Festival news #6
28/06/2006
The Fantastic Films Weekend – the UK's fastest growing festival of science fiction, horror and fantasy, hosted by the £60 million National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (NMPFT) – enjoyed its most successful year yet in 2006. Read on for the post festival report.
Fantastic films, fantastic atmosphere, fantastic experience
The verdict on the 5th Fantastic Films Weekend was... fantastic! Over the course of two-and-a-half packed days the festival welcomed more than 300 fans of horror, fantasy and sci-fi. The total number of admissions between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening was 1,036, which makes it the most successful and well attended event yet. This was despite some terrific weather and the added disadvantage of various World Cup matches going on in tandem.
Hits of the weekend included the screening of Nosferatu with live piano accompaniment by Terry Ladlow, archive presentations of Horror Express and The House That Dripped Blood, Imax screenings of Batman Begins and V for Vendetta, the annual make-up demonstration and the added attraction of Myths and Visions – The Art of Ray Harryhausen in the NMPFT’s Gallery One. Our special guests were also extremely popular.
Thumbs-up from special guests
The guests themselves had a fabulous time. Robert Fuest has never before been the recipient of a retrospective and showed his appreciation during two highly entertaining interviews prior to screenings of his films And Soon the Darkness and The Final Programme. His verdict: “What a time. So many moments I’ll just never forget.” On Sunday night Robin Hardy and Gary Carpenter spoke in detail about the filming and music of The Wicker Man. Robin also participated in a book signing for his new novel Cowboys for Christ. Julian Richards is so impressed by the Museum and the festival that he has agreed to join the embryonic FFW advisory board.
Interviews go online
FFW Press interest was noticeably up with strong coverage in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and Metro. Over the course of the weekend online sites Yog-Sogoth.com and MondoMovie.com conducted interviews with Robin Hardy, Robert Fuest and Julian Richards for podcast. They can be found here (www.yog-sothoth.com) and here (www.mondomovie.com)
New talent
Our package of new short films attracted a healthy audience and proved to be a magnet for young and upcoming filmmakers. It was attended by directors Steven Sheil, Matt Palmer and Dan Austin, all of whom introduced their films. Judging by the reaction and feedback next year's event promises to be even better with even more submissions.
Fans’ 2007 FFW wish list
The results of our FFW questionnaire make interesting reading, with delegates proposing an eclectic range of titles and guests for the 6th Fantastic Films Weekend in 2007.
Suggestions included:
Older b/w films, classics that require screening on Imax or widescreen format, screenings of the 1970s BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas (plus a Screentalk interview with Lawrence Gordon Clarke), Dr Who episodes, a Pete Walker retrospective, more Italian/Euro horror (Argento, Bava, Freda), AIP/Poe/Corman movies, films by Albert Band, dealers’ stands, films by David Cronenberg, more obscure/rare British horror, 70mm prints, more Hammer/Amicus titles, more programming geared towards children.
Among the specific titles requested were:
The Evil Dead trilogy, Star Wars, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Plague of the Zombies, Dead of Night, Dracula (1958), Dust Devil, I Bury the Living, Blood Dolls, Natural Born Killers, the Puppet Master films, the Hellraiser films, the Nightmare on Elm Street films, the Hammer House of Horror TV series and Would You Kill a Child?
Reaction to FFW was overwhelmingly positive. Among the various comments were:
“I love this place – consistently excellent”
“Excellent cinema”
“Day passes – good value”
“Good selection of films”
“Staff really nice and helpful.”
“The man who took our tickets in the cinema was excellent – really encouraging and got us in the mood!”
“Excellent presentation or archive prints. The hard work it must take putting them together is very much appreciated!”
“Carry on selecting great films”
However, there were some criticisms, chiefly regarding programming clashes and the issue of guests speaking before films rather than after. In future we will attempt to detail these in advance. To build ‘a between show atmosphere’ we will investigate longer (and later) opening hours for Pictureville Bar. We will also look at a method of integrating FFW pass sales with ticket collection to reduce customer-waiting times.
Next year’s festival
The dates for the 6th Fantastic Films Weekend in 2007 are not yet confirmed, but we will announce them via this newsletter and the official FFW website. Expect some more classic British horrors, a smidgen of widescreen gems on 70mm and maybe some Lovecraftian chillers.
Best wishes,
The Fantastic Films Team