The Midlands’ Biggest International Short Film Festival returns this Thursday, and will once again be spotlighting incredible short movies from around the globe.
Having started out upstairs at the now closed The White Lion pub almost a decade ago, the Beeston Film Festival now takes over multiple screens at the towns Arc Cinema and features its very own awards – the B’Oscars (which take place on Sunday 16th).
The festival kicks off Thursday with Beeston and Beyond, a selection of short movies, including Good Grief, from Nottingham’s Sirloin Films and created in partnership with Beeston charity Forever Stars, the 10-minute movie about four mothers experiencing the agony of child loss and stars BAFTA award winning Nottingham actor Vicky McClure.
As you can imagine there is far too much going on for us to cover everything in this article but it is safe to say that no matter what kind of films you like you’ll be able to find a showcase for you. There is non-fiction, drama, crime, horror, sci-fi and fantasy, as well as films focused on women’s voices and pride.
Good Grief, from Nottingham’s Sirloin Films and created in partnership with Beeston charity Forever Stars, the 10-minute movie about four mothers experiencing the agony of child loss.
Saturday evening will also see the spotlight on the East Midlands with a number of local short films being showcased, among them Fifty-Four Days, starring the wonderful Celia Imrie (Dinnerladies), which tells the story of a young woman who turns to wild swimming to help deal with the aftermath of a tragedy, which sees her form an unlikely friendship and start to accept her grief. In You’re Absolutely Right a paranoid hoarder is seduced into doing the unthinkable by a hotline that only tells it’s customers they are right. Spooky Bastard finds Jamie and his girlfriend caught in a horror movie as they try and get rid of the Spooky Bastard and get a good night’s sleep.
All in all there is a staggering amount to check out across the festival, culminating with the aforementioned B’Oscar awards on Sunday night which will see awards handed out in categories such as Women’s Voices, Direction, Performance, Cinematography and the big one, Best in Festival.
As well as the festival itself at Arc, there is also the Festival Club which takes place at Bistro 66 and offers and welcoming place environment for film-makers, organisers and goers to meet up and discuss the films of the day – membership cards can be picked up from festival volunteers after film sessions.
There are also a number of workshops at Yellow Wood Cafe on Chilwell Road. On Saturday you can check out B’Oscar Blockbusters featuring talks from local filmmakers Rob Sharp, Leanne Davis, Jonathan Hawes and Dawn Reeves (2pm) and Raising Finance for Filmmakers where Peter Storey, CEO & Founder of Greenlit, will share his expertise in raising funds for filmmaking (4pm). On Sunday join Mark Brennan of Festival Formula at 2pm for Film Festival Strategies, a talk about the vital strategies and tactics every filmmaker needs to know to ensure a successful festival run. Finally, at 4pm, Independent Festival programmer Evangeline Spachis presents Queer Horror Cinema, a look at the amazing worlds of Queer horror cinema and the connection between the LGBT community and the genre – includes clips and a Q&A.
As you can see there is plenty going on across the festival and we highly recommend you check out the full festival programme here. Tickets for both the festival and workshops can be purchased from the festival website, while film tickets can also be purchased directly from Arc Cinema.
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