THE 2017 Aesthetica Short Film Festival will transform York city centre into a pop-up cinema from Wednesday to Sunday when 18 locations will screen more than 300 films from 41 countries.

The BAFTA-recognised festival will run Guest Programmes to complement the Official Selection of films that span Animation, Family Friendly, Music Video, Artists Film, Documentary, Thriller, Dance, Comedy, Fashion, Advertising, Experimental and Drama.

The guest screenings will celebrate the diversity and breadth of independent cinema with the aim of forging relationships with other cultures and communities by offering a voice and platform to filmmakers from all walks of life.

"By introducing audiences to untold stories through the powerful medium of film, ASFF hopes to encourage discussion and raise awareness of issues surrounding diversity faced by millions each day, who continue to be under-represented on the big screen," says ASFF director Cherie Federico. "The driving force behind the programme is to highlight the moral and social importance of representation in cinema, an area still lacking within the industry, which needs to be acknowledged and actioned."

Cherie continues: "Film has the potential to be one of the most representative art forms of our generation, yet diversity is still an overwhelming industry issue. Our Guest Programmes will be a celebration of contemporary cinema and culture, accurately representing the world we live in today. We hope the stories shared will have a positive and uniting effect, appealing to those curious about lives different from their own, resulting in greater respect for one another.

"Supported by the Iris Prize Festival, British Urban Film Festival and Kraków Film Festival, the inclusion of these screenings at ASFF aims to more accurately reflect changing attitudes, people and landscapes around the world, addressing diversity in relations to race, gender, age and sexual orientation, through on-screen representation, themes and narratives."

Cardiff’s Iris Prize Festival will present a selection of LGBTQ+ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Plus) inspired shorts, each evoking a variety of emotive and transient themes including love, loneliness and friendship.

Each year, 35 films compete for the prestigious award, which offers £30,000 to the winner to produce and release a new short film. To date, eight films have been produced and four of them will be shown at ASFF at the York Theatre Royal Studio on Thursday from 7.30pm, the Yorkshire Museum next Friday at 11.45pm and King's Manor next Saturday from 2.30pm. Those films are Till Kleinert's Boys Village, Magnus Mork's Burger, Tim Marshall's Followers and Brendon Mcdonall's Spoilers.

For more than a decade, the British Urban Film Festival (BUFF) has had a mission to provide those from disadvantaged backgrounds with industry opportunities. Committed to seeking out diverse voice and opinion, the BUFF City Season will showcase some of the best work from up-and-coming homegrown British urban talents working in the film and TV sector at the Yorkshire Museum next Thursday at 4.30pm and King's Manor next Saturday at 11.30am.

The films will be Sam Jones's Lifeline; Krystine Atti's The Tinder Problem; Marley Morrison's Leroy; Remi Moses's Signs Of Silence; Shahaub Rhoudari's When Kids Grow Up and Dionne Edwards's We Love Moses.

As one of the oldest events in Europe devoted to documentary and animations shorts, Kraków Film Festival (KFF) has helped many Polish filmmakers kick-start their careers. Now, KFF will screen a series of Polish films with English subtitles at the ASFF at the York Theatre Royal Studio next Friday at 3.30pm and the same location next Sunday (November 12) at 2.15pm.

The Polish Programme will comprise Marcin Bortkiewicz's Left Side Of The Face; Marci Podolec's A Documentary Film; Bartosz Kedzierski's Woolen (CORRECT) Cogwheels; Anita Kwiatkowska-Naqvi's Locus; Zofia Kowalewska's Close Ties and Piotr Domalewski's Evil Deeds.

The Guest Programme series also will welcome back past ASFF festival winners, providing audiences with an opportunity to re-watch films from a range of genres and engage in Q&A panels with the winning filmmakers at the York Theatre Royal Studio next Saturday at 11.30am (ASFF 2016 Winners Showcase) and next Sunday from 4pm (ASFF Previous Winners Showcase).

The first will present Dejan Mrkic's Silence; Callum Hill's Solo Damas; Dawn Han's Cork Man; Daina O Pusic's Rhonna & Donna; Fabio Palmieri's Irregulars and Marlene Millar's Lay Me Low. The Sunday best will be Danilo Godoy's Forgotten Memories From The End Of The World; Lewis Rose's Beardyman-Mountainside; Peter Stanley Ward's Litterbugs; Stephen Parker's Dust And Resin; Detsky Graffam's 90 Grad Nord and Bruno Decc's Two Signs' Den: Epilogue.

Since 2014, ASFF has partnered with Yorkshire Screen Archive to present archival footage of Yorkshire residents before, during and after the First World War as part of the nationwide centenary commemorations. This memorial tribute will continue with a special screening of The Battle Of The Ancre at 1331, in Grape Lane, at 1.30pm next Saturday and Sunday; this film being the official record of the British Army's winter campaign on the Somme in 1916.

The footage contains evocative and haunting images of trench warfare, notably of the waves of troops advancing into no man's land; the use of horses, and the first views of the tank: the secret weapon to break the deadlock on the Western Front. Matthew Lee, head of film at the Imperial War Museum, will give an introduction to the November 11 screening.

Guest Programmes are free to attend with an ASFF screening pass; screening passes and event tickets can be booked at asff.co.uk/tickets and collected from the ASFF Hub at Visit York, Museum Street, from November 7. Full festival details can be found at asff.co.uk, with the official 2017 programme at aestheti.cc/vy5q