A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, or on a subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
SchNEWS was a free weekly publication from Brighton, England, which ran from November 1994 until September 2014. The main focus was environmental and social issues/struggles in the UK – but also internationally – with an emphasis on direct action protest, and autonomous political struggles outside formalised political parties.
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental filmmaking by showcasing emerging talents and established auteurs. The festival also places a focus on presenting cutting edge media art and arthouse film, with most of the participants in the short film program identified as artists or experimental filmmakers. IFFR also hosts CineMart and BoostNL, for film producers to seek funding. The IFFR logo is a stylized image of a tiger that is loosely based on Leo, the lion in the MGM logo.
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides. As a cinematic phenomenon, the midnight screening of offbeat movies began in the early 1970s in a few urban centers, particularly in New York City with screenings of El Topo at the Elgin Theater, eventually spreading across the country. The screening of non-mainstream pictures at midnight was aimed at building a cult film audience, encouraging repeat viewing and social interaction in what was originally a countercultural setting.
The Dollar Baby is an arrangement by which American author Stephen King grants permission to students and aspiring filmmakers or theatre producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1. The term may be used to refer both to the film or play itself and to the filmmaker.
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 2015, the festival welcomed over 40,000 visitors and showed over 300 films from around the world, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
The Haifa International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place every autumn, during the week-long holiday of Sukkot, in Haifa, Israel.
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.
Mark Donne is a, London-based film-maker and writer. Formerly a journalist, Donne wrote for The Independent and The Guardian newspapers & has appeared as a commentator on relevant issues on BBC News, Sky News, Channel 4 News and other current affairs television programmes. Donne has writing and directing credits on two independent feature-length artist documentaries and various short films.
Project Twenty1 is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization based in Philadelphia with the mission to Educate, Promote, Inspire & Connect creatives through film and animation programs (E.P.I.C.) Signature programs include the 21-Day Filmmaking Competition and the Philadelphia Film & Animation Festival. Past Philadelphia programs they have run include the Philadelphia Film-A-Thon, an all day international film marathon and Cinema Undercover, a secret cinema showcase of films that are not revealed before the screening.
The Architect Africa Film Festival (AAFF) is a bi-annual architectural event held in South Africa by the Architects Collective of South Africa. For the duration of three weeks, the Architect Africa Film Festival travels to Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth where up to 25 international and local films featuring the built environment are screened to the public at central cinema complexes. This becomes the core event around which many additional activities take place, including two student competitions – the Tripod Architecture Photography Competition and the Moving Spaces Film Competition.
The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each May in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival is known for its close relationship with John Waters, who is on the festival's board of directors and selects a favorite film to host within each year of the festival.
The East End Film Festival was one of the UK's largest film festivals. It ceased all operations on 4 March 2020. The owner, Alison Poltock, explained that "the push to provide a more mainstream commercial offering is not for us."
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.
Havana, Cuba, is a host city to numerous events and festivals.
Film Fest Ghent, spelt Film Fest Gent in Flemish and also known as International Film Fest Gent, is an annual international film festival in Ghent, Belgium. The festival held its first edition in 1974, under the name Internationaal Filmgebeuren Gent, and has since grown into the largest film festival in Belgium. The festival also puts the spotlight on film music; since 2001, Film Fest Ghent has hosted the World Soundtrack Awards, a series of prizes for the best soundtracks for film and television.
Directors Lounge is an ongoing Berlin-based film and media-art platform with year-round screenings and exhibitions in Berlin and various other cities. Annually parallel to the Berlin Film Festival (February), the central event of the Directors Lounge, the intensified presentation The Berlin International Directors Lounge takes place. Directors Lounge is the brainchild of filmmaker André Werner, artist Joachim Seinfeld and gallerist/curator Longest F. Stein in conjunction with the A&O-gallery and other artists from the Berlin media art scene.
Downloaded is a documentary film directed by Alex Winter about the downloading generation and the impact of filesharing on the Internet. A teaser of the film premiered at SXSW on March 14, 2012. The feature film made its world premiere at SXSW on March 10, 2013, and was shown at other film festivals around the world. VH1 partnered with AOL to distribute the film widely and was broadcast as a VH1 Rock Docs feature in late 2014.
The Munich International Film Festival is the largest summer film festival in Germany and second only in size and importance to the Berlinale. It has been held annually since 1983 and takes place in late-June/early-July. The latest festival was held from June 23 to July 2, 2022. It presents feature films and feature-length documentaries. The festival is also proud of the role it plays in discovering talented and innovative young filmmakers. With the exception of retrospectives, tributes and homages, all of the films screened are German premieres and many are European and world premieres. There are a dozen competitions with prizes worth over €250,000 which are donated by the festival's major sponsors and partners.
Kier-La Janisse is a Canadian film writer, programmer, producer, and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Her best-known work as a writer is House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films which many critics consider an important milestone in both confessional film writing and the study of female madness onscreen. Video Watchdog’s Tim Lucas referred to it as one of the 10 “most vital” horror film books of all time, and Ian MacAllister-McDonald of the LA Review of Books called it “the next step in genre theory, as well as the most frightening and heart-rending memoir I’ve read in years.” Her debut feature as a filmmaker, the three-hour documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, premiered at SXSW 2021 where it won the Midnighters Audience Award.
