From Friday's AV festival to Sunday's Diamond award winners, what a weekend it was ...
Alan writes ...
As some of you will know (but where were the rest of you?) the live BIAFF Festival had to be cancelled for 2020. There had been high hopes that the pandemic would subside in time for a delayed event, in a large theatre, but sadly it was not to be. We had to follow the example of CEMRIAC and UNICA by running the festival on Zoom and YouTube. The format of previous BIAFFs was maintained as much as possible, with the AV show on Friday evening, four ‘mini-cinemas’ for the best of the runners-up on Saturday and the main award-winning films on Sunday.
We even had a ‘not the gala dinner’ on Saturday evening, with short presentations by distinguished people from the film world. Each block of films (about 75 minutes) was assembled as a single file, by Simon Sumner, and placed on YouTube. Audience members started by joining a Zoom meeting, to be welcomed by the cinema host. After some introductions, the host then provided the access code (URL) for the given programme, and we left Zoom to watch the films on YouTube. This ensured optimum quality. Then, back to Zoom to hear from some of the producers. Access to the event was free, as we had very few expenses to cover, and the numbers participating compared favourably with previous live festivals.
Some of the mini-cinema hosts, and a few in the on-line audience, had a occasional minor problems with the technicalities, arising mainly from incompatibility of equipment and software. There doesn’t seem to be an easy solution to this, as both hardware and software change so often that keeping up becomes quite a challenge. Nuneaton Moviemakers had four films shown during the festival, “Caught Knapping” from Michael Finney and three made by small Club teams; “Pork Scratchings”, “Home from Home” and “Your Choice”. They were all awarded three stars.
What about next year? There will definitely be a BIAFF competition, early in the year, and everyone is urged to enter their latest productions. The BIAFF 2021 festival itself should happen in the Spring, but running live events then is becoming increasingly unlikely. We shall have to wait for a few months, to see how things are going, and then decide on whether to aim for a live festival in the Autumn or an on-line event at some time during the year.
The picture is from 'Dearly Departed'. Winner of Best British Entry.
Which you can watch over on Vimeo here.
Congratulations to Elise Martin & Jess Bartlett, for Best British Entry 'Dearly Departed' and Daily Mail Trophy Winner John Pauls The Painting. #BIAFF