BIAFF 2025 - results and more

[Dave Watterson]

Every BIAFF - indeed every competition - stirs up debate.
Let us know if your work was rated fairly or unfairly.
Was there a comment that delighted or irked you?

Almost all entrants should have been sent their results by the end of Saturday 1st March ...

[Dave Watterson]

The full star ratings are now available on

https://www.biaff.org.uk/2025.html

See how your friends and rivals were rated ...

[Dave Watterson]

So far not much comment on the results overall.
Howard Smith who is a regular on Facebook seems generally satisfied with his results: 5 films with 4* rating and one with 3* rating.
Robin Slater: "Honoured to be selected for the British International Amateur Film Festival, together with the Five Star Award and a nomination for Best Soundscape."
Mark Allen from Belfast should be pleased that several of his AV sequences have done well.
Larry Hall shows up a lot in the lists with a variety of his quirky but beautifully made films
Jill K. Bunting has several AV sequences in the lists.
Sutton Coldfield Movie Makers appear in most star ratings and with a great variety of work.
and our OLD friend Albert Noble has resurrected some of his animations from several decades ago.

[Albert Noble]

and our OLD friend Albert Noble has resurrected some of his animations from several decades ago.

Just one Dave. My latest received this comment from the judges....
QUOTE
This was a highly original short film. What an imagination the maker has to come up
with such ideas - well done indeed! Very experimental, this animation did have a
unique feel-good ‘vibe’.
One judge remarked on the clever idea of the “trom-bones”!
The pacing was frenetic, a good thing as no gags were left lingering before the next was introduced. The audio effects and music were cleanly recorded and in the main
synced well with the visuals.
Overall, this one definitely entertained, but we felt that what let it down was the
absence of a structure.
In short, congratulations on a very bold and imaginative attempt and bear in mind that your creativity would have certainly scored higher had there been a storyline.
Please keep creating, and definitely make sure you submit to BIAFF 2026.
Well done!
END QUOTE.
It was a weird form of dance routine and needed no story.
It got slammed at 2 stars in spite of the generous comments above.
It seems that object animation WITHOUT human figures is a no no these days.

[Howard-Smith]

Thanks for mentioning me, Dave. Yes, I’m quite pleased with having five 4* awards and those films had very positive well written appraisals from the judges. Four of them are being screened at the BIAFF weekend. The film DUTY BOUND has a nomination for Best Acting for Amanda Gail Clarke. Unfortunately the fact that this film is not selected for screening is a dead giveaway that she hasn’t won! Never mind, there are also nominations in the acting category for two other films, plus a nomination for Best Comedy for IF AT FIRST - with only three other nominees for this award I’ve got a 25% chance of winning!
I have two regrets.
Firstly, that not one of my 32 films in the past four years has been deemed good enough for 5 stars. With just sixteen 5* films this year I believe that some many judges seemingly can’t bring themselves to award that extra star to any film however good it may be. I’m not the only person to be thinking this.
Secondly I was unfortunate with which judges I got for BRIDIE! which in my opinion should have been a 4* film but it was only given 3* and a lot of criticism which I disagree with. I genuinely think that the main actress Emily Askew was off the scale brilliant and also the rest of the cast did a fine job too. But according to the judges the acting from just about the whole cast wasn’t good enough… and that includes a boy actor who had a speaking role in Coronation Street last year and an actress playing a police officer who until recently was in the police force herself. They said a made-up “dream sequence” (which was actually a depiction of an untruthful anecdote) was unconvincing - my response is that as it was a made up bit of the story, which the other person didn’t believe anyway, it didn’t have to be convincing! There was criticism of the use of a nail gun which they said couldn’t be fired without being pressed against something to which I say (a) give me a break regarding dramatic licence, I’ve seen them used as weapons in feature films, and (b) nail guns CAN be adapted to fire into the air anyway.
Anyway BRIDIE! will be shown on Zoom on the Monday night and I’ll be interested in what others say about it.

