Trouble in Film City

Well, it's now into September, and the Cambridge Film Festival organisers have just about managed to put up a 'preview brochure' for the festival - basically a hastily cobbled together 'we have these films, it's not a full list, and we don't know for sure when things are on, so just bear with us'.

Usually we get the full brochure a month before the festival starts, so what on earth is going on down there? My hunch is that they have a few money problems now things are so tight (and it will only get worse for the UK film industry). They even have a JustGiving page to try and help them through. They've raised a tidy sum, but it doesn't seem to be doing them much good, unfortunately.

Whatever the case, the punter loses out. It's bad enough regional festival-goers trying to arrange time off work to see the best that's on offer when the brochure is so late, but those of us living further away now have no chance whatsoever to get there - all the B+B's are now booked full. So, I've taken the decision to give it a miss this year and concentrate on Japan and the Leeds fest in November. Grr.

It's a shame, because not only is it a lovely place to stay, but you also get a good crop of films at Cambridge, they seem to be able to pull out of the bag a healthy crop year on year, and this time seems no different.



If you are lucky enough to be in the vicinity, there looks to be some good stuff on at least; stuff standing out from the rest this year includes The Secret of Kells (Leeds last year, missed it - beautiful animation that pulled a lot of awards), The People vs. George Lucas (Edinburgh, missed it - A humorous/serious documentary about rabid fans), Winter's Bone (Oscar-nominated thriller about a woman trying to save her family by finding her father), Plug and Pray (exploring where we are going with robots and technology)



Nenètte (a documentary about a charismatic and elderly Oran-utan in a Paris zoo)



and The Extraordinary Adventures if Adele Blanc-Sec (French Indiana Jones-style action film, but with a sexy wummin!).



I'm praying for a rerun of at least a few of these and others at Leeds... pretty please..?

1 comment:

commemorate life said...

the secret of kells really is a GOOD film, not the hollywood type