves and experiment.
“It's where people can test out ideas and can find their voices. You fast forward a hundred years, and it's still true; it's still the place where people can experiment. Experienced filmmakers can experiment with stuff, and new voices get discovered all the time. So that's kind of the core of what the festival is.”
Central to this is the festival's international short film competition, which this year is screening over 200 films from every genre and hailing from 50 different countries. Encounters is recognised as one of the world's leading short film competitions, holding not only the UK’s nomination for the European Film Academy, meaning that any films that are selected will be via their international jury, but also as a qualifying platform for the BAFTA’s.
“So, in the competition, you're going to see films, filmmakers, actors, people who are coming up and going to be the stars of tomorrow. That's very much what we've discovered. I was going through the archives, and we found a Martin Freeman performance, and we've got a very early Phoebe Waller-Bridge performance.”
Encounters boasts quite the roster of alumni, including but not limited to: Denis Villeneuve, Lynne Ramsay, Ruben Östlund, Andrea Arnold, Julia Ducournau, Charlotte Wells and Joachim Trier.
“Encounters is a place to come and see what is going to come down the pipeline in the next five, ten years. It's a place where it's all about discovery.”
The festival's position as a stepping stone for the industry has ensured that many who go on to have successful careers hold Encounters close to their heart.
“We have people high up everywhere who, when you e-mail them and you think, oh, I'm never even going to get a response, you get a response saying, yes, you know, I produced this film in 2005, it played Encounters, it's really dear to my heart.”
The importance of this and the affection people feel towards the festival was very clear in my conversation with Dave and was something he, and the rest of the festival, is clearly very proud of.
“I remember last year I was at Sundance and somebody pulled out their phone, pulled up their IMDb page and showed me the poster from like 2010 where their short film got into Encounters and had the Encounter Laurel on IMDb and they were like, wow, it was transformative for us. This stuff is crazy, the amount of stories that you hear”.
This commitment to always looking forward and supporting the next generation of creators and storytellers can be seen in a stand that’s brand new for this year’s festival: screenPLAY, a family and youth weekend aimed at reassessing the way screens and ‘screen time’ is approached by parents and asking whether it’s really such a bad thing if harnessed appropriately.
“You used to go short film, feature film, then you're in cinema, and that's your career done.” Says Dave as he explains the archetypal career arc and how it’s changed. “Then we had the streaming wars, and now the BBC and other people are making content for YouTube, which was unimaginable five years ago, let alone ten years ago. If we're accepting now that YouTube is a platform that's accepted by everybody, then what happens in ten years when the current generation of kids come through? Are we going to be making content in Roblox or in Fortnite or these sorts of things, right?”
This is where screenPLAY comes in, aiming to bridge the gap into the next generation of creation and get people to engage with the narrative screen experiences that young people are currently experiencing. In a climate where children’s time spent with access to screens is a contested topic, it aims to separate the good from the bad and establish what a healthy relationship with screens is without stunting the technological fluency children may need in the future.
“What are the things that you can guide people through so that they can both have good, healthy screen experiences and open up those industrial pathways for them? You know, they may have careers in these industries! They're probably arguably more likely to have a career in content creation or YouTube or Roblox than they are to be making independent films by the time they get to the age of 18, 19, 20, right?”
Aside from screenPLAY, I asked Dave what he was most excited for at 2026's instalment of Encounters. “I love Warp Records”, he says as he tells me about one of the many collaborations that feature at the festival.
“A lot of the music videos they've made over the years have been very formative to me over the decade, so we've got a collaboration with them that'll be on Saturday at a mega screen where we're going to melt some faces showing some absolutely amazing music videos”.
Warp Vision is screening at the Megascreen on Saturday at 16:00 and offers a feature-length look at the back catalogue of Warp Records, whose iconic music videos have featured the likes of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, Brian Eno, Squarepusher and Oneohtrix Point.
“I'm from Bristol, the festival's from Bristol and Bristol’s music scene has always been incredible, and it's the beating heart of the city”.
The love for the culmination of music and film doesn’t end there, as the festival is also putting on a massive AV show based around the live score of Sirāt (2025), whose soundtrack was released by Invada Records, a Bristol-based record label co-founded by Geoff Barrow of Portishead fame. Kangding Ray, the soundtrack composer, has expanded its usual runtime to fit a two-hour show, and Oliver Laxe, Sirāt’s director, will be providing previously unseen footage from the shoot. Sirāt live can be seen on Thursday 24th at 19:30. However, as can be expected from someone who puts so much time and effort into curating a festival, the bit Dave looks forward to the most is sharing it with the audience.
“We receive about 5,000 film submissions, and we have to whittle it down to a number that we can actually project. So they're incredible films, every single one of them, and to see them with audiences is going to be amazing; it always is.”
So, if you wish to be part of this audience and have the opportunity to catch the rising stars of tomorrow, then Encounters is the place for you. Running from the 23rd to the 27th of September, the festival not only has a huge range of screenings but hosts numerous talks and workshops too. It's also a great opportunity to mingle with people in the industry.
“We aren't an exclusive festival. You could be having a drink at the bar, and are talking to somebody, and they turn out to be a filmmaker and then 5 years later it could be, I had a coffee with Charlotte Wells.”
Written by Angus Cawood
Encounters Festival will be running until the 27th, so grab tickets while you can.
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