Event type: Festival

LMF Short Film Sandbox Showcase

 

The Sandbox Showcase – Edition Four

Presented by Let’s Make Films CIC

? Picturehouse @ FACT – Liverpool

The Sandbox Showcase is Liverpool’s alternative creative film night. A vibrant evening built around the bold and exciting short pieces of work, the emerging filmmakers and creatives and a community-led night that is bursting with creative energy and life. All here to celebrate the work on the biggest screen. 

Now in its fourth edition, The Sandbox has become a creative home for filmmakers who are doing things differently! First-timers, grassroots crews, DIY Storytellers and new voices that have exciting stories to tell! 

The event takes place at Picturehouse @ FACT and features a carefully curated lineup of 10-12 short pieces of work. Some are emotional, some are experimental, some are terrifying, but most importantly, all of them bring a unique voice to the big screen. You will get a chance to hear from the creatives about their work and process before screening their work. The night will also include the winner of our special DIY challenge, a quarterly filmmaking challenge that pushes creatives to make something from nothing. 

The Sandbox isn’t just a screening either. We offer a pre-creative mixer before the show starts where you can get yourself a drink and relax and mingle with your fellow creatives and community. And even better, after the final film rolls, you can continue the conversation in the bar in the post-creative mixer and meet the creatives behind the work that you loved seeing. 

What to expect throughout the night:

  • A packed cinema screening 10-12 bold peices of creative work.
  • A DIY film made for our Trial & Error challenge. 
  • Meet the creatives behind the work in our creative mixers.
  • Music, good vibes and a community-first atmosphere. 

 

If you’re an emerging filmmaker, creative, artists, storyteller, or just a film-fan looking for something different in the city, then the Sandbox is perfect for you. 

So, come along, bring a mate, come by yourself, grab a drink and be part of special night that belongs to the creatives. 

 

Book of Sana’a

 

Join LAAF for a celebration of storytelling, writing, and music from the capital of Yemen, in association with Comma Press.

Although largely unseen behind media rhetoric of war, the city of Sana’a remains one of the most beautiful and enchanting cities in the Middle East. Beset by years of civil war, authoritarian regimes and extreme poverty, it is also the home of an extraordinary community of writers. The latest installment in Comma’s ‘Reading the City’ series is ‘filled with hopes and dreams, with flickers of magic and scathing satire’. It also offers a perfect opportunity to celebrate the writers Sana’a is producing and the art and challenges of translating them.

LAAF, in association with Comma Press, would like to invite you to join us for food and poetry readings, including award winning poet Hamdan Dammag, ahead of readings from the Book of Sana’a.

The event will be chaired by Comma’s Ra Page.

Door open at 12:45pm for light buffet lunch and refreshments and an opportunity to view Mohamed Thulaya’s model of the historic city of Sana’a, followed by readings and music starting at 1:30pm.

Rim Mugahed is a short story writer, essayist, and sociologist from Yemen, currently based in Prague. She is also a programme manager at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, where her work focuses on women, female voices, and social issues.

Laura Kasinof (editor) is a journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. She is a former New York Times Yemen correspondent and has worked in and around the country since 2009. She is the author of Don’t Be Afraid of the Bullets: An Accidental War Correspondent in Yemen (Arcade, 2014) and is currently working on a biography of former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh (forthcoming from Reaktion Books). Laura will be appearing by video link.

Mohammed Ghalayini is a writer, scientist, translator and occasional journalist, whose translations from the Arabic have appeared in numerous previous anthologies for Comma, including The Book of Khartoum, The Book of Ramallah, Palestine + 100 and elsewhere.

Su Annagib is a singer, lecturer and documentary maker of Yemeni heritage.

Suitable for ages 14+

Trigger warning: this event will include discussion of poverty and war.

 

Limbs of the Lunar Disc: Break the Clocks

 

Please join LAAF for this special performative-lecture by worldbuilding artist Sarah Al-Sarraj.

This special ‘performance lecture’ will imagine that we are in a spaceship hurtling through time, and will explore non-Western conceptions of space and time, incorporating quantum physics, liberation theory, and the work of Black Quantum Futurism and scholar Jackie Wang.

This event is part of “Limbs of the Lunar Disc”, a project funded by the Arts Council England Project Grants, with curatorial support from Jessica El Mal of The Arab British Centre.

Sarah Al-Sarraj is a visual artist and cultural worker. Her practice centres on worldbuilding as a creative and critical process, where painting and immersive technologies are understood as portals to other worlds.

This event will take place in the Theatre Room.

 

 

Venue:

 

 

World Museum, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN

 

Jordanian Food & Cultural Experience with Yamama

 

Futoon Qusairy is a Jordanian artist based in Liverpool. Together with her sister Noura, they founded Yamama Café & Bar, named one of the UK’s ‘Top 10 Hidden Gems’.

