News

Mike Leigh becomes patron of the Cornwall Film Festival

Acclaimed film director Mike Leigh has become the first patron of the Cornwall Film Festival.

Leigh commented: “My late, great producer and dear friend Simon Channing Williams was very closely involved with the Cornwall Film Festival, and so it’s with great pleasure that I follow him in having the honour of becoming a patron.”

At the 2004 Festival, Leigh himself presented his award-winning film Vera Drake, followed by a standing-room-only Q&A. “We are thrilled to have Mike Leigh as our first patron,” says Festival director Donna Anton. “His body of work is a testament to the best in British filmmaking, which we hope will reflect well on our efforts here in Cornwall.”

Leigh’s latest film, Another Year, which competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, will have its Cornwall premiere during this year’s Festival.

Cornwall Film Festival launches two new fundraising campaigns

A unique advertising package for local businesses and a donations appeal, called £ove Cornwall Film Festival.

Faced with an 80 percent cut in government funding and fierce competition for private arts grants, the Cornwall Film Festival has launched two diverse campaigns to raise money for this year’s event, scheduled for 5-7 November in Falmouth.

The organisation, a registered charity that uniquely supports Cornish filmmaking, still needs £27,000 to operate this year’s Festival.

One campaign is a unique advertising package for local businesses. Designed in partnership with myCornwall.tv, it combines professional production of a 10-second video spot with print advertising. The video spot will be used as on-screen advertising during the Festival. It will also appear for 12 months on the myCornwall.tv website, and can be placed on the advertiser’s own website. A related print advert will be placed in the Festival’s programme brochure.

Meanwhile an online global micro-donation appeal, called £ove Cornwall Film Festival, is being spread through social networking sites, to film enthusiasts, filmmakers and their friends – and to those who simply love Cornwall.

“We will happily accept £1, £2 or £5 – whatever people can afford,” said Donna Anton, Festival director. “If several thousand individuals give us a few quid – or a few euros, dollars or yen – then we might have a chance to make ends meet this year.

Entry deadline fast approaching

We are in our last week of calling for entries for the 2010 Cornwall Film Festival. Please visit our submissions page for details of how to enter your film.

SCREENING OF CORNISH SHORT FILMS A GREAT SUCCESS!

Over 140 people celebrate the launch of Tyskennow Kernow 2

Over 140 people gathered at the Plaza Cinema in Truro this midsummer's evening to celebrate the launch of Tyskennow Kernow 2, the second in awen productions’ groundbreaking series of short film collections made in and about Cornwall and the Cornish language.

Denzil shows off the Tyskennow Kernow 2 DVD, much to Elizabeth Stewart (from Maga)'s amuzement

Denzil shows off the Tyskennow Kernow 2 DVD Filmmaker Mark Jenkin with Paul Farmer, director of

Skath, which had its theatrical premiere on Monday.

Denzil Monk of awen productions and Pol Hodge, Cornish poet and star of Paul Farmer's Cornish language film 'Skath - Cornish Pilot Gig', winner of last year's Govyn Kernewek Award, practicing their speeches.

The event went with a bang as corks flew from the bottles of champagne-style Raspberry Aval from Polgoon Vineyard in Penzance. Filmgoers were also treated to traditional Cornish music from Dalla’s new album “Cribba” which has also just been released.

As well as a preview of Tyskennow Kernow 2, there was an opportunity to see local poet Pol Hodge’s Cornish language film “Pymp Gwel”, Will Coleman’s “Tom and the Giant” and Paul Farmer’s film, “Skath”, which won the Govyn Kernewek Award at last year’s Cornwall Film Festival.

The evening culminated in the announcement by the Cornwall Film Festival of this year’s Govyn Kernewek Award winner – Ian Bucknole, with his short film proposal‘Skint – A Cornish Musical’. Ian said “After submitting ideas every year for the last 6 years, I’m proud to have now won this Award and am looking forward to completing the film to premiere at Cornwall Film Festival this November.”

The evening was very much bi-lingual with drinks being served by MAGA’s Elizabeth Stewart in Cornish and English. awen productions director, Denzil Monk said “events like this show how Cornish Culture is becoming more recognized by gaining a great deal of momentum through media and the arts”, and one certainly felt part of a very lively culture that night.

Tyskennow Kernow 1 and 2 DVDs are available from the awen website www.awen.org.uk.

Please click here for more details.

