The East End Film Festival was one of the UK's largest film festivals.[1] Founded in 2000 and operating in various venues across East London, the festival focused on emerging British, Eastern European, and Asian films. It ceased operations on March 4, 2020 due to COVID-19.[2]
In 2006, the East End Film Festival opened with the London premiere of Richard E. Grant's directorial debut Wah-Wah. Grant attended the premiere, acted as the festival's Director In Residence, and took part in a Q&A session introducing a special festival screening of Robert Altman's Nashville. Producer In Residence Stephen Woolley also took part in a Q&A following a screening of his film The Crying Game.[4]
The 2007 festival opened with the world premiere of With Gilbert And George, a portrait of Spitalfields-based contemporary artists Gilbert And George, followed by a Q&A with director Julian Cole. The 2007 programme also included a preview of Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten plus a conversation with the film's director, Julien Temple.[5]
The festival opened in 2008 with the London premiere of independent British feature The Waiting Room. The film's director Roger Goldby and lead actor Ralf Little attended the opening night premiere. The screening was followed by a party at Beach Blanket Babylon in Shoreditch. The festival also included a showcase of films exploring teenage angst (including two earlier films starring Elliot Page), a selection of new British features, and films from Eastern Europe, as well as a collection of shorts.[6]
In 2009, the festival focused on films portraying East End and multicultural London life.[7] The program included City Rats, Elevator, British filmmakers Nicola and Teena Collins' debut film The End, Junior Eurovision Song Contest documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit, discussion panel The London Perambulator, and Another Dimension And How To Get There.[8] There was also a screening of Not In Our Name at Amnesty International's Human Rights Action Centre.[9] The 2009 East End Film Festival trailer, directed and designed by Lucy Izzard, an animation director and illustrator at Slinky Pictures, featured a variety of comic characters visiting festival venues including RichMix, the Whitechapel Gallery, and the Genesis Cinema.[10]
The 2010 East End Film Festival took place between 22 and 30 April.[11] Actress Jaime Winstone was announced as a new festival patron for 2010.[12] The full programme was announced at an event at The Brickhouse in East London on 23 March 2010 by festival director Alison Poltock.[13] The festival kicked off on 22 April with a preview screening of Barney Platts-Mills' 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog (set in Stratford, East London, and starring local children) prior to its re-release that summer.[14] Highlights included Mark Donne's The Rime of the Modern Mariner, narrated by musician Carl Barat;[15]SUS, based on the 1979 play about Margaret Thatcher's "stop and search" laws by Barrie Keeffe; and a series of events commemorating Rock Against Racism, the grassroots movement against the National Front in the late 1970s.[14] There was also a free screening of Alfred Hitchcock's silent film The Lodger in Spitalfields Market, accompanied by an improvised soundtrack performed live by Minima.[14]
For the 10th anniversary of the festival in 2011, the focus of the program was the history of East London, with a programme featuring more than 60 feature films and hundreds of shorts, alongside an accompanying program of live, site-specific events and master classes. The festival opened on 27 April with the world premiere of Roger Sargent's The Libertines: There Are No Innocent Bystanders, a feature documentary about The Libertines' reunion in 2010.[16] The festival also included the UK's second-ever screening of Ken Russell's controversial 1971 film The Devils (film).[17] EEFF 2011 saw the launch of Movie May Day, a May Bank Holiday weekend film and cultural event with hundreds of free screenings, projections, live music, quizzes, filmmaking competitions, and site-specific installations across the East End.[18]
The 11th East End Film Festival opened on 3 July 2012 with the UK Premiere of a documentary about Amy Winehouse.[19] The festival closed on 8 July with the UK premiere of Armando Bo's El último Elvis, an Argentinian feature film about a delusional Elvis Presley impersonator.[19] Armando Bo returned to the festival in 2013 as a member of the panel jury for that year. The festival's fringe event, CineEast, took place on 1 July with a day of free events featuring short and feature film screenings, live music, talks, workshops, film trails and competitions, incorporating over 1,000 films and site-specific events in over 100 different venues, including cinemas, cultural spaces, shops, restaurants and art galleries.[20]
The 12th East End Film Festival ran from 25 June until 10 July, opening with the world premiere of Mark Donne's documentary The UK Gold at the Troxy. The EEFF closed with Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman's Lovelace, a biopic following the story of Linda Lovelace.[citation needed] 2013's Best Film Award went to Halley, which follows the story of a security guard at a Mexico City gym whose health drastically begins to deteriorate. Sebastian Hofmann's award meant he returned to the festival in 2014 as the EEFF's Director-in-Residence, and co-curator for the festival's Mexican focus.