[Dave Watterson]

Am I the only person being confused about ordering BIAFF tickets?

I hoped for at least a couple of "package deals": (a) all the films (b) all the films plus the dinner & chips.

No.

Each part has to be separately booked and the Saturday dinner proclaims "AWARDS" but means the category awards for acting, cinematography etc and not the big ones of Overall Best and Best British.

I accept that the Crescent Theatre's booking system is designed for one-off events where people book a specific seat, but ...

Oh - and if your film is being shown and you have a discount code ... when do you enter it? (It turns out that is does not matter, because it is applied right at the end of the process when you get to the payment section in your online basket.

I know it will be worth it. I've seen some of the films on the timetable already.
My advice: BE PATIENT.
[The sound you hear is Jan laughing at the notion of me being patient!]

[Michael Slowe]

I deliberately refrained (so far!) from commenting on BIAFF judgements and comments as anything critical from a submitter to the Festival always sounds like 'sour grapes'.
True to form our friend Howard has commented, and, good man, has done pretty well with his results. However, I must take issue with his complaint that not one of his thirty two films entered over the last four years has won a Five Star. Howard, dear boy, that's possibly because the judges did not think that they were worth a Five. I have entered films these last fifty years and although I used to be fortunate with high scores, have not approached this level for quite a few years. This year I entered a documentary that many of the people who have seen it thought it one of my best. It got a Three. Obviously the judges didn't agree with many non film makers, both male and female. That's the way it goes. I have had scores of One up to Diamond and all the way in between, and consider most of them to be around the same standard. I can't stress this often enough, judging a film, whether officially or otherwise, is a very subjective matter and the author of the film is the very last person who can reasonably be expected to offer a sensible opinion.

Having said all the above, it is only to be expected that the film maker himself might be disappointed with a judgement, after all, we are human, whereas the judges of course are not!

[Willy]

Dear Forum-friends. I will be at BIAFF, but only with my voice in the film "The Butcher of Yveghem" on Saturday. It was made by Werner Haegeman. He received 4 stars. That's what he expected, he said. He didn't criticize the judges's comments! There was no reason to complain or to discuss . Today, I have asked Werner in a message if he will attend BIAFF. He has not replied yet. In the mean time he has finished his next movie for BIAFF and he is working on two other ones. He retired last year and that's why he could go to Benin in Africa twice together with his wife and his close friend. I have already enjoyed his wonderful photography. Next year it will be difficult to beat Werner, Howard!

ETA is not the reason why I have decided t stay at home. ETA is something new. It's a permission to travel to the UK for up to 6 months for tourism, visiting or business. It costs 12 euro. That's a peanut, of course. The new passport costs 75 euro. Next Monday is Saint Patrick's Day. It's my birthday, but it will also be the end of my radioactive treatment against prostate cancer (20 times radiation) Luckily it is contained. "You've gone through worse things", one of our forum-friends said. Hopefully, he is right. 2013 was my "annus horribilis" and at BIAFF (Weymouth) some friends didn't recognize me anymore. I had a moonface. The verdict now is on 9th May.

Anyway, last year in February I announced my farewell as a competitive filmmaker and I don't regret it. I enjoy helping other friends now. And I am still in touch with some British friends that I met at BIAFF in the good old days. Geoff Harrison from Preston was one of them. He passed away some weeks ago. When I read the results on the IAC-website I was surprised to see the name of Peter Macpherson from London. I met Peter at SERIAC in April last year. I was fascinated by his "Garden Wildlife" and asked him to take part in a Belgian Festival. He said yes and he won Gold. I am very happy that his "Garden Wildlife" is also one of the top film at BIAFF. Be sure that I will miss it.

[Dave Watterson]

We will all miss you at BIAFF, Willy. We wish you the best result on 9th May.

Don't forget that you can see four days of BIAFF online for free - no ETA, no passport, no ticket needed. 21st - 24th April there will be BIAFF selections online in the evening.

