This paper studies the tight focusing properties of femtosecond elliptically polarised vortex light pulses. Based on Richards—Wolf vectorial diffraction integral, the expressions for the electric field, the velocity of the femtosecond light pulse and the total angular momentum of focused pluses are derived. The numerical calculations are also given to illustrate the intensity distribution, phase contour, the group velocity variation and the total angular momentum near the focus. It finds that near the focus the femtosecond elliptically polarised vortex light pulse can travel at various group speeds, that is, slower or faster than light speed in vacuum, depending on the numerical aperture of the focusing objective system. Moreover, it also studies the influence of the numerical aperture of the focusing objective and the time duration of the elliptically polarised vortex light pulse on the total angular momentum distribution in the focused field.