The Film Festival Doctor (Yes, she’s a real doctor!) Dr. Rebekah Louisa Smith, shares with you today her experience of one of the first film festivals to run live post CV-19 lock down. Here’s all the gossip!
I’ve been discussing throughout many of my previous blog articles, that for the remainder of 2020 film festivals will be looking very different and will be going either virtual, hybrid (a combination of on-line screenings and virtual screenings) or 100% live.
The Romford Film Festival fell into the latter category; festival director Spencer Hawken and his team were determined to make the live edition of the festival go ahead and they did so flawlessly and with a positive spirit. All of what Spencer discussed that he was going to do in my previous blog interview with him, he did exactly as he said he would and it was a safe festival.
We had a lot The Film Festival Doctor’s client’s films screening and they won 4 awards which was super exciting! I attended the opening night (we had our films UNREGISTERED & KINGS OF MULBERRY STREET screening) and the awards ceremony. It was incredible to see filmmakers and the public attending the festival and not feeling scared to venture outdoors. It wasn’t full to capacity however it showed that people were intending to get back into watching festival films.
The opening night was a lot of fun and I felt a wave of adrenaline rush through me when I arrived as it was a joy to see photographers in attendance, the Romford Mayor supporting it, interviews taking place, getting photos taken on the step and repeat board and local audiences visiting the cinema again.
The overall film programme was stellar and the festival favourite was SHIBIL which took home a handful of awards. It was a bit strange at first to watch a film in a socially distanced cinema and seeing so many seats blocked off but it didn’t take long to get used to this new ‘social normal’ and there was an endless amount of hand sanitiser everywhere which made the environment feel very hygienic, safe and protected.
As the festival got into full swing more filmmakers began to attend and their confidence began to grow. Halfway through the festival, it felt like people were beginning to get back into the film festival world. Our lovely clients and the filmmakers behind GRIMSBY GIRL, LAVENDER, DELETED & POWERLESS all had a fantastic time and enjoyed their screenings. I’m pleased I got the chance to hang out with our Director of POWERLESS Nicole Pott who also won the Best Short Film award.
The Romford Film Festival continues to remain an important film festival and it will continue to grow. I am already looking forward to next year’s edition! Submissions are now open and you can submit via Film Freeway.
Further information can be found here https://filmfreeway.com/RomfordFilmFestival or on Instagram below:
If you are currently experiencing problems getting your film accepted into film festivals and navigating the festival circuit, I can fix those problems for you. Feel free to reach out to me and discuss how we can help you further and as a bonus, download our free guide ‘The 4 Main Reasons Why Your Film Is Not Getting Accepted Into Film Festivals And How To Fix it’ –https://www.thefilmfestivaldoctor.com/e-book/
Coming Next Week: I interview the award-winning up-and-coming actress Janel Tanner; the star of our awesome short film INTERVENTION and discuss with her the exciting journey that she’s currently experiencing.
