Bolton International Film Festival will for its sixth edition from Wednesday 5 October – Sunday 9 October. The BIFA and BAFTA-accredited short film festival will be screening over 300 short films at venues across the town, including 29 world premieres and 61 UK premieres.
Audiences will be given the opportunity to see work from some of the world’s most exciting filmmakers, and to participate in Q&As and masterclasses with highly respected figures from within the film and television industry.
There over 30 industry events this year, including a masterclass with two-time Academy Award winner and DNEG co-founder Paul Franklin. He will be talking about his 30-plus-year career in digital visual effects and animation, including his 10-year-long collaboration with director Christopher Nolan – starting with Batman Begins and including the Oscar-winning visual effects work he designed for Inception and Interstellar.
BAFTA-winning editor Mick Audsley will share insights into the cutting room process, with over thirty film credits to his name, including Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express and Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield.
Representatives from Film 4, The Guardian, the BFI and BBC Writersroom will also be in attendance, as well as festival programmers from Tribeca, Raindance and London Short Film Festival, in the hope of offering support and guidance to those looking to forge and develop a career in the screen industries.
Bolton-born writers Michael and Paul Clarkson (“The Clarkson Twins”) will also be making a return to the festival to discuss their experiences of co-writing for television; including on Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor and the newly released BBC Three horror series Red Rose, set and filmed in Bolton.
The short films feature household names such as Kevin Bacon, Morgan Freeman, Ruth Madeley, Jo Martin and Timothy West, as audiences will be introduced to films by some of the world’s rising stars. There’s something for all tastes – drama, comedy, documentary, animation, fashion, dance and award-winning VR.
“There’s a tangible energy building around this year’s festival,” said festival director Adrian Barber. “Filmmakers are flying in from all around the world, it’s great to see so many people getting in touch about their travel plans to Bolton. For many of them it’ll be their first time here – and that goes for many of our UK filmmakers too.”
The festival received over 2,700 submissions this year and Barber explained the process of whittling them down to the final selection is not easy. “We spend a great deal of time curating our programme each year, with many of the films we screen going on to the major awards including the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards,” he noted. “It’s a fantastic thing to be able to curate a festival that caters to a local audience as well as an international one.”
Barber puts the festival’s positive reviews and popularity down to the warmth of his team. “Over the years I like to think that our hospitality and warm nature has played a key role in our success, and I look forward to the team welcoming more people again this year,” he added.
More details on the films and talks can be found on the festival’s website, where tickets and passes are on sale now.
