Red carpet, VIPs, press, music and drinks. What more could one want for the opening start to the 14th edition of short film festival week?
The Kinofilm festival has been running for more than 20 years and celebrates the talents of emerging and established filmmakers, showcasing the best short films and debut features from around the world.
The opening gala captivated the audience with these start-studded shorts before a Q&A session was held with some of the stars themselves.
The opening evening’s films were unintentionally focused on mental health issues, it was interesting to see some of the famous stars, such as Denise Welch openly talk about her directing and acting within the film.
An extremely fascinating view, to watch a short film, and then be able to be briefed on the meanings of the film, the ins and outs of making the films, and the added components and stresses of the films, which is what many of the weeks screenings did.
The small screening of the six short films set the tone, and the week that followed was just an explosion of talent with over 270 short films being played around the city.
Made in Manchester and Made up North were extremely popular and showcased much promise from our hometown.
The abundance of other screenings throughout the week were equally as good, always managing to provoke either thought, comedy or deep emotions within the audience, something quite hard to capture when working inbetween a 3 and 20 minute time frame.
The week, however, didn’t only involve film, but many events from film archives to BAFTA award winning screenings and talks.
The North West film archive showed many a historic moment in Manchester’s past through black and white flickering images from the Archives collection, the biggest archive selection outside of London.
HULA screens in #Manchester today at Kino Film Festival @KINOFILM Part of the ‘Women in Film – Directors’ programme #KINOFILM @KINOFILM pic.twitter.com/5WBJlABJ5s
— Robin Haig (@onthecroft) November 22, 2017
Other events include Women in film and TV panel, and workshops such as the BBC Writers-room.
A talk by Instagram famous, 22-year-old filmmaker and Photographer Fraser Cottrell gave sound advice and wisdom as to how to pitch your abilities within the industry to a company.
All the events were very hands on and open to allow for questions and answers, really encouraging the production of film and inspiring the many students who came to watch, learn and grow.
The closing evening celebrated with an awards ceremony, where many a prize was won, the screening of the winners films and a festival party.
Festival Program manager Steve Balshaw stated: “It’s never as easy a job as it sounds from the outside.”
But if Kinofilm festival are able to pull of such a week of hands on actives again next year, it will be welcomed and awaited for with open arms by many.
