Short film fans – or just regular film fans should be chuffed this February to see the arrival of Kinofilm’s 9th Manchester International Film Festival, one of Europe’s leading film festivals. Unrivalled in experience and expertise in organising festivals, touring programmes, screenings and special events, Kino will be offering a selection of programmes – both old faves and a few new ones to boot. These will include BlueFiRe! (Black and Asian shorts), Made Up North (dedicated to local industry – but hopefully no Wigan pies!), Animation from both the UK and Europe, Student films, and Going Underground (promising to be “camp, controversial, sexy and political”!). The new programmes sound even better; Neurotic Tales, Weird Tales, Kino Horror, Bad Sex (“a down and dirty antidote to frictionless, soft-focus erotica” – so Men and Motors has no chance here!), and also Kino Extreme (those with weak stomachs are advised to avoid this at all costs – you have been warned!)
The festival has a truly international flavour. Film’s include Virgil Widrich’s entire history of film, the award-winning Fast Film, Neele Vollmar’s award-winning generation-gap comedy Meine Eltern (“My Parents”), and the French horror comedy Gravedigger’s Striptease. And anyone who isn’t impressed by the appearance of Spaniard Fele Martinez as Lewis Carroll in Alice Portraited will most definitely be excited by the appearance of Hollywood legend Harvey Keitel in Chasing The Elephant. And if you feel you can take it, you can dare to view Dennison Romalo’s Amor So De Mae; written by a convicted Satanic priest, this baby has allegedly had people fainting in the aisles!
Of course, that isn’t all – the festival promises even more films and programmes. But still, if all that isn’t enough, filmmakers old and new should join in the discussions at Kino’s European Film Conference; Co-Production and Distribution Between European Member States, and Making The Transition From Shorts To Features.
The 9th Manchester International Film Festival runs from 23rd – 27th of February. More information can be found (soon) at www.kinofilm.org.uk