The BIAFF timetable of shows is at https://www.biaff.org.uk/2025-timetable.html

[Ken Wilson]

To Michael; How do I get to view your new film Michael? Can I have a link to see it please?

[Michael Slowe]

Good to hear from you Ken, looking forward to seeing you in April.

I have two sites containing all my films over the last four decades. My site is michaelslowefilms.com and the Vimeo is https://vimeo.com/user17404759 the links sometimes don't take you directly there but let me know if you have problems.

[Dave Watterson]

Have you seen Ann n Arf's response to their BIAFF crit? Their right to reply is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jt8SYGxlus

[Albert Noble]

The film received 2 stars
It can be viewed here on Utube....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4uBORlKfXI

[ned c]

Hats off to Arf for responding to the BIAFF judges notes on the Arf and Ann film “Seeds we Sow”. I have viewed both the film and the response and I feel it raises thoughts about why we amateurs make films; particularly narrative films and the role of BIAFF and the judges. First a disclosure; I have been making films for many years mainly as a crew member with the occasional single handed foray and received from four to one star and everything in between. I am not upset by criticism and don’t really take it seriously.

By writing a police procedural script A and A set themselves up for unavoidable comparison with what TV and cinema do so well and so often. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with the script; a bit of tidying up and a better introduction and good to go, originality in this genre is impossible but enough here to be interesting. On to production; in my view the police station set compromised everything; it was just unbelievable; we know from TV that these rooms are large and busy and a murder investigation will involve a number of peripheral people who may do nothing but take notes. I know not easy but vitally important. For me the central need was speeding up the pacing and tightening the framing; not close-ups but people in each other’s faces which is typical of this type of situation. The arrival and events at the mansion for example; OK shorten the drone shot; far too long on ground approach and at the meeting I would have the police officers filling the frame with the couple, this was a test of strength on both sides. If you pace everything up then you can cover less than stellar acting. A question about sound recording; what mic did you use and where was it in relation to the actors?

Every film we make is a part of the learning process; yes the notes could have been more helpful but be pleased to have them even as a base for debate.

We make films for an audience and for amateurs it is difficult to find a responsive audience so we enter Festivals and BIAFF is the only Festival that provides judges written comments; a bold move believe me! For a number of years I was a member of the team organizing DOCUTAH one year we decided to send out the review comments to the entrants; the fire storm of invective ensured we never did it again.
ned c

[tom hardwick]

I've watched the A 'n' A Right to Reply. It's selective, naturally, but I guess Arf is justifying his assertion that the review of his film was unjust and unfair. We will all defend our babies.

I feel, and I may be wrong, that Arf is poo-pooing the IAC's objectives, because the review of his film is free, and it's been freely given to help improve filming standards, not to criticise his film unfairly. It is after all a 2* film, so there's going to be criticism and suggestions as to improvements that can be made. I did all of this in my review, and I included the other judges thoughts (whether I believed them or not). I wrote as carefully and helpfully as I could.

He certainly has a right to reply, but YouTube is a public platform he's using to criticise the IAC and the judges, and being selective with his choice of clips doesn't in any way address the big elephant on the set.

I was at pains to point out the good acting, locations etc, but again, these mean nothing if the plot meanders about.

I agree with him - his films are made for himself, his crew and everyone's enjoyment, and that's absolutely fine. But I really feel that one shouldn't enter BIAFF without SOMEONE giving you some truthful feedback before the judges are forced to.

I think in a sense Arf's had an easier job than me, for he's revewing my words whereas I had to revew his entire film. Claiming he's had umpteen hits on YouTube is no indication in the slightest as to how the film was received or how much of it was watched, and deep down he knows that.

Even so, watching his Right to Reply is very interesting. I could add a comment on his YouTube page but won't, for I believe most viewers will understand the pressures the judges are under and will see his response as disrespectful. After all, I didn't publish my critique for all to see, I have too much respect for any filmmaker that manages to get done what he has done.

Tom