News / A week of movies
SHETLAND’S annual film festival Screenplay began at the weekend with community halls in Bressay and Whalsay transformed into arenas for the silver screen.
There event organisers Shetland Arts and the Shetland Film Club held special screenings of three films in an effort to take cinema beyond the festival hub in Lerwick.
Now marking its fifth birthday, Screenplay runs until 4 September and is curated by Professor Linda Ruth Williams and film critic and TV personality Mark Kermode.
The boon of this year’s festival is a visit from Jim Broadbent. One of cinema’s most in-demand actors, he has appeared in an array of award-winning films and box office hits, such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, Moulin Rouge and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The festival features screenings of Topsy-Turvy and Longford, with Broadbent hosting question and answer sessions afterwards.
Another big draw is the producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, who between them have worked on an array of critically acclaimed movies. These include Made in Dagenham and The Crying Game, both of which are showing at the Garrison Theatre, each followed by an audience question and answer session.
Independent film making is celebrated by screenings of Chico and Rita (one of Mark Kermode’s top ten films of last year), Life, Above All (winner of the Francois Chalais Prize at Cannes) and Gareth Edwards’ impressive debut feature, Monsters.
Special films for children include Hans Christian Andersen, which will be preceded by a special sing-along practice session of the Ugly Duckling song with Mark Kermode.
Other youth events include the latest adaptation of Winnie The Pooh and two programmes of short films complied by the London International Animation Festival.
Making a return to the festival with Edinburgh-set The Space Between is Tim Barrow, producer of the 2007 award-winning cult Scottish road movie The Inheritance.
Local filmmakers’ work will be showcased at Home Made in Shetland. In addition, there will be continuous screenings of locally-produced film at the Shetland Museum and Archive auditorium during the weekend of 3 September.
The full Screenplay programme can be viewed at www.shetlandarts.org.
Visit www.shetnews.co.uk for updates and features from the festival throughout the week.
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