Introducing...Moving Parts Puppet Film Fest - Brand new for 2026!

Moving Parts Puppet Film Fest brings the best of puppets on film to Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.  

The festival programme includes and celebrate live action puppet films as well as stop motion puppet animation.

The Stop Motion Shorts Night has been a cornerstone event of the annual Newcastle Puppetry Festival since 2017, and we are so excited to now be able to expand this night into a stand-alone film festival for 2026. The film festival will run alongside the annual puppetry theatre festival, with the majority of events in both programmes taking place in April during the Easter Holidays. 

All happening at Tyneside Cinema, the Moving Parts Puppet Film Fest 2026 programme includes:

• Feature films, such as Muppets Treasure Island, Dark Crystal and Strings (more tbc!)

• An international short films competition for new work (applications open now!)

• Networking events for filmmakers

• Industry talks

• and of course the annual Stop Motion Shorts Night.

Between 2017 - 2024 Moving Parts Arts ran stop motion animation commissions each year of the puppet festival. We have currently had to pause this artist opportunity due to funding cuts. However, any profits made from the Puppet Film Fest will go into a commissioning pot, which will hopefully mean that we can bring back this opportunity in future years.