Catford Free Film Festival 2017

Catford Film intend to develop the Free Film Festival this year with more exciting opportunities and ideas for the local community to become more involved in the exciting world of cinema.

Whats new for 2017  ?

1. Expanding the Film school for the festival

2. Catford's first 72 Hour Film Challenge

The Film School

Building on last years successful festival, and the proven appetite for more film initiatives in the area, Catford Film will be developing their popular film workshops to include both pre and post production film classes, director and producer workshops and also opportunities to develop skills for acting in front of the camera.

Our Free Festival School of Film-making will provide more opportunities than last year to meet industry professionals, and help develop your own interests in cinema, and provide advice for those people with more than a budding interest to take the leap towards working in the industry.

(Above) Nigel Bristow (Dir Brookside/ The Bill) discussing The Role of the Director 

at the Talent Factory during the 2016 Film Festival

The 72 Hour film Challenge

We are also excited to announce Catford’s first very own 72 Hour Film Challenge, with the chance to win a bursary for a course at one of Londons leading film schools . We invite teams of up to 5-6 people to complete a film within 72 hours. You can use anything from a mobile phone to any professional equipment you can get your hands on to create your work.  All you will be given is a title, a genre, and a line of dialog. Mix that up with your own creativity, and you'll have 72 hours to race back with your completed film. Each film must have at least one Catford landmark in one of the scenes. All the finished films will be screened during one night of the festival, where the winning team will be announced and invited to come up and receive their prize.

All the above community film creation and learning initiatives will revolve around another 9 days of great film celebrations with free screenings and live music at multiple venues across SE6. Last year we opened the festival with a screening of The Great Gatsby in the beautiful Broadway Theatre. Over 300 people in Gatsby costumes came along, to be entertained by the pride of Lewisham and Greenwich, The NHS Choir before the big screening. We continued throughout the week with films celebrating all types of genres and interests, including horror, documentary, comedy,  a children's matinee, hip hop, punk, and world cinema. 

Again we will be looking for unique and interesting venues to hold our screenings. For many people, discovering the Talent Factory for the first time was a highlight of last years festival. A truly fantastic space, and a pleasant surprise for everyone that came along , that such an amazing place exists in Catford.

(above) Catford Film, screening to 200+ at the Catford Constitutional

We will also be inviting industry professionals to attend some screenings for Q&A sessions with the audience. Last year we were really pleased to get industry representation for our screenings of Biggie and Tupac, 20,000 Days on Earth and especially delighted to have William McGregor, Director on BBC's Poldark to speak with the audience at our evening of short films in the amazing Talent Factory.

(above) William McGregor discussing his experiences on directing

Misfits and Poldark with our guest presenter Jamie Madge

We will continue to take the best of the core festival events from last year, to include film and live music, but with some added extras including a fright night where you will be taken by coach to watch a classic horror in spooky surroundings.  We will of course provide refreshments and late night music to help take the edge off things before we transport you back home.

 (Above) Live music with the energetic "Mummy" at the

Catford Constitutional Club supporting our screening of

Nick Caves "20,000 Days on Earth" during the 2016 Festival. 

The 2017 Catford Free Film Festival aims to be bigger and better than ever, with a host of community activities to:

Provide a programme of fantastic film screenings

Embrace a sense of community

Celebrate our ethnic diversity

Entertain

Encourage and support local independent film makers, and feed an appetite for film creation in SE6 and surrounding areas.

Please support this fantastic event, and together we can bring some cinematic buzz to SE6.