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Film Festival Feature by Lawrence Bennie
Bouncing back against truly unforeseen odds, the 4th annual Romford Film Festival is now underway at London’s Premiere Cinema in Romford. Housed within the town’s Mercury Centre, the Festival is showcasing almost 200 films, including 10 world premieres and 37 UK premieres over two screens in this treasured East London venue. Despite the partial reopening of cinemas across the country, Romford Film Festival is running smoothly as scheduled, with all screenings taking place live at the cinema.
A lively selection of features and shorts have been programmed over the 7 days. The bulk of the festival programme is made up of screenings of feature films, normally preceded by two short films. Elsewhere, there are daily short film showcases and Q & A sessions after screenings, where directors, producers and actors will be answering questions posted by audiences on social media.
With a wealth of international film-making on offer and a wide choice of genre, there’s certainly something for everyone to enjoy. Horror fans have plenty of frights creeping up with Marcel Waltz’s Blind (Saturday 15th, 8pm) whilst UK director Steven M Smith provides two tales of terror with Dead Again (Monday 17th, 8pm) and Doll House (Tuesday 18th, 12noon). Documentary buffs are spoilt for choice with numerous documentary films on the bill, including Ospreay: The Rise of An International Wrestler (Sunday 16th, 6pm) Everybody Flies (Monday 17th, 6pm) and Gaza Still Alive (Tuesday 18th, 6pm). Additionally, hosted within the festival is the Eurasian Creative Guild Film Festival with films from Eurasia and post-Soviet countries shown each day from 4pm-6pm. The dedication and hard-work of filmmakers, festival volunteers and venue staff draws to a climatic close with Tuesday night’s Award Ceremony (7:30pm-late) where 12 esteemed awards are up for grabs.
In the accompanying programme, Festival Director Spencer Hawken provides a warm, optimistic and exciting welcome for both new and returning audiences:
“This is truly is our best ever line up! We probably have the UK’s first physical film festival since the madness began…you don’t need to worry about the pandemic; we’ll keep you safe, we’ll keep you entertained and we’ll stretch your imagination with brand new content you’ve never seen before”.
The RFF can be followed on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with @TheRomfordFilmFestival. Tickets are £10 for a Day Pass and £4 per film.
For more information and the full programme of screenings and events, please visit https://www.romfordfilmfestival.com/
Tickets and further details are also available at www.romford.premierecinemas.co.uk
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