The 13th East End Film Festival opened on 13 June 2014 with the world premiere of Dermaphoria, the feature debut from East End filmmaker Ross Clarke.[citation needed] Genesis Cinema, the festival's original venue, hosted the opening night. The festival closed on 25 June, with Jack Bond's The Blue Black Hussar, a documentary exploring the life of Adam Ant.[citation needed]
The 14th East End Film Festival ran from 1 July until 12 July 2015, opening with the international premiere of Amit Gupta's third feature One Crazy Thing, starring and produced by EEFF alumnus Ray Panthaki. The festival closed with a documentary by Marc Silver, on the aftermath of a tragic incident at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, which resulted in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.[21]
The 15th edition of the East End Film Festival opened on 23 June 2016 with the world premiere of London-based Ian Bonhôte's feature debut Alleycats, featuring John Hannah as a corrupt MP.[citation needed] The festival also hosted the UK premiere of Daniel Florencio's feature debut, Chasing Robert Barker, about a photographer turned paparazzi caught in the downward spiral of a fabricated tabloid story.[22] The EEFF closed with Steve Read and Rob Alexander's London premiere of Gary Numan: Android in La La Land, a documentary following Numan as he returns to the world stage and moves to California.[citation needed]
The festival ceased operations on 4 March 2020 due to COVID-19. The owner, Alison Poltock, stated that "the push to provide a more mainstream commercial offering is not for us."[2]
Awards
Each year, the festival handed out awards on the festival's closing night. These included:
The Libertines are an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barât and Doherty, has also included John Hassall (bass), and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK.
The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, with the ceremony itself taking place in early December.
Sheffield DocFest, short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Industry Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
Ivy Film Festival (IFF) is the world's largest student-run film festival, hosted annually on the campus of Brown University. The Festival was started in 2001 by then-Brown juniors David Peck and Justin Slosky in collaboration with students of the other seven Ivy League schools including vice chairman Doug Imbruce from Columbia University. The founders' goal was to create a venue to showcase and honor the work of talented student filmmakers. The Ivy Film Festival currently accepts submissions from around the world for both its short film and screenplay competitions.
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England in collaboration with the British Film Institute. The festival runs for two weeks in October every year. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 feature films and 150 short films from more than 70 countries are screened at the festival each year.
The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is the largest film festival in England outside London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire. In 2022, the festival showed 140 films from 78 different countries, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
The Cambridge Film Festival is the third-longest-running film festival in the UK. The festival historically took place during early July, but now takes place annually during Autumn in Cambridge. It is organised by the registered charity Cambridge Film Trust.
The Green Mountain Film Festival is an annual film event and awards show in Vermont. The first festival took place in Montpelier, Vermont in 1997. In March 1999, a second festival was held and it has been an annual March event ever since. In 2010, the festival was extended to include a series of satellite screenings in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. In 2018, the festival also hosted screenings in Essex Junction at the Essex Cinema.
Reel Affirmations (RA) is a non-profit, all-volunteer LGBT film festival in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1991 and held every year in mid-October, as of 2011 Reel Affirmations was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the United States. Baltimore's Gay Life newspaper called it "one of the top three films festivals for the entire LGBT community." A 2007 guidebook claims it was one of the largest LGBT film festivals in the world. A listing of LGBT film festivals claims it is the largest all-volunteer film festival in the world.
FrightFest, also known as Arrow Video FrightFest is an annual film festival held in London and Glasgow. The festival holds three major events each year: a festival running five days over the UK late August Bank Holiday weekend, a Halloween event held in London in late October, and a festival in Glasgow held around February as part of the Glasgow Film Festival.
The Inheritance is micro-budget road movie following two Scottish brothers on a dark search to find their late father's inheritance. John Robbins, writing for Raindance Film Festival said the film is a "dark, touching look at brotherhood, identity and the stereotype of the Scotsman's inability to express his feelings."
The London Russian Film Festival is an annual film festival, launched by Academia Rossica in 2007. The festival is aimed to present cinema in Russian language to an English speaking audience. All films are shown in original language, with English subtitles. The film programme includes feature films as well documentaries and animated films. Apart from the film screenings, the festival encompasses Q&A sessions with actors, directors and producers presenting the films, discussion events about contemporary Russian films and culture, and film showings specially for children.
Sarah Townsend, known professionally as Sarah McGuinness, is an Irish singer, composer, producer, director, and screenwriter.
The UK Jewish Film Festival is an annual film festival dedicated to world cinema that explores Jewish life, history and culture worldwide. It was founded in 1997 and takes place in November, in London and in other cities in the United Kingdom.
Branchage is a film festival held in the Channel Island of Jersey. The festival was founded in 2008 by filmmaker Xanthe Hamilton to bring film and arts to the island. It is a mix of site-specific film screenings held across the island in churches, castles, barns, and bunkers alongside more conventional arts spaces and cinemas, alongside film and art commissions, live soundtracks to film, short film programmes, industry networking and spectacular themed parties mixing live performance, name DJs and cabaret.
Gidi Avivi is an Israeli film producer, the founder of Vice Versa Films.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outlet for supporting and championing filmmaking.
Norwich Film Festival is an annual short film festival founded in 2009 and held in Norwich, England, which showcases films by local, national and international filmmakers, both independent and mainstream. Various films have gone on to win BAFTAs and Oscars, as well as awards at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Festival and South by Southwest.
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The Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) is a film festival, based in New York City, that screens cinema from across Latin America with a special focus on Cuba and its film industry. It is a project of The American Friends of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with the mission of building cultural bridges between the United States and Cuba through arts projects.
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