The London Lift-Off Film Festival 2011 10-12th October. At The Tricyle Cinema
Supported by AVID & FilmCrew Pro.
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| Over 200 people crammed into the Tricycle Cinema in North West London to watch three days of shorts, celebrating the prowess of student and independent filmmaking in the new digital age... |
The London Lift-Off Film Festival supported by AVID had received in the region of 300 submissions from film schools and independents from all over the world. Scheduling 23 short films from 300 must have been a mammoth task to organise: "We had three rounds, and fifteen industry based judges helping us to pick the official selections, we had everything from 2 minute animations to 30 minute political statements, and even the occasional slasher horror" says festival co-director James Alexander. "The work that was scheduled we tried to reflect into mood and feeling. Based on the judges submissions feedback we categorised each short either dark or light, then we looked at the stories of the pieces, were they inspiring, funny, romantic or sad."
Ben Pohlman the other Co-Director continued, "We then scheduled each day based on an arc of emotional response. This gave our audience member a chance to feel as much as possible. Something we think in a 100% audience choice awards platform needs to be concurrent in order to get the most encouraging, and honest, response."
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| The festival had films from all over the world and awarded 23 with the very first honours of the official selection laurels. |
The winners from those 23 were as follows:-
Overall festival winner. All piñatas go to heaven by Paul McGhie.
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Best UK Professional. Worship by Callum Macdiarmid.
Best UK Student. Drift by Ben Caird.
Best International Professional. All you need is love by Wagnor Depintor.
Best International Student. Les Armours Perdues by Samanou A. Sahlstrom.
Best Performance. Bill Thomas in Vincent by Mazin Power.
All of the awards were audience choice. Each filmmaker wins a full copy of AVID Media Composer 5.5, and a years full subscription to Film-Crew Pro! James said "Our sponsors this year have been extremely generous, without AVID on board then none of these filmmakers would have had a chance to showcase their excellent work, and FilmCrew Pro were excellent in giving the festival all the exposure it deserved. We are very proud, and eternally thankful of what our sponsors did to help get the festival up and running, without them there would be no London Lift-Off, it's as simple as that!"
The Tricycle cinema also deserves a mention, a venue only really known for it's political plays scheduled under the guidance of Nick Kent, but it holds a secret and a very lovely one at that. UK Vogue called it "London's most beautiful cinema venue"... "We would like to fill it every afternoon and evening for a full week next year, that's our plan." says James with an undoubted look of determination.
"The aim is to have shorts, features, documentaries, animations, and workshops" says Ben, "we trained as actors at The Oxford School of Drama and are very proud in what we learnt, it enabled us to make films of our own and to understand that great acting and story structure can exist in a student or independent film and we want to reward and work with the people that are doing just that!"
James explains the workshops for next year "most film students leaving film school don't know how to talk to actors, it's as simple as that. Many directors just sort of leave you to it, and that's fine if everything is easy or clear to understand. But sometimes it can become difficult and the lines between film school director and drama school actor become extremely blur'd. Next year we will be inviting filmmakers to our workshops called simply How to Direct an Actor. We were trained for three years at one of the best drama schools in the country, so a two hour workshop would only scratch the surface, but we will hopefully give those that are keen to glean the best from their cast, something to build upon for their future projects." |
The London Lift-Off Film Festival is due to begin again on the first week of November and will be opening it's call for entries within the next few weeks. They are also on the hunt for a patron. "We want someone who is obviously well known but who supports inde film as much as we do. We have a lot of phone calls to make, but it's very exciting!"
So, if you're a filmmaker who wants public exposure and a chance to connect and learn within the filmmaking community then London Lift-Off has to be your first port of call for the 2012 film festival season... |
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