Despite the continuing austere times and scarcity of public arts funding, the 21st Bath Film Festival thrived, selling more tickets than in any of its previous 20 incarnations.We feel this success reflects the strength of the lovingly-crafted programme and reveals the willingness of the cinema-going public to sample the unknown, participate in discussion and support the independent film industry and community.
Among the 43-strong diverse lineup of films, we previewed 10 features, months before their general release. This included the likes of Steve McQueen's critically lauded Shame, which despite it's challenging subject matter, is enjoying the publicity and accolade it deserves.
On visiting the festival to discuss the film, Shame's producer Iain Canning spoke of the importance of film festivals in getting smaller-budget pictures noticed before their release.
Every year the Bath Film Festival ensures a large proportion of its lineup consists of films which have never beamed from a projector to a cinema screen in Bath before, and many would otherwise escape Bath altogether.
A favourite Bath Debut from BFF2011 was The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 where the audience were joined by broadcaster, writer and campaigner Darcus Howe for a Q&A.
Our highest grossing film in 2011 was a silent from 1924 (but filmed in 1912) starring Captain Robert Scott and Herbert Ponting.We were delighted that our screening of the compelling and haunting documentary The Great White Silence at Komedia was packed out and proved - like this year's The Artist - that the right kind of silent film is indeed commercially viable.
One of our proudest moments of BFF2011 was unveiling the second screening in history of the long-banned The Save the Children Fund Film (pictured) as part of founding patron and Bath resident Ken Loach's 75th anniversary. The film was followed by a fascinating and informed debate between the audience and Ken.
Securing the film was no easy undertaking and required much hard work from the festival programmers and from Ken himself.
We were very impressed by young directors Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley's immersing debut feature Black Pond and they were kind enough to join us for a discussion after the screening. We think a film festival really comes alive when audiences are able to discuss films with the people involved in making them.
This year we were joined by a wide variety of directors, writers, actors, producers and industry experts.
The Breaking and Entering Q&A session was extremely well received. Packed to the gills with aspiring talent of the future, the industry panel of film, TV and media gurus took questions from the floor on how to get into the film industry.
This year we are launching two new Bath Film Festival Awards in association with IMDb to help support new and emerging talent. Details will follow soon.
Bath Film Festival isn't just about 10 days in November, we also run great out of festival screenings and events.
In 2011, with sponsorship from BANES, we showed a free Buster Keaton double bill in Parade Gardens with live piano accompaniment and managed to get 200 people out to Bath City Football Club to watch Hidden Agenda presented by Ken Loach.
We've got some very exciting things planned for 2012, sign up to our email bulletin below to be the first to hear about them.
BFF 2011: In Pictures...
Take a look back over some of the many highlights from this year's festival:
The 21st Bath Film Festival: In Pictures
Elizabeth Rapley
Simon Reynolds
Andy Welsher
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Bath Film Festival 2011
Booking will reopen in October 2012. We would like to offer a huge thank you to all our sponsors, Friends, supporters, volunteers and everyone who attended the screenings and events, making this year's festival one of the greatest so far.
Stay tuned for our imminent relaunch which will see an exciting new era for Bath Film Festival.
Learn more:
For posterity, you can browse 2011's full line-up and download the brochure:
