About us

Hellfire Film Festival was formed in 2014 by a group of creative individuals after realising that although Folkestone hosts many creative festivals throughout the year – including music, art, light, book and performance – there was no festival specifically dedicated to film.

Being a filmmaker himself and having been involved in the Meniscus Film Festival in his hometown of Grimsby, Gary Ingoldby-Spate started the groundwork to launch a film festival for Folkestone. Gary and fellow filmmaker Steve Davis launched the Hellfire Film Festival soon afterwards.

Since that momentous day in 2014 Hellfire Film Festival has grown into a multi-event organisation. Of the many events that have spawned, the Hellfire Short Film Festival has become our flagship. It is a highly successful monthly event that has attracted in excess of 3,000 submissions from three-quarters of the countries in the world.

Our festivals programme is curated with original, diverse, bold and culturally rich content. Films submitted to our festivals have gone on to win nominations and awards at BAFTA, the Emmys and Oscars as well as other festivals such as Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca.

We also host the Hellfire HORRORfest at The Tower Theatre, Folkestone. The Hellfire Specials and Hellfire Classics events also showcase feature films, short films, documentaries and music videos old and new by filmmakers around the world.

The name Hellfire derives from Hellfire Corner. During the Second World War the Battle of Britain took place in over the English Channel and the skies above Folkestone and Dover and the two towns were extensively damaged by enemy bombers.

The area became known as Hellfire corner.

We named ourselves the Hellfire Film Festival to pay tribute to those who fought and those who lost their lives to ensure the freedoms we enjoy today.