2009 Winners Announced:

The Cornwall Film Festival's first-ever juried competition took place over the Festival weekend - here are the winners:

Cornish Films in Competition:

BEST FILM - Aurora's Kiss by Mark Jenkin

BEST IDEA - Sunseekers by Jason Bradbury, Luke Martin & Charlotte Whatley

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE - Fleapit by Brett Harvey & Ian Bucknole

The jury panel for Cornish Films in Competition comprised: Rebecca Mark-Lawson of Lifesize Pictures, Jan Faull of the BFI, Tamás Gábeli of the Budapest International Short Films Competition, Sarah-Jane Meredith of South West Screen, and Mary Davies, film industry consultant.

The trophy for Best Film was made by Duncan Wilson, a mature student at Cornwall College

Student Films in Competition

BEST FILM - Kuganiza by Sam Palmer

BEST IDEA - Assistance by Rik Burnell, Adam Jones & Joe Wheatley

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE - Ctrl Alt Shift by Simon Lane & Dean Moore

The Student Films jury were Film students from Truro College and UCF: Steven Mackay, Robert Wilkes, Luke Fraser and Sophie Long.

The winner of Best Student Film received a copy of Adobe Premiere Pro donated by Adobe UK.

Delabole Slate Audience Awards:

FILM OF THE FESTIVAL - Hedluv the Musical by David Brittain & Christina Lauridsen

BEST STUDENT FILM - Life of Prisk by Steve Wright

Steve Wright collecting his Award from Poet, Murray Lachlan Young

Photo by Simon Colgan

2009 ANOTHER COUNTRY International Short Film Award

WINNER - Love Child by Daniel Wirtberg

If you would like to be included on the Festival Mailing List, please click here

Festival DIrector Donna Anton at Edinburgh Festival

Cornwall Film Festival director Donna Anton gets a history lesson...

about the Edinburgh Film Guild while attending last month's Edinburgh International Film Festival. Donna, who is also chair of the British Federation of Film Societies, helped the EFG celebrate its 80th birthday, making it the world's longest continuously running film society.

Cornwall Film Festival launches filmmaking project for people with learning disabilities

The Cornwall Film Festival is really excited to be running a filmmaking project for people with learning disabilities, supported by the Cornwall Community Fund.

The project kicked off on 11^th March with a filmmaking masterclass for over 30 participants from across Cornwall, including the Murdoch and Trevithick Centre in Redruth, The John Daniel Centre in Penzance and the Blantyre Centre in St Austell.

The masterclass was led by Sarah Watson and Stephen Firshman from the Oska Bright Committee, an international Film Festival run by and for people with learning disabilities.

It was a fantastic day and everyone involved had a really great time developing a script for a short animation which had its premiere screening that afternoon. The Oska Bright team also treated us to an inspiring screening of Award winning films from the Oska Bright Film Festival 2009.

We are now looking forward to working with individual groups to make a series of short films for the Cornwall Film Festival 2010 with the help of wondrous Cornish filmmaker, Barbara Santi of awen productions www.awen.org.uk.

Please complete your evaluation of the Festival on-line at http://www.cornwallfilmfestival.com/audience-survey

It is extremely important that we get your feedback on the festival as it helps us to gain support for next year.

Please complete the evaluation on-line at: http://www.cornwallfilmfestival.com/audience-survey

If you include contact information we will enter you into a draw for a free weekend pass for the 2010 Festival.

Cornwall Film Festival is now on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter and get the latest information before the festival and updates and changes during the festival weekend. Go to www.twitter.com/cff09 now to sign up.

British Film Institute Screening of Rare Cornish Footage

Another treat for Cornwall Film Festival attendees is a presentation by Jan Faull, the BFI National Archive Production Curator, who has unearthed some rare footage of Cornwall, including:

1901 ROYAL ALBERT BRIDGE AND PLYMOUTH SOUND
Part of the Mitchell and Kenyon Collection (b/w, silent)

1904 SCENES ON THE CORNISH RIVIERA
Promotional film for the Gt Western Railway (b/w, silent)

1920-1 PORTALS OF THE ATLANTIC
Cornish scenes – St Ives, Helston , Newquay etc
Filmed by Claude Friese-Greene , a precursor to his more
famous colour travelogue from 1925 The Open Road (b/w, silent)

1937 FAREWELL TOPSAILS
Filmed by Humphrey Jennings in Dufaycolor.
The last of the topsail schooners transporting china clay from Charlestown to London (colour, sound)

1947 SERVING THE WORLD
Promotional film for Holmans Rock Drills – shows the work carried on at the various sites in Camborne. The company had a world-famous reputation for mining equipment and was the major employer in the town. (b/w, sound)

1953 FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE
Produced by the BFI Experimental Film Fund
Examples of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures set against the Cornish surroundings that inspired them. (Colour, sound)

Jan, a Camborne native, will be introducing each item and giving some background on how it came to be made.

A not-to-be-missed opportunity to see some great archive materials.