ARTS & CULTURE
Cambridge Film Festival AS THIS CELEBRATION OF FILM FROM AROUND THE WORLD MARKS ITS 39TH YEAR, SIOBHAN GODWOOD FINDS OUT WHY IT’S STILL GOING STRONG
three days at the Light Cinema and it went really well, so this year the festival has expanded into having a film there for the entire week. There will also be screenings at Emmanuel College and The Heong Gallery at Downing College. Alongside regular segments including world documentaries, restored and rediscovered films, as well as award- winning films from international festivals, a new strand for this year focuses on art as moving image, which will be happening at Kettle’s Yard. “It’s an exciting move for us,” says marketing manager Owen Baker. “Partnering with one of the university’s museums is really exciting, and Kettle’s Yard feels like a really good fit for the festival – our aim is to have venues for the festival all around the city, so this is another step in the right direction.” NATURAL EVOLUTION It’s clear that Cambridge Film Festival is constantly evolving and changing. “It would be easy after so many years to become complacent, or to keep doing things the way that we’ve done them before,” says Owen. “But constantly reinventing ourselves, staying vibrant and passionate, is absolutely key to the way the festival operates, and a huge challenge in an environment where we’ve been running for such a long time.”
n the almost 42 years (it’s had a few years off) that the Cambridge Film Festival has been running, many other similar festivals have come and gone, and the event is now the third longest-running film festival in the UK, after London and Edinburgh. It started life in the old, single- screen Arts Cinema on Market Passage – sadly no more – and
IMAGES (Clockwise, from top) Stills from Zero Impunity, Distances, System Crasher, Stitches and Life Without Sara Amat – just some of the films that are set to screen at Cambridge Film Festival
One way the festival does this is not only to focus on the main event in October, but also on community screenings throughout the year. The Cambridge Film Festival’s ‘in your community’ programme organises screenings in community and church venues around the city. It started in spring 2019 and is running right through until next spring, featuring a series of ‘pay what you can afford’ screenings with special guests – including TV presenters and well-known film critics – who will be introducing films that they love. These events help to keep the profile of the festival up all year round, as well as giving the organisers the chance to try out new things they haven’t done before. “The community screenings are done in conjunction with the council,” says Owen, “they help spread the word about what our film festival is all about to people from Cambridge who perhaps wouldn’t otherwise get involved. The hope is that some of those people will love what we do in the community, and come along to the main festival, too. Everyone who works for the festival loves film, and getting great films in front of people is why we’re here.”
set a pattern for diversity, innovation and an emphasis on world cinema right from the word go. Cambridge seemed like the perfect setting for a festival of this kind, with its love of the arts and its population of students from all over the world – particularly a thriving community of those from countries like Spain, France and Germany, where there is a strong cinema culture. ALWAYS GROWING When the current Arts Picturehouse opened in the late 90s, the festival moved there, and now it’s held in six venues across the city. Last year the festival did
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C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
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