Canary Wharf Film Festival - Interview

Canary Wharf Film Festival - Interview

17 August, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

As you might already have noticed, we at Spoonfed have been getting quite excited about the forthcoming Canary Wharf Film Festival. Not content with offering our readers the chance to win a pair of tickets to the Canary Wharf Film Festival, I caught up with Founder and Festival Director Olivia Bellas to find out a bit more about the whole ethos behind CWFF as well as the best things to check out this year.

How did the idea for CWFF first come about?

I'd worked on film festivals before and really enjoyed all the different elements involved. A few years ago, I was in-house producer at a Canary Wharf-based film production company and became fascinated with the area - the striking architecture, the different kinds of people that came at the weekends and the fact there were creative hubs bubbling up in this stereotypically commercial area. Creating a platform for creativity to flourish was my main aim and with Canary Wharf being such a popular filming location as well, a film festival seemed a natural choice. And so it was born in 2007.
 


Any particular success stories from past CWFFs?

Adam Smith, director of The Boy With No Name – CWFF07 ANIMATION SPECIAL MENTION WINNER – was approached to create some work for Orange, after an executive’s daughter had seen and fallen in love with his film at the festival. Noel Kearns, director of The Cleaner – CWFF07 DRAMA WINNER – was thrilled to have CWFF be the first UK festival to screen his work. Following his win, the film went onto screen at numerous festivals picking up a gamut of awards.

Our Creative Canary 2008 filmmaking workshop for young people was so successful that we have now developed this angle further through the Next Generation programme for 2009. Supporting young talent is a huge focus for us and so the Next Generation Pitching Session is where we get the chance to offer budding filmmakers great advice. Young people will get the chance to pitch their film idea to a panel of industry professionals – one of which is Eran Creevy, talented British Director of Shifty, and our ambassador for the festival this year. The first thing to do is apply to us and we make a selection. On the day, there will be prizes and it's all free, so anyone can come along.

 

Why have you chosen to focus on Serbia in particular?

Serbia is an incredible country with a fascinating history and fun times to be had there these days. Its film industry has known real peaks and troughs, much of that due to the political situation. Currently, levels of film production are at their highest and we've handpicked some of last year's best short films for the British cinema-going public. The idea of this Focus film strand is to put a spotlight on unrepresented cinema in the UK – to bring to people's attention what else is out there. And this strand also has a feature film in there – the only one in the programme!
 
Can you explain a little about the selection process?

The UK and International Mix strands are made up of open submissions. For about 3 months every year, there is a period where we just get films in all the time – it's a joy! Then the CWFF programming team starts the screening process and I'm lucky enough to make the final selection. The rest of the programme are films invited into the programme and very much based around what I've seen in the last year. Overall, if a film is selected into CWFF it is because it can tell a story as a short film.

 

What aspect of CWFF09 are you most looking forward to?

The Green Sundays programme on Sep 6th will kick start with a discussion about green-ness and the creative industries. We have some incredible panel members who are all at the forefront of their game in the music, film, theatre and events worlds talking about what we can do to keep this aspect front of mind. There are some great environmentally themed films from the archive to follow this – one that has me in stitches every time is One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety. It's a cult classic and one of the oddest films I've ever seen. And to round off the programme perfectly, there will be a bike ride from Canary Wharf to Hackney along the lovely Regents Canal.
 
Which films do you think will win awards?

Humour connects people and I've found that comedy value tends to win with our audience awards, which we're running again this year – the audience can vote for their favourite at the screenings. We've had some great judges this year to select the other award winners including Larushka Ivan Zadeh, Film Editor of Metro, who echoes my sentiments that a short film winner is one that gives keeping you joy after you've watched it 10 times already.
 
How do you see CWFF continuing to develop in the future?

The event has become so successful now that there's no option of stopping – we can't let down our festival goers!


Spoonfed have teamed up with the Canary Wharf Film Festival to offer you the chance of winning tickets to some of the events. Click here to win a pair of tickets to the Canary Wharf Film Festival.

Click here to see all CWFF09 events at Cineworld West India Quay
Click here to see all CWFF09 events at Museum of London Docklands
Click here to see all CWFF09 events at Marriott West India Quay
Click here to see all CWFF09 events at East Wintergarden

Click here to see the Canary Wharf Film Festival homepage.

Tom Jeffreys