How to Fest : A Guide to Encounters 2022

Encounters is the UK's leading film festival that provides an international platform for celebrating talent and innovation in short film, animation and virtual reality. Now celebrating our 28th edition, we are delighted to be returning to live cinema screenings with our first in-person festival since 2019.

This year’s festival will be happening in Bristol from 27 September to 2 October. The majority of screenings and events will be taking place at Watershed, and with evening events and Awards Ceremony at Lost Horizon. 

In this article, find our guidance on passes and tickets, our covid policy and accessibility information.

Passes & Ticketing

Passes

The best way to experience the in-person festival is by becoming a passholder. This year, there are two pass options offering different ways to experience the festival :

 

1. Festival Pass - £60

The full festival experience! Lose yourself in unlimited access to all in-person events including screenings, industry events and evening events at Lost Horizon.

 

2. Discovery Pass - £25

A discovery pass has all the same benefits as the ‘Festival Pass’ but limited to 5 uses, allowing you to delve deep into the programme for less!

How to use your festival pass

Passholders can access all industry activity, screenings and networking events. Please collect your pass as soon as possible when you arrive as you’ll need to show it to gain access to screenings and events.

 

Reserve your place at festival screenings and events

Passholders will be able to reserve tickets for screenings and events from Friday 9 September. To reserve your place at screenings and events you’ll want to add tickets to your pass before they sell out. The simplest way to do that is to login to your account (2022.encounters.film) and book tickets using your passholder account. Your ticket will then be added to your pass automatically so you can just show your pass for scanning to claim the ticket.

If you can’t access the website then please visit the Box Office in Watershed (Ground Floor) and ask to have tickets applied to your passholder account – please make sure you allow plenty of time though as the Box Office can get very busy.

 

Sold out events

In the event that a screening is sold out we will operate a rush queue for passholders. This means that any unclaimed ticket reservations will be re-assigned to any waiting passholders that are in the rush queue, first-come first-served.

 

Please arrive on time

Have you ever been turned away from a sold out screening even when you can see there are empty seats? To tackle this problem we’ll be filling any unclaimed seats with passholders who are waiting in the rush queue. Of course this may mean that we have to turn away latecomers because we’ve given their seat to another passholder. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you by arriving in good time!

 

Make someone’s day!

Reserved a passholder ticket but can’t make it any more? Please make someone else happy by logging in to your account and releasing the ticket.

Individual screening tickets

When can I buy?

For non-passholders, individual tickets for screenings are on sale now. Please note that individual tickets for industry events will not be on sale to the public, the only way to access these is by becoming a passholder.


Pricing

To make our screenings more accessible, we have adopted 'pay what you can' pricing for all tickets to individual screenings.

Find out more about ‘pay what you can’ at the bottom of this page under Accessibility.

Online festival activity

We are excited to be back in the cinema, but if you are unable to join us in Bristol this year, you can still take part in the Festival!

This year's competition programme will be available to watch online from 27 Sept – 2 Oct on our website. You can access the online content as curated programmes or individual films. Our curated programmes are geo-blocked to the United Kingdom and individual films are available on a case by case basis.

Online tickets will be available to buy closer to the festival.

Refunds

We are not able to grant refunds for passes or individual tickets, except for in the event of cancellation.

Covid

As all government guidelines have now been lifted, we will not require proof of vaccination or negative lateral flow for entry to any events.

In the interest of everyone's safety and wellbeing, we would like to kindly request that you stay home if you are feeling unwell or displaying any cold or flu-like symptoms.

Whilst the use of face coverings is no longer mandatory, we would like to encourage everyone to continue wearing them to keep everyone safe. We are mindful that some people are unable to wear a face covering for reasons that might not be immediately apparent.

Accessibility

If you have any access queries, please get in touch with us at hello@encounters.film.

Venue information

Visiting Watershed

1 Canon's Rd, Bristol BS1 5TX

  • The main entrance and Box Office are both on the ground floor which is accessible via a ramped, electronically assisted entrance door.

  • There are two Blue Badge parking spaces to the rear of Watershed on Canons Road.

  • Guide dogs and hearing dogs are very welcome.

  • The first floor of Watershed is accessible via lift from the main entrance and includes level access to all areas.

  • All three cinemas have induction loops as do our Waterside 2 and Waterside 3 event spaces.

  • There is an accessible toilet (with baby changing facilities). Follow the signs for the Cinemas and the accessible toilet is just on your left through the double doors before Cinema 1.

  • Watershed offer gender neutral toilets at the rear of Cinema 2 and 3.

 

Visiting Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon HQ, 1-3 Elton St, St Judes, Bristol, BS2 9EH

  • Lost Horizon is a fully accessible venue.

  • The public areas are set out on a single level with wheelchair access to all areas of the venue.

  • The accessible toilets have ramped access and are designed for wheelchair access.

  • The entrance to the venue has a dropped curb and is at pavement level / step free.

  • If you need a dog to assist you within the venue then please let us know prior to the event and we will arrange the correct assistance upon your arrival. We may need proof that the dog is registered with or is a member of Assistance Dogs UK.

  • Please be aware that strobe lighting, fog and hazer machines may be in use at live shows and events.

Accessible screenings

Film screenings will be captioned where possible.

This page will be updated with list of accessible screenings closer to the festival.

‘Pay what you can’ pricing guide

In order to make individual screenings more accessible to those on a low income, we have adopted a sliding scale ticket price. You can choose what you pay based on your circumstances – you won’t be asked for any proof/ID. We just ask that you are honest!

Guidance provided by Matchbox Cineclub : Sliding Scale Guide