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By Chris Olson
The rise (and inevitable fall) of online film festivals caused by the pandemic has been hard to navigate for all concerned. Film festivals don’t know whether to invest in a virtual offering if life will get back to normal. Filmmakers don’t want to give up the hope of having their films shown on the big screen but also don’t want to miss out on their crucial festival run. And attendees are perhaps saturated with watching films from home with the plethora of streaming services catering for their every need.
So it was with some trepidation we launched our second online film festival.
We are so happy we pushed through and kept on developing the UK Film Review Festival as an online event. We are really proud to have added to the services we provide our filmmakers and attendees, whilst taking on board lots of great feedback to keep improving year on year.
What made the 2021 UK Film Review Festival so special was the enthusiasm of our filmmakers and the hard work of our film critics.
This year we added a few new elements, such as a ticket share option for filmmakers, the ability to purchase tickets to individual films, and podcast reviews of all the films which featured. This was met with mixed results and we learned a lot of lessons on how to make these even better in 2022.
But that’s not why you are here.
Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2021 UK Film Review Festival.
Best Drama
Within - directed by Christopher Key
Best Comedy
Untitled Earth Sim 64 - directed by Jonathan Wilhelmsson
Best Crime/Thriller
Danny Boy - directed by Cory DeMeyers
Best Documentary
Her Stories - directed by Abd Al-Kader Habak
Best Short Film
Incident at School - directed by Jacob Thomas Pilgaard
Best Feature
Be Good or Be Gone - directed by Cathal Nally
Best in Fest
Another element we added to our 2021 online film festival was a cash prize for the best film in the festival. This year, we felt the film which stood out the most and provoked the most memorable reactions was Her Stories from filmmaker Abd Al-Kader Habak! A phenomenal documentary that deserves a lot of recognition.
And that wraps this year’s UK Film Review Festival. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of fun, with some important lessons for us to keep improving. We hope to see you again next year.
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