At LAAF 2025, they are hosting a Cultural Supper Club and Lunch Club, to bring people together through food, art, and memory.

Guests will be invited to experience traditional Jordanian dishes, crafted from Futoon & Noura’s family’s own recipes – with each plate telling a story of heritage and home.

The event will also include a short film screening, and every guest will leave with a small, sentimental gift – a symbol of their culture’s warmth and hospitality.

Lunch Club  12noon -2.30pmSupper club  6.00pm -8.30pm

Lunch Club  12noon -2.30pmSupper club  6.00pm-8.30pm

16+, and under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult.

Vegan and vegetarian options available when booking.

All food is halal. Vegan and vegetarian options available when booking. Please get in touch if you have any allergies or dietary requirements and we will do our best to accommodate.

Venue:

 

 

Yamama Café and Bar, 31-32 Parliament St, Liverpool L8 5RW

 

Dounia Part 1 & 2: Cinema at Crosby Plaza

 

Join LAAF for this family friendly screening of animated films Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo, and Dounia – The Great White North.

 

 

Dounia And The Princess of Aleppo (2022) A few nigella seeds tucked in the palm of her hand, 6-year-old Dounia leaves Syria with the Princess of Aleppo’s help and travels towards a new world.

Dounia – The Great White North (2024, UK premiere) is an animated winter special about how little Dounia, the Syrian girl now aged 7 years old, finds a new home and makes new friends in beautiful Canada, while hoping her dad will join her soon.

The creator and author of Dounia, Marya Zarif, was born and raised in Aleppo, Syria. She has lived in Canada for the past 15 years but remains very attached to her country of origin and the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing the war. “Like Dounia, because I come from Syria, I know that there is nothing more wonderful than a land where people, cultures, colours, languages and customs meet and mix. It has been Syria for millennia; it is the world of today. I gave birth to all those characters to give faces to all the migrants who have become numbers and whose humanity is forgotten. Dounia is a declaration of love to my people and a gift to those who open their arms to them,” she says.

André Kadi, who arrived in Canada in 2007 as a graphic novel author and a musician, joined Frima animation studios, where he stayed for over 11 years. At the head of the artistic department, he founded a branch of the studio in Bordeaux , and opened a 2D animation studio in 2012, where he made the series MaXi and Agent Jean in particular, before co- founding Du Coup Animation in 2018 with Marie-Michel le Laflamme, then Du Coup Production in 2021. A rigorous studio head who directs most of Du Coup’s projects, he co-directed Dounia in 2020 on behalf of Tobo, with Marya Zarif.

Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo is his first feature film.

Age recommendation: 6+£6 (Free entry for under 16s)

Doors 1:30pm / Screening 2pm

Venue:

 

 

Crozby Plaza, 13 Crosby Rd N, Waterloo, Liverpool L22 0LD

 

Broken Grey Wires

Artist announcements coming soon

Broken Grey Wires’ mission is to create ambitious and inclusive projects where artists with mental health challenges and/or neurodivergent individuals are empowered through creative opportunities.

Their unique approach stems from our leadership, which includes individuals with lived experiences of mental health challenges, disability and neurodivergence – ensuring that radical empathy and authenticity drive their work. Over the years, they have curated ground-breaking visual art exhibitions that push the boundaries of communication, depicting the nuanced experiences of mental health in ways that resonate deeply with audiences and participants alike.

By continuously engaging with audiences, they encourage people to dismantle the stigma around mental health with confidence, autonomy and encouragement.

Part of Independents Biennial 2025

Independents Biennial 2025

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, the longest running annual festival of Arab arts and culture in the UK, returns for its 23rd year this July.

Founded in 1998, the festival exists to support and champion creatives from across the Arab region and its diaspora, in the belief that art and creativity have the power to express a shared humanity.

The festival also celebrates Liverpool’s unique identity; a city, with a global community and brimming with artistry, that looks outwards across the world and welcomes and accepts all who arrive within it.

This year’s festival theme is Nostalgia, which will be explored through a diverse range of disciplines, including music, theatre and performance, visual art, literature and film – with the programme culminating at the ever-popular free Family Day.

RAWD Charity Launch

 

Introducing RAWD, The Charity…

RAWD has spent over a decade co-creating joyful, inclusive spaces where disabled artists can thrive.

We believe creativity is a powerful vehicle for independence, confidence, and expression – enabling people to dream bigger, communicate more freely, and take up space that’s rightfully theirs. 

In July 2025 we officially launch as a charity.

To celebrate we are launching with a month-long programme of events during Disability Pride Month. We welcome you to come along and celebrate with us…

5pm – FREE Drinks Reception

6pm- Launch Event Begins

Join RAWD for an evening showcasing what’s to come this July 2025.

