IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

John Simpson wrote: “Would it be an idea to only put uplifting films in Festivals? Sometimes when watching films one can feel ground down and deflated by a film you started watching unsuspectedly, and I find I just want it to end and if I have to stick it out to the end I feel exhausted. Watching th...

Ok Tim, your points are well made and well taken.
Long live BIAFF.

Ned, my suggestion was not for an additional festival but for a new festival to replace BIAFF, inspired by John Simpson’s comments.

Re John Simpson’s idea of renaming BIAFF. My suggestion: The FAVIS Festival ie. The Film And Video Institute Shorts Festival Which would be especially appropriate if there were a time limit of 40 minutes on entries. (However, I realise that it would be a shame to drop the “British International” ang...

If the decision is made only to show the best, highest rated films in a single cinema venue, I wonder whether it might be wise to start considering a time limit of, say, 40 minutes for entries. This would enable more films to be shown and would exclude the feature length films with questionable stat...

I must say I warm to the ideas put forward here. The Ten Best at the NFT was always excellent and at that venue it would be easy to have two cinemas on the Saturday. Also a big draw was the fact that a major figure from the film industry handed out the trophies to the winners… Joan Collins and Micha...

To answer your question John, I very much wanted to make a foreign language film with English subtitles. Then a friend of mine told me about his (married) Russian girlfriend and about how she had fled from Russia to the UK with her teenage sons so they could avoid compulsory army service at aged 18....

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I’m carrying on making films in my own way regardless of what people think of them. I developed a thick skin regarding criticism early on.

I’m really sorry and sad that another good man has gone. I was privileged to have Paul as a friend on Facebook and also we corresponded occasionally by email. In his last email to me in March this year he mentioned that he’d been battling spinal cancer for two and a half years and that he’d been una...

Thank you Simon. I see where you’re coming from and understand what you’re saying. But… There’s no way on earth that I would allow anyone else to edit my films. For me editing is the most enjoyable and most satisfying part of the whole filmmaking process. The only aspects of my filmmaking I would co...

Thanks Martin and Michael for your comments. Yes we solo filmmakers must carry on regardless. I get more satisfaction from making a modestly successful film by myself than I would if I made a very successful film as part of a team. I’m just not a team player and that’s the way it is.

www.ukfilmreviews.co.uk This website offers to review your film free of charge, but it takes a few months for this to happen. The review can be sent more quickly if you pay a fee. A few weeks ago I received a pretty good review of my film TOPPY from them. In 2016 I completed an 11 minute film entitl...

Yes, good stuff. I was one of the attendees. Many congratulations to the winners. My particular favourite was Tim Stannard’s atmospheric and superbly made ‘Film Noir’. The film shows on Zoom have been great to ‘keep the show on the road’ and they can be attended by anyone anywhere but I for one can’...

The main point of my post here is that what does well in one festival might fare very differently in another. I remember Michael Slowe mentioning a while ago that even some Diamond Award winning films at BIAFF get rejections when entered for other festivals. I just find it remarkable that a 3 star f...

As I've mentioned previously on the forum, I submit films to various festivals via Film Freeway. As we know, film judgements and appraisals can never be totally objective, nor is film judging an exact science. I submitted three films to The Trojan Film Festival which is based in the UK. The results ...