Neighbourhood festivals

Over the last few weeks we’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to visit two of our neighbouring festivals, one as a guest of the FHSE. We took part in a round table at Cambridge Film Festival first, where the team had arranged for of Aleks Dimitrijevic, Director of The London Short Film Festival and me to talk about the mechanics and aims of our festivals. The idea was to present two examples, one at each and of the scale in terms of size.

Aleks is very charismatic, open and transparent, with a wealth of marketing experience and it was wonderful to have the chance to hear about the similarities and differences between our projects. The festival has always been on my ‘must visit’ list, but I hadn’t been able to go this year, so it was great to hear all about their developments. Philip Ilson, their Artistic Director, was very helpful and encouraging when we founded Suffolk Shorts. It’s always encouraging to find that a small festival like ours is not alone in facing challenges, and it seems all those attending are finding sponsorship hard to secure.

Then last week it was the first full weekend of short films at Norwich Film Festival, which is just over the border. Norwich were also very supportive when we set up, and Craig Higgins, then Director of the festival shared tips and advice so generously. The relationship continues, with our judge on the student category Rachel Prendergast, taking on the role of Festival Coordinator for the first year n 2025.

I think it’s called a busman’s holiday when you spend your time off doing what you do for work, but this is slightly different because watching short films is my passion, and I had a fantastic weekend at NFF.

Now I need to get on with the final stages of helping with planning for Suffolks Shorts - only two weeks to go - CAN NOT WAIT!!