22.05.26
INSIDE A LIFE IN FILM WITH NEIL McGLONE
From Saturday morning cinema clubs to international film festivals, Suffolk Shorts director Neil McGlone reflects on a lifelong passion for cinema and the vital role festivals play in a film’s journey.
It was my late father that first got me interested in film.
My dad would watch a lot of films on television and whenever we went away on a family holiday you could guarantee that part of the trip would involve going to the cinema. This lead to the advent of video in the late 1970’s and my family acquiring a VCR that I would then avidly record as many films as I could over the then three available channels and build up my own personal library to watch. Video rental stores became popular in the 1980’s and renting new films was something our family did on a weekly basis.
I first started attending our local cinema as a child with my parents in the late 1970’s too, the then named Woodbridge Cinema (now The Riverside, which I manage) and joined their kids club known as the Cine-Disc Club – a regular Saturday treat!
The Riverside Cinema, Woodbridge. When I was 18 I became a member of the British Film Institute and would often take myself off to London to watch films at the National Film Theatre. In 1990 I started attending the London Film Festival, my first experience of a film festival which opened my eyes to both seeing new films well in advance of their release but also being given the opportunity to meet actors and directors of the films themselves.
Front Covers of Sight & Sound Magazine from the late 2000sIn the late 2000’s I started writing for the British Film Institute’s film magazine, Sight & Sound, as well as being a contributor to other film magazines both in the UK and the USA, and it was not long before I started working for film festivals around the world, starting with the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Finland, and Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy.
Since then I have worked with Telluride Film Festival in the USA, Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, Cambridge Film Festival in the UK, Nordic Film Festival in the UK, Cinema Reborn in Australia and assisted and helped several others. My role at a film festival can vary from watching new films to decide on their inclusion in a festival, seeking the best available prints and subtitles for films, interviewing directors and conducting Q&A’s, curating a season of films for a festival to writing notes for film festival catalogues.
Neil inside The Riverside (Left) Suffolk Shorts Film Festival Poster 2025 (right)A film festival can be a vital event in either a short or feature film’s life as it gives the film both exposure to an audience and potential distributors, to help it on its journey. Nearly all major films we see in cinemas today will have started life at a film festival somewhere in the world. It is through these festivals that the buzz of the film escalates through social media, film journals, the film media and word of mouth.
Having worked with Suffolk Shorts from the early days, it was very special to bring the festival to The Riverside, where it has found its spiritual home. Recently it was a great honour to be asked to be a director, and I look forward to being part of the team as we build the festival.
Never underestimate how important a film festival can be in your film’s journey, it may just be the crucial event that gets it noticed, opening doors for both you and your film.
Author:
Neil McGlone
Suffolk Shorts Director and Manager of The Riverside Cinema, Woodbridge.
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