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Mike Leigh
Saturday 23rd November 7.30 pm
Gala - Hard Truths with Q&A
Hard Truths, his sixteenth feature screens at the Festival and we are delighted to welcome our Patron and acclaimed filmmaker Mike Leigh to discuss his five-decade career. He started out in theatre in the mid-1960s before transitioning to television drama, which saw productions of his plays Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail’s Party (1977). The varying quality of TV production saw Leigh prefer to work on theatrical features, such as his debut Bleak Moments (1971) and his 1983 follow-up Meantime, a scathing portrait of Thatcher’s Britain.
High Hopes (1988) and Life Is Sweet (1990) perfectly encapsulated Leigh’s balance of characterisation and social comedy, which can also be seen in Career Girls (1997), All or Nothing (2002), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). Secrets & Lies (1996) is arguably the apotheosis of this style. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Best British Film at the BAFTAs and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Another acclaimed film, Naked (1993), is arguably the filmmaker’s most splenetic attack on the British establishment and a drama of great verve and striking visual style. By contrast, Another Year (2010) saw Leigh grapple with the passage of time and is underpinned by profound compassion and mordant humour.
Alongside his contemporary-set films, Leigh has produced a handful of period dramas whose canvases are as rich as they are potent in the themes they explore, from Vera Drake’s (2004) painful portrait of a well-meaning backstreet abortionist and Peterloo’s (2018) recounting of a dreadful episode in British history, to Topsy-Turvy’s (1999) exuberant portrait of Victorian theatrical partners Gilbert and Sullivan, and Mr. Turner’s (2014) visually rich, utterly engrossing study of one of Britain’s greatest painters.
Screen Talk Host
Mark Kermode is a writer and broadcaster. Film critic for The Observer, and co-presenter of Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on BBC Radio 5 and The Film Review on the BBC News channel. He is the author of several books including Hatchet Job, It's Only a Movie, and The Good, the Bad & the Multiplex, and two other BFI Film Classics volumes on Silent Running and The Shawshank Redemption. He presents Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI explores, critiques and dissects movies, usually joined by a special guest or two!
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Friday 22nd November 7.15pm
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BIRD Presented By Mia Bays Director of the BFI Film Fund​
Mia Bays is the Director of the BFI Film Fund, a position she took up to reshape the future of UK cinema by supporting new talent, diverse voices, and innovative storytelling. With over 30 years of experience, Mia has been an Oscar-winning producer, distributor, and passionate advocate for inclusivity and artistic vision in filmmaking. Known for her commitment to championing underrepresented voices, Mia aims to make the BFI Film Fund a more dynamic, responsive space for filmmakers to flourish
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Dean Puckett
The Severed Sun
Fri Nov 22, 2024 5:00 PM
@ The Poly
Dean Puckett is a British writer/ director. He recently wrote and directed his debut feature ‘The Severed Sun’, which was developed through BBC Films, Creative England and the BFI. His short films have screened at festivals around the world including Sitges, BFI Flare, FrightFest, Encounters, Palm Springs Shorts Fest and more! He is currently developing a slate of feature film projects including ‘Seagull’, a vampire movie with BFI NETWORK, Rebecca Wolff & Early Day Films, and ROT, A high octane body horror with Qwerty Films.
Timestalker
Sat Nov 23, 2024 5:00 PM
@ The Poly
Alice Lowe is an English actress, writer and director. She began her career in experimental theatre but is well known for her work in TV comedies such as ‘Little Britain’, ‘Darkplace’ and ‘Sherlock’. Her film credits include Edgar Wright’s ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Sightseers’ which she also co-wrote. In 2016, she made her directorial debut with her comedy slasher Prevenge, which screened at Venice, TIFF, London, and SXSW. This year, she is back writing, directing and starring her latest project, the equally ambitious and genre-defying ‘Timestalker’.
#Climtescam?
Mon Nov 18, 2024 7:30 PM
Bryony has worked in Cornwall as a videographer for 10 years specialising in documentary environmental films. She has filmed as an independent film maker for NGOs, charities and other organisations such as Greenpeace, the Centre for Sustainable Energy, Rame Peninsula Beach Care, the Peninsula Trust and Exeter and Falmouth Universities. Previous to her move to Cornwall she worked for eight years in London for production company Salt Pictures, working as associate producer on projects in Bethlehem, Kenya and London. She then went on to work as Producer Director at CTVC, heading up over 500 short online films to start up Truetube, now a BAFTA-winning free online educational platform producing documentary, drama and animation films aimed at teachers, students and young people.
The Colour Room
Fri Nov 15, 2024 7:30 PM @ INTO Bodmin
Claire Peate is a BAFTA-winning screenwriter and novelist, best known for her film ‘The Colour Room’ (2021), which starred Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor. The film tells the story of Art Deco designer Clarice Cliff and earned Claire the prestigious BAFTA Rocliffe Award for her screenplay. Her work on the film also led to a nomination for the Debut Screenwriter Award at the British Independent Film Awards. In addition to her success in screenwriting, two of her books were selected as WHSmith’s "Pick of the Week," and she has been a featured speaker at the Hay Festival. Excitingly, Claire also has two films in pre-production in the UK and US!
Nikolay Nikolov & Zachary Alfred
Pipe Dream
Sun Mon Nov 18, 2024
7:30 PM @ The Poly
Nikolay Nikolov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. With interests in politics, philosophy, and art, he moved to the UK to study political science and international relations, earning his PhD with a dissertation on post-Soviet architecture. His career in video production began at AJ+ and later Mashable, where he produced several video pieces about large public art installations and kinetic sculptures. In 2022, he joined The New York Times as a senior video journalist. He lives in London.
Zachary Alfred was born and raised in Montana. In 2012, he joined Al Jazeera English as an interview producer and two years later helped launch global social media publisher AJ+. After earning a master’s degree in Digital Media and Society in Sweden, his career focus shifted to content production and social media strategy at Swedish truckmaker Scania, where he produced award-winning editorial content. Since 2022, Zachary has dedicated his career to communications for climate and sustainable industrial transformation. He lives in Stockholm.
Virtual Q&A with Theo Jansen
Bird with Mia Bays
Friday 22nd November 7.15pm @The Poly
Professor of Film at Exeter University, specialising in post-classical American cinema, British cinema, and classical Hollywood. Author of five books, including The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema and Contemporary American Cinema. With a focus on gender, sexuality, censorship, and classification. Recently completing a study of Steven Spielberg's Children and co-led a major research project on women filmmakers, Calling the Shots. I also work on women's roles in the UK screen sector and film history through archives and co-curate the Shetland Film Festival Screenplay.
Paris, Texas
Sun Nov 24, 2024 1:30 PM @ The Poly (RS)
Judith Noble is a Professor of Film and the Occult at Arts University Plymouth (UK). She began her career as an artist-filmmaker, exhibiting work internationally and worked for over twenty years as a production executive in the film industry, working with directors including Peter Greenaway and Amma Asante. Her current research centres on artists’ moving image, Surrealism, the occult, and work by women artists, and she has published on filmmakers including Maya Deren, Derek Jarman, and Kenneth Anger. Her most recent publication (as editor) is The Dance of Moon and Sun – Ithell Colquhoun, British Women and Surrealism (2023, Fulgur). She continues to practice as an artist and filmmaker; her most recent film is Fire Spells (2022), a collaboration with director Tom Chick. Her recent work can be found at www.iseu.space. Her film work is distributed by Cinenova.