Sunrise Film Festival - Lowestoft

29/08/2026

Sunrise is about community, celebrating filmmaking, creating a platform for bold stories, and making everyone feel welcomed in a friendly festival environment 💛🧡🩷

This year we showcased more films than ever, had 104 nominees and awarded 26 films with awards at our annual awards ceremony, which was wonderfully hosted by ♡ alice johnson ⋆˙⟡.

At just five years old we’ve achieved so much, and grown more than we could imagine in such a short space of time, from filmmakers, to independent film lovers and local audience members that come for our family friendly outdoor cinemas, everything may not always go perfectly but we pride ourselves in the inclusive community we create and our proud to be located in Lowestoft at the Marina Theatre.

Thank you if you’ve supported us through the years, submitted a film to our 5th edition, attended this years festival or are still yet to make an event. We have a bumpy road ahead but are excited to be able to take forwards Sunrise as our own independent non-profit which is proudly delivered by passionate volunteers.

Swipe along to see our 2026 award winning films, our last image is of our core festival volunteers that helped make the weekend possible for everyone that attended.

📸 All photography by the talented Charlotte McGuinness | Suffolk Wedding + Portrait Photographer

29/08/2026

W has now been to the UK's most easterly film festival, the wonderful Sunrise Film Festival - Lowestoft!

We were screened on their Friday Rewound series, alongside other amazing archive documentaries and other amazing shorts & features we got to see throughout the weekend at the Marina Theatre - Lowestoftf! Massive congrats to the winners!

New friends were made and old friends met new as we networked our way through the filmmaking populace that descended on Lowestoft for the weekend.

May we present a MiniDV doc of our time there!

Filmed & Edited by Daniel Howard-Baker

Featuring
Louis Holdertrain
howard.baker

& (festival director)

We will shortly announcing some exciting news, following from our previous ominous post, regarding our final screening!

But for now we have also confirmed screenings at Everyman Cinemas Plymouth, Worcester International Film Festival, Saltash Studios & The Cinema Museum - links in the bio to get your tickets!

24/08/2026

Well that’s a wrap on Sunrise 2026, it truly was our busiest edition we’ve ever had, from lots of you queuing up and waiting for your festival passes first thing on Thursday, to joining us for our Outdoor Cinema screenings no matter the weather.

This year also wasn’t without its technical issues and for that we apologise, we take great care in going through 4 stages of testing films, however on Wednesday night during our final test, the hard drive which stores are screening materials failed, and this had to be created from scratch over night, during the festival we also unfortunately discovered that some specific file type of films were failing to play midway through screenings.

This is our first year we’ve experienced major technical problems like this, and will be looking at what we can implement to improve your experience, but we hope you still managed to enjoy Sunrise despite technology failing on us.

On behalf of all of our volunteers and festival committee, thank you for attending and supporting our festival, we had an incredible 4 days we’re very much a small scale team and no one is paid.

We have a few requests, if you took any pictures during the weekend you’d like to share with us please upload to our festival drive, if you haven’t already please complete our BFI Audience survey, and lastly if you’re able to please consider making a donation in order to support the future of our festival.

All of these links can be found here - https://linktr.ee/sunrisefilmfest

No emails or messages will be responded to until after 3 September.

Joshua
Festival Director

Here’s two reviews that have made us smile 😊

“Sunrise is a star in the festival calendar. I hope this festival continues to receive support from organisations as it is one of the rare festivals that actually serves to elevate talent and increase the visibility of filmmakers who take part.”

“I absolutely loved my experience at Sunrise. Two of my films were nominated and won which we’ve been really thrilled about. The power of Sunrise is its community of filmmakers and how generous everyone has been especially the Sunrise team.”

22/08/2026

The Film Festival on the East you’ve never heard of…

21/08/2026

Vote now for the Marina Theatre - Lowestoft 💛🧡🩷

To celebrate the second day of the Sunrise Film Festival - Lowestoft we're thrilled to announce that voting is now live for British Independent Film Awards Cinema of the Year award, supported by Kia UK k is now open!

🏆 This award celebrates the cinemas that bring people together through the shared magic of watching great films on the big screen.

🎟️ And… ten voters will win a year of free cinema tickets to their favourite cinema, plus ch*****ne and w**e! Just tick the giveaway box when you vote.

🗳️ Cast your vote here: https://www.bifa.film/coty-vote/marina-theatre

19/08/2026

Sunrise Film Festival 2026 Starts Tomorrow at the Marina Theatre.

Get your bums down, watch some great film in the beautiful theatre and if you haven’t already grab a festival pass online or at the theatre during the weekend 🎟️

Support Suffolk’s largest independent film festival!

17/08/2026

Weather Update 🌦️

We are keeping a close eye on the weather, our outdoor cinema element is waterproof as our are headsets.

If it does rain our screenings will still go ahead.

We will only cancel our outdoor screenings if there is a strong risk of over head lightning or the wind is above our safety threshold for our screen.

16/08/2026

Availability Update! 📽

🟠 These screenings or talks are proving popular and are filling up fast.
🔴 These screenings or talks are sold out!

Sold out events will have standby queues for any no-shows.

To avoid disappointment, ensure you pre-book with a pass or book your tickets for one of our Outdoor Cinema screenings.

We can’t wait to welcome you to the fifth Sunrise ☀