East End Film Festival – a platform for new cinematic voices

East End Film Festival

This year’s East End Film Festival (EEFF) is just around the corner, with the deadline for submissions fast approaching.

The borough’s budding filmmakers have until 23 April to submit their creations for the festival, which takes place from 4-10 July in various venues across Hackney and beyond.

Although only founded in 2000, the EEFF is already one of the UK’s largest film festivals, bringing a mixture of cutting edge cinema, professional development and live cross-arts events to East London.

There were 86 features screened last year, with highlights including The Last Elvis, a documentary about a delusional Elvis impersonator set in Buenos Aires, and the world première of Ealing-style comedy The Hot Potato, starring Ray Winstone.

As well as screening contemporary and challenging new cinema from around the world, the festival pays particular attention to first and second features.

There is a feature competition reserved for first and second time directors, as well as awards for best documentary, best UK short film, and the EEFF Short Film Audience Award.

Andrew Simpson, the EEFF’s head of programming, has ambitions for the festival to become a UK equivalent of America’s famous SXSW festival.

Writing in a blog post, he said: “The East End Film Festival pitches itself as a mass alternative arts festival with a cinematic backbone, alive to the possibilities of live music, art and large scale public events, as well as the latest films from around the globe.”

Committed to exploring the boundaries between cinema and other art forms, last year’s festival saw performances by St Etienne and Luke Haines, as well as a number of pop-up live events.

This year, there are plans for a special focus on Argentine cinema, and while organisers are tight-lipped about exactly what else to expect, they are confident the momentum of previous years will ensure July’s festival will receive unprecedented attention, and provide extra exposure for independent filmmakers and new cinematic voices alike.

For more information about the festival and submissions visit the East End Film Festival.