9 posts tagged “festival of fantastic films”
Microcon 28, Exeter, 1-2 February: Gosh, that was fun. Report to follow in Christina Lake's and Doug Bell's fanzine Head.
Timewarp Caption, Oxford, 9-10 August: Will definitely be around, but no word on any stage stuff as yet. [Edit: unable to attend]
3rd Birmingham International Comics Show, 4-5 October: Still no word on what I'll be doing this year, but I don't usually hear until nearer the event; most likely chairing a panel on the Saturday. [Edit: unable to attend]
19th Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, 17-19 October: Entries for the amateur film competition (Saturday morning) are a little thin on the ground, though the deadline's still three months away. Have also been asked to interview actress / presenter Emily Booth, whom I originally as a guest more than two years ago.
Novacon 38, Walsall, 14-16 November: I'm now helping Martin Tudor out on publications, but fully expect to have some involvement with the Friday programming and -- maybe -- any film programming over the weekend.
Microcon 28, University of Exeter, 1-2 March: I've been invited along as a guest speaker, in part at least because I was at the very first Microcon back in 1982. Sadly, my companion on that occasion, Kevin Clarke, is unable to join me, which is a mite unfair seeing as Microcon was his idea in the first place.
19th Festival of Fantastic Films, Manchester, 17-19 October: My usual gig hosting the amateur film stream on Saturday morning.
3rd Birmingham International Comics Show, 4-5 October: I've not had the nod yet from the organisers as to what I'll be doing this year, but there'll be a panel somewhere with my name on it as moderator.
Novacon 38, Walsall, 14-16 November: Again, the programme's still in flux, but I've already been approached ref my regular Friday evening chatshow gig.
Well, we've whittled around fifty entries for this year's Delta Film Award down to a mere thirteen (which still adds up a formidable 155 minutes). The finalists (to be screened at the 18th Festival of Fantastic Films on 1 September) are:
AliciaCedric Bourgeois (Belgium, 8")ChainmailRichard Chance and John Chance (UK, 26.5")ContretempsJean Luc Baillet (France, 14")Delendra Est GenesisRafa Dengra (Spain, 20")FlyerHelmi Yusof (Singapore, 21")HalfwayKarl Holt (UK, 6")It Came From BeyondIan J Simpson (UK, 4")Missing ConnectionRoss Shepherd (UK, 5")The Morality GameJim Walker (UK, 11")No Fear of DeathMatthew Swain (UK, 10")Recently DeceasedChris McInroy (USA, 12")ShelterStephen Hedley and Nick Light (UK, 2.5")Son of the DawnRobert Mann (Eire, 15")
Edit: The competition was won by Jean-Luc Baillet's Contretemps, with Helmi Yusof's Flyer "highly commended". Special mentions were also made of Karl Holt's Halfway and Jim Walker's The Morality Game.
Those of you who attended the Saturday evening filmshow I put together for Novacon 36 will undoubtedly recall Karl Holt's hilarious horror-comedy Eddie Loves You. What I hadn't realised until tonight was that Karl had filmed the audience* when it was screened at the 17th Festival of Fantastic Films, to put together this trailer.
*[Eagle-eyed viewers will spot Hilary & Mike Simpson, Ann, myself and Ray Holloway. And no, I wasn't rubbing my eyes in disbelief: I was simply knackered from watching all the stuff we had to leave out of the Delta Award shortlist.]
Well, the flood has begun. I've already received entries for this year's Delta Award from the UK, the USA, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Eire...
As mentioned in an earlier posting, this weekend's Delta Award shortlist included the first instalment in Trey Stokes' latest Star Wars parody, Return of Pink Five, with Amy Earhart back as feisty Jedi valley girl Stacey. Hopefully, he'll have wrapped the third and final chapter by next year's festival, but the second is already playing selected events in the United States. Enjoy the trailers.
I'll be commenting in due course upon the various events in Manchester this weekend, during the 17th Festival of Fantastic Films (of which Ann and I have attended at least fifteen), but I'll content myself for a moment by posting a selection of pix from the closing night's quiz, when our team (collectively known, for reasons far too odd to recount, as "Barrie Holland's Satanic Love Children") came a very creditable fourth out of seven.
Ann's and my team-mates were: Mark Redfield, Baltimore-based director / star of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with his delightful companion and Death of Poe co-star Jennifer Rouse; freelance horror journo Calum Waddell and FAB Press boss Harvey Fenton (just back from a fruitless attempt to get home via the M6); Dawn of the Dead star Ken Foree and festival co-chair (together with Tony Edwards) Gil Lane-Young.
Less than three weeks until the 17th Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, and I've got the shortlist for this year's Delta Film Award down to a near-manageable sixteen films. Probably the worst aspect has been rejecting really interesting material purely because it isn't truly genre, including one entry from a previous winner, but rules is rules. Whatever, it's going to be a bloody close decision.
The finalists are: Anamnesis (UK); The Call of Cthulhu (USA*); Confederate Zombie Massacre! (USA); Doodled (UK); Dragon (USA); Eddie Loves You (UK*); The Grab (UK); Guy's Guide to Zombies (UK); The Harmion Tale (UK); La Vida Es Un Sueno (Spain); Return of Pink Five, Vol.1 (USA*); Solipsism (UK); The Spell (Spain); Two Old Bachelors (UK); Vampire (UK); We Three (UK).
*[I'll also be personally screening these three as part of Novacon 36's film programme.]
The relatively easy availability of pro-standard video equipment has a led to an explosion in film-making, though sadly not a proportional increase in the amount of material actually worth watching. Running the Delta Film Award for Manchester's annual Festival of Fantastic Films has provided me with more examples than I care to contemplate of enthusiasts who urgently need convincing - at gunpoint, if necessary - that the ability to point a camera into the maw of tedium doesn't place them in quite the same ranks as Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorcese. Or even William "One Shot" Beaudine, whose on-set nickname is a heavy hint at just how seriously he took his "profession".
One welcome exception is Marc Atkin, whose highly enjoyable pastiche 2001: A Lego Odyssey manages to be remain true to Stanley Kubrick's vision and still be extremely silly indeed. Enjoy.
