Belfast Film Festival

Belfast Film Festival
	Festival Patron Máirtín Ó Muilleoir presents John Cusack with the festival’s Réalta Award
Opening film	12 April 2018
Closing film	21 April 2018
Location	Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Founded	1994
Language	English, Irish, mixed
Website	http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org

The Belfast Film Festival is Northern Ireland’s leading film festival, it promotes a diverse and dynamic programme of film events and outreach activity throughout the year. Its annual programme of work includes 3 elements: the cornerstone event, the annual Belfast Film Festival; the summer programme; and their outreach projects. In the past three years it has attracted audience levels at an average of 19,000 per year.

The annual film festival exhibits local and international films over a ten day period each Spring presenting upwards of 130 films, related seminars, workshops, special events and master classes. The festival programme is entertaining, provocative and provides a platform for cultural expression and debate. It includes a celebration of local talent and a showcase of the best of new international films and talent. The competitive aspect of the festival includes the internationally coveted Maysles documentary award, the audience award, short 'drama' film prize, short documentary award and special award for an individual whom the festival believe has made an outstanding contribution to film.

BFF has led the way in site-specific screening activity across the country, inspiring, collaborating with and supporting many other organisations to deliver ‘event style and outdoor’ cinema screenings. Their most recent example of this type of event was the sell-out double bill of The Exorcist and The Omen in the atmospheric surroundings of a disused (deconsecrated) Catholic Church.

The latest development in their busy outreach programme is a VR (virtual reality) suite, which is soon to bring the latest in digital entertainment technology to local hospitals, schools, nursing homes and community centres. The Festival works all year round with marginalised groups and local communities to enhance access to cultural film experiences.

Cool Hand Luke at Crumlin Road Gaol in 2013

History

Belfast Film Festival's screening of Mad Max at T13

Founded in 1995 by writer Laurence McKeown, in its early stages of development the film festival was an element of Féile an Phobail, and operated as the West Belfast Film Festival between 1995 and 2000. In its third and fourth year WBFF ran as independent event and included venues around the city. Under the stewardship of Michele Devlin and Laurence McKeown, it became the Belfast Film Festival in the year 2000 and ran as a citywide event, including venues in the North, South, East and West of Belfast.

Two weeks after the 2004 event, the festival's offices in the Art Deco North Street Arcade were decimated by fire. Despite losing their base and all their records, the festival recovered, relocated to Donegall St, and was able to stage the event again the following year. The 2005 festival was launched by award winning actor Stephen Rea.

2018 will see the eighteenth programme roll out across the city. The Festival's activities are entertaining and provocative, and in many instances provide an important platform for debate across the religious, social and cultural divides in Northern Ireland.

Site-specific events and Summer programme

Belfast Film Festival's screening of The Wicker Man at the Giant's Ring

The inclusion of people and the fabric of the city in the programme is an important aspect of the BFF's work. Since the early years they have been trailblazers in the presentation of site specific events and innovative ways to screen films. In 2004 they hosted the first ever drive-in movie event in the city in Talbot St car park of The Shining. Since then they have supported and inspired numerous groups across Ireland and the UK to stage drive-in movies and other outdoor events. They have screened films in used and disused swimming pools including Jaws and Session 9 on a boat in the River Lagan (Piranha), with live piano accompaniment in St Anne's Cathedral (16mm original version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and shown Carol Reed's Odd Man Out beside the iconic Albert Clock, which featured heavily in the film. They have profiled unique architectural sites by hosting screenings in them including the US political drama The West Wing at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Oh, Mr Porter! at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra, The Warriors in a dystopian landscape beneath a city centre motorway flyover, and Stanley Kubrick's cult sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey in the historic dry dock in the city's old shipyards where the RMS Titanic last sat on dry ground.

Music has also featured strongly in their programming; some highlights include the collaborations with local talent such as Duke Special and David Holmes on audio visual performances, hosting the internationally acclaimed band Goblin to perform a live score to Dawn of the Dead, Cercueil (Coffin) the fantastic French duo performing to David Lynch's Eraserhead and a synchronised swim team (Aquabatix) performing live in a pool to alongside a compilation of aquatic and swim themed films and music.

Outreach Programme

BFF’s Outreach Programme aims to entertain, inform, engage and empower local communities through the medium of film and film related activity. It delivers events and provides resources and practical support for communities who want to participate and increase understanding of specialized film and digital media platforms.

Night at the Museum at New Lodge Community Garden in 2014

The outreach team works with a wide variety of local communities across NI, in particular with those who are marginalized. They are continually developing and providing a range projects, which includes workshops, events and training opportunities, to enhance access and engagement for disadvantaged sections of the community.

In the past year the outreach team have been working with - RRCANI (Romanina Roma Community Association Of Northern Ireland) to screen a series of films in their native language; Belfast Trust - Belfast City Hospital to pilot a programme of screenings in the hospital environment; Short Strand Special Needs Groups, showing regular screenings for the groups in their Beanbag Cinema; Helping Hands Autism Support Group, to organize autism friendly screenings; WANDA Feminist Film Festival, to launch its first festival; Tí Scannán, screening Irish language film; Pride Festival, annual programme of film celebrating LGBT Pride; Hydebank Young offenders Unit, bringing a film programme into the prison.

In 2017 they had a special focus on reaching out to communities based in NI from Eastern Europe, North Africa, and South America, and programmed a series of 12 films under the banner Landforms. They also worked with BFI to deliver the Neighbourhood Touring Cinema to communities in Coalisland, Newry, Portrush, Newcastle and other towns throughout NI. They participated in the BFI UK wide BlackStar programme, an initiative to highlight the BME talent in the British Film industry.

The Belfast Film Festival team

Festival Director: Michele Devlin

Programmer: Stephen Hackett

Maysles Brothers Competition Curator: Stuart Sloan

Marketing Manager: Mary Lindsay

Marketing Assistant: Rebekah Davis

Outreach Development: Vittoria Cafolla

Administrator/Finance: Laura McKeown

Technician: Jason Mills

Board of directors: Kevin Jackson (Chair), Brian Henry Martin, Mark Cousins, Lisa Barros D' Sa, Laurence McKeown, Louise O'Meara, Kevin Jackson, Sarah Jones, Cahal McLaughlin

Patrons: Terry George, David Holmes, Pat Murphy and William Crawley