 

Penny Lane Weekender

3 DAYS | 4 VENUES | BOSS MUSIC – 8TH, 9TH, 10TH AUGUST 2025

TICKETS | MORE INFO

This August, Penny Lane continues to sustain its global musical legacy with a 3-day music festival, spotlighting local and independent artists and bands. Returning for its third year, the festival will take over venues all located on or around Liverpool’s iconic Penny Lane.

The 2025 lineup promises an eclectic mix of Indie, Rock, Punk, Electronica, Dance and Pop including local frontrunners The DSM IV, infectious spiky sci-fi rockers SILENT-K, Japanese psych-rock band Qujaku and the hosts themselves, Pleasure Island.

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2025

The annual Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, at 23, the longest running and most extensive of its kind in the UK.

The festival runs from July 11-20 and this year’s theme is Nostalgia. The 2025 programme includes a performance by violin virtuoso Akram Abdulfattah, appearing at Philharmonic Hall’s Music Room on July 19 and the theatre production, Penguin, at Unity Theatre, 11 July.

Highlights Include:

Penguin

LAAF welcome Penguin to the Unity Theatre, Liverpool on 11 July for the opening day of this year’s festival.Full of humour and beauty, Hamzeh Al Hussien’s extraordinary story takes you on a personal tour of the places he knows best. His village in the Syrian mountains, Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, Gateshead (UK) and inside his mind: a place full of music, dancing, fantasies and marbles.Hamzeh invites the audience to be his childhood friends, to hold up the moon to light his way, and into his dreams, brushing the dust from his clothes…and taking the stage.

“A remarkable story told with irrepressible charm” – The Stage

Palestine Minus One

With Mazen Maarouf, Anwar Hamed, and Basma Ghalayini.

A unique evening of stories and discussion at the Bluecoat, launching Comma Press’s new anthology, Palestine Minus One – an exploration of the event that underpins Israel’s 77-year-long occupation of Palestine: the Nakba of 1948. As a prequel to Comma’s award-winning Palestine + 100 science fiction project, this anthology asks ten Palestinian authors to revisit the build-up to the catastrophe of 1948 as well as its immediate and long-term repercussions, using fantastical, supernatural and speculative tropes.All of these writers had grandparents or great-grandparents who were forcibly displaced during the Nakba, and all offer new ways of re-processing that trauma. At this event, we’ll hear from two of the most prominent Palestinian authors out there: Mazen Maarouf and Anwar Hamed, along with the anthology’s editor Basma Ghalayini.The discussion at The Bluecoat on Wednesday 16th July will be chaired by Comma Press founder, Ra Page.

Good Chance presents… A Grain of Sand  حبة رمل By Elias Matar

Commissioned by London Palestine Film FestivalSupported by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 

Adapted from A Million Kites: Testimonies and Poems from the Children of Gaza by Leila Boukarim and Asaf Luzon

Renad, a young Gazan girl, embarks on a dangerous journey. Carrying only the echoes of her grandmother’s tales and the spark of her own imagination, she searches for her family and the ‘Anqaa’ – the mythical Palestinian Phoenix.

A Grain of Sand is a one-woman show that takes an intimate look at war through the eyes of a child, blending Palestinian folklore with real-life testimonies from children in contemporary Gaza. Renad’s story is one of resilience, hope and the right of children to be children. The show will be performed at the Unity Theatre on Friday 18 July.

The Alexandrian

In this free exhibition, Mohamed Gohar utilises his artistic visual language alongside architectural and heritage experiences.

He examines the dynamics of present-day Alexandrian society and their influence on the evolution of the city’s urban and built environment. The aim is to observe and analyse the communal behaviours of the city users, focusing on fostering an objective understanding of the changing values and cultures.

The exhibition at Yamama Café and Bar runs throughout the festival’s duration and includes an informal artist talk (and a complimentary hot or soft drink!) on Wednesday 16 July, at 4pm.

Palestinian Tatreez (Embroidery) Workshop

This adult workshop at Bluecoat will teach the basics of Tatreez (traditional Palestinian embroidery) and explore how this ancestral craft can connect us to heritage, resistance, and each other. Stitch your own pattern, and discover the powerful history woven into every thread.

The workshop on Sunday 13th July from Tatreez Collective consists of two parts: a short presentation that covers the history of Tatreez and its role in Palestinian society, followed by a practical session, teaching participants how to embroider a Palestinian traditional pattern (Basic stitches on Aida fabric, the usual fabric to make frames).

All levels are welcome – no experience needed, just curiosity and care. Materials will be provided.

For full festival listings visit here

The full 2025 lineup has now been released with more information about the festival in both English and Arabic here.