BIFF | 2013
Empire Cinema, Leicester Square & Ten Other Locations Across the UK!
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The British Independent Film Festival is in its fourth year and is working hard to become the number one UK festival on the indie scene!
The Festival provides opportunities for independent filmmakers to have their films screened at great red carpet-style venues to a passionate audience of film professionals, film students, journalists and the general public. The Festival aims to promote and support independent filmmaking.
There are a number of awards up for grabs at the Festival, including the prestigious British Lion Award for Achievement in Film on a Low Budget.
Every year the festival screens simultaneously at a variety of venues across the UK, increasing exposure for your film and giving new audiences the chance to enjoy your movie. This year we're at TEN locations! That means that any film we show is getting as much exposure as the top 10% of independent cinema releases in the UK!
The Official Selection
Amores Passageiros
(Augusto Canani, 23m)
During a routine sewer inspection a lonely worker has an encounter that marks the beginning of a perplexing relationship.
Father / Son
(Bryan Reisberg, 10m)
Oliver brings his girlfriend on a hunting trip to meet his father. It is revealed that it might not be the animals in the forest who are the ones actually being hunted. The short film stars Christopher Abbott from the HBS series "Girls".
Happy Birthday Jim
(Giles Ripley, 5m)
Ed’s a fun guy. I mean what could be more fun than pretending to cancel Jim’s birthday party, then inviting all their friends round to their flat? Imagine the look on Jim's face when he comes in and they shout ‘surprise!’ Priceless.
The Horsemen
(Samuel Bailey, 7m)
A short film starring Richard Ridings about two men who make up the front and back half of a Grand National horse that's on its way out.
Foxes
(Lorcan Finnegan, 15m)
A young couple trapped in a remote estate of empty houses and shrieking Foxes are beckoned from their isolation into a twilight world. Isolated and alone, Ellen spends increasingly more time photographing these foxes. She becomes so involved with their lives that the line between human and animal becomes blurred. Is Ellen becoming more fox than woman?
The Wend
(Daniel Farah, 15m)
A distressed man sets journey into the forest where he endures a series of physical changes. He then gets trapped by the moon and travels through the mountains encountering a sultry dancer. Her dance liberates him from the moon's entrapment and joins her in a feral dance of mutual discovery.
The Voorman Problem
(Mark Gill, 12m)
Doctor Williams is called in to examine the enigmatic Mr Voorman, a prisoner with a peculiar affliction: he believes he is a god. The Doctor must decide on the sanity of Mr Voorman - is he a faker or a lunatic?
Indoor
(Simon Atkinson &
Adam Townley, 15m)
An eleven year old boy uses the discarded objects he finds around the windswept seaside community he has just arrived at to make a kite. Despite strong winds and a dogged persistence he can’t make the kite fly. He befriends a peculiar girl who won’t leave her caravan.
Rotkop
(Jan & Raf Roosens, 18m)
Olli (15) is a lonely boy who makes trouble whenever he can. He spends his days by riding his motorcycle and hanging around in the park. Soon he gets into a fight with Yavuz and his gang for staring at June, Yavuz’s girlfriend.
Driftwood
(James Webber, 11m)
Driftwood is the story of fifteen-year-old Sam, a swimming prodigy, whose life operates in two very different worlds: a poignant antithesis between talent and achievement at the dawn of his sporting career, and fear and torment in his home and social life.
The Runner
(Michael O'Kelly, 3m)
A three minute comedy shot in stolen lunch times by the runner on 'Call the Midwife.' An ambitious runner is abused by the famous actors whilst trying to remain positive. The short stars Miranda Hart.
Take Me to Pitcairn
(Julian McDonnell, 55m)
Seduced by tales of endurance, villainy and adventure, one man attempts to re-trace the romantic voyages of the most infamous fugitives in British naval history. However, he soon discovers he is not alone on an emotional quest to reach one of the most remote islands in the world.
Dead Cat
(93m)
Director: Stefan Georgiou
Writers: Stefan Georgiou & Sam Bern
Producers: Ben Hilton & Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
Cast: Tom Mison, Sebastian Armesto, Sophia Dawnay & Laura Main
Michael and Kristen were child hood sweethearts, but haven't spoken in 10 years. Thrown back together as they both begin their thirties, is there still anything between them? With nothing but a gang of dysfunctional friends as allies will they discover if this second chance is love or just nostalgia?
Saving The Titanic
(104m)
Director: Maurice Sweeney
Writer: Lyall B. Watson
Producer: Keith Farrell
Cast: Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot, Hugh O'Conor & Andrew Simpson
She was the pride of the British Empire. A leading example of state-of-the-art engineering, in a time of ground breaking scientific and technological innovation on a global scale – the RMS Titanic. Yet she sank in less than three hours after striking an iceberg on 14th April 1912.
Geezas
(90m)
Directors: Simon Kassianides & Mark Jackson
Writer: Mark Jackson
Producers: Mark Jackson, Simon Kassianides, Ade & Nicholas Vedros
Cast: Mark Jackson, Simon Kassianides, Nadine Crocker & Tongayi Chirisa
Dodger is sent to Los Angeles by his London Gangster father to retrieve his baby sister and the cash she ran away with. Things don't go as planned, putting Dodger and his new crew (Eddie, a hipster bookie and Jones, an underground boxer) in the sights of Latino Gangbangers and West Hollywood's notorious Gay Mafia.
Sanctuary
(90m)
Director: Norah McGettigan
Writers: Gabriel Vargas & Norah McGettigan
Producers: Katarzyna Slesicka & Andrew Freedman
Cast: Anne-Marie Duff, Jan Frycz & Agnieszka Zulewska
Jan is a successful Warsaw plastic surgeon with an unsuccessful home life: he and his wife live in the same house but are estranged; his daughter left home early and has no contact with him. One day he returns from a business trip to find his wife dead in the back garden.
The Awards
Category Judging
Best Feature
Saving The Titanic (Dir. by Maurice Sweeney)
Best Short
Indoor (Dir. by Simon Atkinson &
Adam Townley)
Best Cinematography
Driftwood (Dir. by James Webber)
Best Music
Dead Cat (Dir. by Stefan Georgiou)
Best Actor
Mark Jackson (Geezas)
Best Actress
Sophia Dawnay (Dead Cat)
Best Supporting Actor
Ciaran McMenamin (Saving The Titanic)
Best Supporting Actress
Myia Ingoldsby (Geezas)
Best Director
Maurice Sweeney (Saving The Titanic)
British Lion Award
(Best achievement on a low budget)
Dead Cat (Dir. by Stefan Georgiou)
Best New Screenplay
Him Upstairs (Written by Sonya Quayle &
Neil Mooney)
The After Parties for the Film Festival Guild events are legendary and this one will be no less! The evening will be hosted by the Exclusive Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square, where the audience will be able to rub shoulders with the stars in an exclusive VIP section of the Casino and dance and party until the early hours of the morning!
The After-Party
The Hippodrome Casino | Leicester Square, London
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