Fighting Spirit Film Festival 2023

The 2023 edition of the Fighting Spirit Film Festival takes place this year between 9-10 September at the always fantastic venue of London’s Stratford East Picturehouse. It’s consistently an essential go-to for martial arts movie fans. This year, they are presenting the only UK screening of Donnie Yen's latest directorial project, Sakra, a classic screening of Yes, Madam starring Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock (presented in collaboration with Eureka Entertainment from their new restoration), and showing the first Finnish-Iranian action film, Layers of Lies. As always, there’s lots more taking place including their annual short film competition, various seminars, martial arts demos and more.

Now in its eighth year, I’ve been a judge for the awards since their first event and I always enjoy the diverse selection which is shortlisted, not to mention the eclectic variety of filmmaking talent from all over the world. This year is no exception!

About the festival:

Through martial arts cinema we aim to entertain and inspire people, promote martial arts culture, and support those who have chosen it as a career. We hope that by making this an annual event that it will help create a stronger market for martial arts and action films, support and grow the legacy of films in the genre gone before and continue to entertain, inspire, amaze and enlighten audiences.

Find out more, view the schedule and book tickets here