Mansfield Town Film Festival (MTFF) is a celebration of independent filmmaking that brings bold, thought-provoking, and inspiring films to the heart of Nottinghamshire.
Founded in 2023, MTFF is committed to championing diverse voices, with a particular focus on working-class storytelling, making them one of the only UK festivals with a dedicated Working-Class Voices strand.
Held at the historic Mansfield Palace Theatre, MTFF provides a unique platform for filmmakers to showcase their work in a town that has long been underserved in terms of arts and culture.
Image by Ben Shipway
In 2025, the festival introduced a small 360-Video VR strand presented in the bar area which proved popular with audiences. In 2026, the VR Cinema programme strand was developed significantly through an open call and partnerships with Broadway Cinema's Near Now, The Virtual and Immersive Production Studio at the University of Nottingham, and Inspire Arts.
Alongside the VR open call, each partner organisation programmed a selection of broader screen works ranging from 180 films, through to cutting edge mixed reality experiences, offering audiences an eclectic menu of works covering animation, documentary, heritage, gaming and narrative fiction.
Fragile Home, 2024
In our role as Broader Screen Champions, we supported the MTFF team to assess the quality of the VR works submitted, advised on the wider programming, negotiated the licensing and managed other pre-event organisation. We then attended the event with our VR kit, set up and trained volunteers in hosting the VR experiences. We also participated in an industry panel round table discussion about how immersive is reshaping filmmaking and the wider creative industries.
We programmed two works: Fragile Home by Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina, and Impulse: Playing With Reality by Anagram. We decided to present these works as they are high quality examples of powerful mixed-reality experiences that have not been presented in the area previously. Often this type of work stays within an immersive film festival context, and we wanted to bring this work to broader rural film audiences.
Impulse: Playing with Reality, 2024
MTFF Festival Director and Chair of Trustees Jay Martin said:
"For us, the VR Cinema has always been about giving audiences in Mansfield access to something they might not ordinarily get the chance to experience locally. What started as a small experiment in 2025 grew into a much more ambitious strand this year, and that simply wouldn’t have been possible without the knowledge, equipment, time and generosity of the partners who came on that journey with us.
“Near Now and Film Hub Midlands support in particular was invaluable, from helping us assess submissions and shape the programme through to licensing, equipment, volunteer training and taking part in the industry conversation around immersive storytelling. We learnt a huge amount through the process and, just as importantly, our volunteers and audiences did too."
“A huge thank you to all the partners who supported the strand. Those partnerships helped us take a real step forward in 2026, and it’s given us the confidence and experience to keep developing broader screen work as part of MTFF in the years ahead.”
This case study evidences that film festivals new to programming broader screen content can start small and build their knowledge, skills and understanding and develop successful immersive festival strands and events.
Please reach out if you would like to book a 1-2-1 consultation on anything broader screen related.