Flatpack Film Festival

Featuring film, animation, optical illusions, music, improvised sound and image, live performance, installation and even a pedal-powered cinema, Flatpack proves to be one of the most diverse film festivals this side of the North Sea and English channel. The inception of Flatpack occurred in June 2003, as a monthly film night at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth, Birmingham, and now the wheels are turning to start the gear of the 8th festival in March 2014. Warwick University cinephiles can revel in being part of Birmingham’s cinematic history while sitting in the festival’s spiritual home, The Electric Cinema, the oldest working cinema in the UK. The highlights from last year included The Lebanese Rocket Society, a documentary charting the implausible forgotten story of a group of Armenian students who tried to build a space rocket in 1960s Lebanon and also a simple black and white animation, Plug and Play that combines love, desire and the coulomb current into one electrifying whole. Luckily what it lacks in overriding themes from its art installations and films it gains in the form of a welcoming atmosphere and spirit that heartens the feeling of excitement and enhances the shared viewing experience in the festival community. So pack a coat, bring a buddy and prepare yourself for a week of cinematic enchantment.

Watersprite – The Cambridge International Student Film Festival

Hailed as one of the most prestigious student film festivals, The Watersprite International Student Film Festival is designed to celebrate student filmmaking from around the world, and is held annually at the University of Cambridge. The festival culminates with a weekend of events in the beginning of March, in which famous speakers from the worldwide film industry are invited, with likes of Billy Nighy, Kevin MacDonald and David Yates, to give talks and workshops, alongside the awards ceremony, celebrating and screening the winning entries. The festival is not-for-profit but even so its short-film competition attracts entries from 41 countries, across six continents, garnering a strong support from BAFTA. Shortly moving into its fifth year, the festival also provides people from numerous film departments, including make up, screenwriting, scoring, post production the platform to indulge in their early experience in the industry as well as sharing the secrets of all these different tools of the trade. The festival’s namederives from their first ever Film of the Year, Who’s Afraid of the Watersprite? directed by William McGregor. The 18-minute short about a hauntingly beautiful coalescing story of a sick mother, her little girl, a blacksmith and an old man, went on to receive universal praise and won 9 international awards. In essence, it’s a perfect place to get make that distant dream of yours into an impending reality.

Aeshetica Short Film Festival

November is the best time to be film fan with an impatience to escape the bubble of University. Which is why one of the UK most talked about events, the Aesthetica Short Film Festival will fill that void, retuning for a third year in York from 8-11th November. Aesthetica is not specifically a festival engineered by students but rather an experience that can easily be absorbed by one. The festival celebrates independent cinema with a shorter time frame and a multitude of genres varying from drama to music video to experimental. Akin to Glastonbury the festival takes place over a weekend, with the option to acquire a three-day or one-day pass. However instead of forking over £200, Aesthetica provides tickets for a modest price of £27 for access to all the venues and screenings over the whole weekend – perfect for those on a student budget. Accompanying the usual festival frolics are the master classes that provide the opportunity to engage with industry professionals. This year Alice Lowe, who has appeared in some of the best British cinema has to offer like Hot Fuzz and Sightseers comes to Aesthetica to discuss screenwriting and subsequently bringing the words to the screen. But what easily sets Aesthetica apart from other film festivals are the unique screening locations. You could catch yourself laughing your head off in a 300 year-old manor or weeping silently in an old clothing shop hidden down York’s cobblestoned alleyways.

Cinematique!

Led by former Warwick students Jennytha Raj and Daniel Montanarini who helped develop the yearly Keeno Kino Warwick Film Festival, Cinematique! provides the perfect platform exclusive for all student film-makers, especially those new to the game, to get their work to an open audience. The festival itself self is quite small in scale taking place in a bar and screen on one warm summer day in London. But don’t be fooled, the professionalism and organisation is on par with any another festival, and you’d be surprised to hear that the event itself is free. Last year the festival invited Rob Savage the writer-director of the micro-budget feature Strings for a Q&A session about filmmaking and working the festival circuit. Savage himself screened his film at the prestigious Raindance Festival in London and even internationally at the Rome Film Festival. Without the hassle of fees and the competition of film-makers outside of education, Cinematique! is not only providing a fantastic environment with the purpose of showcasing what students have to offer in the world of film but also giving those interested in cinema the opportunity to meet others and network within a casual setting allowing the possibility of future collaborations with others.

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