Home > Festivals and Events
Festivals and Events
We like to cover independent and eclectic film festivals whenever and wherever we can, as well as more established festivals’ chosen highlights. We also welcome submissions of coverage.
-
Rehearsals, consent & reactions with EXPOSED dir. Anna Fredrikke Bjerke, EFN Critics’ Choice Award
17 October 2022, by Abla KandalaftA young drama student must reconcile the potential pros and cons of a defining lead performance act. The idea of articulating issues around coercion, consent and nudity through a theatre rehearsal creates an engaging and tightly woven short, which ends with a satisfying and well pitched crescendo. EXPOSED won the Critics’ Choice Award at Emerging Filmmakers Night 2022. EXPOSED was also a Vimeo Staff Pick and you can watch the full film HERE! Find out more about Anna’s work (...) -
Comedy, Horror and EFN’s Audience Favourite Award win with Bleep’s Ben S. Hyland
15 October 2022, by Abla KandalaftA couple’s relationship is pushed to the brink as they investigate a strange noise that’s woken them in the night. Ben S. Hyland’s short is a pitch-perfect mix of horror and laughs, staring comedy duo (and real-life couple) Rebecca Shorrocks and Paul F. Taylor. Bleep won the Audience Favourite Award at the Emerging Filmmakers Night Festival 2022. We caught up with Ben to chat about his first steps into filmmaking, his comedic proclivities and his all-time classic films. You can follow Ben’s (...) -
Snapshots from Leeds International Film Festival 2021
21 November 2021, by Abla Kandalaft, Alma, Tom L.J.Every year, the Leeds International Film Festival offers a carefully curated, diverse and exhaustive programme of feature films, retrospectives, shorts, music videos and more. Three members of the team were there. One of us was also part of the Jury for British and Yorkshire shorts! Here are some highlights away from the main feature competition programme. Alien on Stage by Lucy Harvey and Danielle Kummer A very amateur dramatics group of Dorset Bus Drivers spent a year creating a serious (...) -
Q&A with Dan Thorburn, director of Salt Water Town
21 November 2021, by Abla KandalaftSalt Water Town was part of the British and Yorkshire shorts selection at the Leeds International Film Festival. It stood out for its impressive cinematography, troubling plot and standout performances by Owen Teale and Tom Glynn-Carney. Liam helps run a failing caravan park in a Welsh coastal town with his father Glenn, who clings to the belief that prosperity will soon return. When an insurance inspector reveals the land they own is worthless as a result of rising sea levels, Liam must (...) -
Q&A with Sema Basharan, director of The Branches are Hope; The Roots are Memory - Leeds award winner
21 November 2021, by Mydylarama teamSema Basharan’s short documentary explores the history of peace activism and grassroots resistance in Bradford and the way the city’s religious diversity inspired movements towards peacebuilding, through a creative use of experimental art and visuals, archive footage and interviews. What inspired you to make a documentary about Bradford? And why the specific focus on concepts like peace? I’d previously made a film exploring Christian attitudes to war and peace through the story of some (...) -
Vanguard Film Festival at Arnolfini
26 October 2021, by Elizabeth MizonThe Vanguard Film Festival was the final of three events making up Vanguard x Vans: On The Screen in Bristol this autumn, a “celebration of street art and skateboarding history”. An advertising boon for skateboarding apparel manufacturer Vans, no doubt, the festival also served to draw attention to street art collective Vanguard’s debut exhibition at M Shed: Bristol Street Art: The Evolution of a Global Movement, which runs until 31st October. That the organisations chose to split their (...) -
ARCHIVE SPECIAL! The Remake Film Festival
27 July 2021, by judyTo mark our editor Judy’s return to Mydylarama after completing her epic PHD, here’s one of her older cracking reviews and an opportunity to revisit the wonderful concept behind the Remake Film Festival. As Hollywood’s fiscal calculations ensure it pumps out sequels, prequels and trilogies (etc.), the Remake film festival sets out a different relationship between box office hits and contemporary production. Filmmakers from around the world are invited to reimagine, reinterpret or remake (...) -
Pick of Sheffield Doc Fest - Ali And His Miracle Sheep
17 June 2021, by Anna Dawson-HartMaythem Ridha’s short film Ali And His Miracle Sheep won Best Film in the UK Competition of the Sheffield Doc Fest. I feel it’s very important before you begin to read this review that you know who I am. I am not an academic, nor a seasoned critic, I am a pizza delivery driver from Basingstoke who wrote something on the internet and was subsequently invited to pitch some reviews for Mydylarama during the Sheffdoc festival. No I’m not entirely sure how it happened either but here we all are… (...) -
Western Arabs by Omar Shargawi
16 November 2020, by Abla KandalaftFilmed over the course of 12 years, Western Arabs is a chaotic and fascinating look at the intergenerational trauma and impact of displacement. Omar’s father, Munir, was amongst the Palestinians that were forced to flee their homes after 1948. Still a young child, he fled with his family to Jordan before eventually immigrating to Denmark. It was there that he met his Danish wife, with whom he later had three sons, Omar and his two brothers, who appear to be at loggerheads most of the time. (...) -
Abla’s Encounters Top Picks
10 October 2020, by Abla KandalaftYet again, Encounters treats us to some of the most discerning curating out there. The various programmes never disappoint, the comedy shorts are funny, the horror shorts are scary, the experimental shorts are wacky. Covid means we miss out on many things: the wonderful Watershed venue and its underrated risotto, the networking, the warm, friendly atmosphere and chit chat with the directors, the hustle and bustle and human interactions that inject the fun and dynamism in the festival (...)