Most cities are quite content to host one or two film festivals in the course of a year, but London seems to be the exception. How many London film festivals are there?
Sundance at the O2 in 2012
Robert Redford, actor director producer, and founder of the acclaimed Sundance independent film festival, announced in March 2011 that he is bringing Sundance to London in April 2012. He suggested that this four-day event, which will run at the O2 Arena in April, would be showing solidarity with the acting community in the UK, where funding for arts projects has been substantially cut in recent times.
Sundance puts $70 million into the local economy in Utah, Redford pointed out, so the Guardian reported, and British independent movies do rather well there, but the O2 version of Sundance will concentrate on showing independent US movie productions.
London Film Festivals
London’s festival programme is somewhat crammed already, with festivals of varying length and focus taking place every few weeks throughout the year. The ten-day London International Animation Festival, for instance, runs from August 26 – September 4, 2011 at the Barbican, the Horse Hospital and the Rio Cinema, with a two-day industry event included this year.
Other regular London film festivals include:
British Film Institute 55th London Film Festival October 12-27 October 2011 (Southbank cinema).
British Film Institute 25th Lesbian & Gay Film Festival was held 31 March – 6 April 2011.
London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film (Sci-Fi London) an annual ten-day annual event that took place at Easter in 2011.
London Short Film Festival takes place in January for nine days, sponsoring a very popular competition for short film makers.
London East End Festival 2011 took place at the end of April this year, and has recently featured an extra programme shown at the unique cinema, Films on Fridges.
London Independent Film Festival is also an annual April event.
Portobello Film Festival, 1-18 September 2011 in the Portobello Pop Up Cinema, is run in collaboration with the University of Westminster, and showcases British film catering to various London communities.
Open City is the London Documentary Festival that runs in June in collaboration with University College London.
Birds Eye View Film Festival in March features work by women film directors.
London Children’s Film Festival will run at the Barbican from 30 October to 7 November 2011.
Raindance Film Festival is an off-shoot from a film education initiative that also runs courses in many cities in Europe and Canada. This festival specializes in independent films by independent filmmakers, who submit their work for selection. The 19th Raindance London Film Festival runs from 29 September to 9 October 2011.
This list does not include any of the several London film festivals that feature films made abroad, but Visit London has a calendar of film events in London for further reference. They will be joined by the four-day Sundance event bringing outside independent film influences to London.
Valerie Williamson - Dr. Val Williamson is a freelance journalist and academic specialising in historical and popular culture topics.
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