Previously: #4 Hot Docs
Our take: Sheffield kicks off what is becoming a nonstop month of European festival activity in November with top-notch programming, great panels and a MeetMarket that's being talked about as one of the best opportunities to interact with industry on the entire circuit. This year, it seemed like almost everyone - certainly everyone from the UK doc world - had made the 2 hour train trip from London. Best of all, it's one of the most contained festivals around - the theatres, filmmaker HQ, party spaces, host hotels, even the train station - are all within a 4-block radius. Although competitive with IDFA (and preceding it by mere weeks), the festival shares IDFA's accessible feeling. The power players and doc legends are at the next table and sometimes even working the bar.
The downside: The timing of the fest (in terms of the calendar) is not fantastic (although a rumored move to summer may change that). Possibly too much to do? You can get the sense that 100 different things are happening at the festival at any one time. Some folks find Sheffield to be gray and industrial (we didn't). Some folks partied so much that they got swine flu (no comment).
Important recent premieres: AFGHAN STAR, KINGS OF PASTRY, I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE, HORSES, MOVING TO MARS, BLOOD OF THE ROSE
Selection of US films screened at 2009 Fest: SEPTEMBER ISSUE, CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, OCTOBER COUNTRY, WINNEBAGO MAN, JUNIOR, BEST WORST MOVIE, SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION, P-STAR RISING, THE COVE, WOODSTOCK THEN AND NOW
Our coverage of Sheffield here.
Others:
Filmmaker: "Heather and her team have done a
superb job in turning this Festival around. It is now important internationally
but has not lost its intimacy or soul... Heather,
Hussain and their team have done wonders over the past few years to transform a
UK only event into something International. Absolutely jammed pack with great
talks, seminars etc and a very important market place. (Making things work in
the UK is bloody hard so what they achieved cannot be under estimated)."
Filmmaker: "LOVE LOVE LOVE Sheffield. there's a
lot of trouble to get into in a town with nothing to do...."
Filmmaker: "Was there once in 2005
with a film and was not terribly impressed. But from what I've been hearing the
past couple of years, the festival seems to have made a complete turnaround and
is now the place to be. Unfortunately, they didn't take my current film this
year so I didn't bother going. Last time they paid my flight from Berlin and
three nights in a hotel. I had a good screening and had one of the best
festival experiences of my life there when an excited fan invited me over to
his home to meet his family over a fabulous fish dinner that his Hungarian wife
had cooked. They then took me for a drive through the fog to a 500-year-old pub
he thought I should see and make a film about. The next day a little sculpture
he had made awaited me in the festival office - a present for my kids. Now
that's something that doesn't happen everyday. If my next film gets in, I'll
definitely go. I might even go for the Meet Market next time I have a project
to peddle."
Filmmaker: "I like this a lot better than a few years ago, in terms of the films they are showing and the people attending. Although I do feel the MeetMarket is now getting too big for its own good. Disappointed with some of the introductions to films - filmmakers not being introduced at all although they were present and some of the Q&A's were not particularly great.. There is a lot going on, and like Hot Docs the films sometimes don't feel like the most important thing. Essential if you live in the UK, can't judge how important it is for international filmmakers."
Filmmaker: "It felt bigger, better and more fun than ever before in 2010. A very good vice, great collection of international filmmakers and funders. The film programme is possible getting too large to navigate but where else are you going to see all these films in the UK as London and Edinburgh have such small doc sections?"
Filmmaker: "it's essential (like
IDFA). an amazing place to connect. may be getting a little too big. think it
may be a better market festival than a place to premiere your film. too many
films - market could be bigger."
Filmmaker: "Awful setting. Depressing drab town, and
quite a trek from London. A pain to get to overall and accommodations are
terrible (tiny closet-sized rooms at extortionist prices). Heather Croall
is wonderful and attracts a lot of industry to this festival, but real
filmgoers are lacking. No real upside to the experience."
Sheffield now has so much more ambition and feels just, well, smarter and
shinier. The range of master classes and speakers was impressive, the addition
of the Meet Market is a highlight and it’s great
to have a jury prize. All-in-all a great experience and I suspect it has a lot to do with Heather
Croall. By all accounts she is the person responsible for transforming
Sheffield. Given their cricketers I am always deeply suspicious of Australians
but Heather really does prove the exception to the rule."
Filmmaker: "cold, wet, drunk, curry"
Filmmaker: "I can't say more about
the quality of the entire team – Heather, Hussain, Charlie, all of them – and
the passion they put into this experience. I love them to death. As for the
festival details: huge audience attendance, huge marketplace for doing real
business and some of the very best films of the year from all over the world
organized in a very challenging and extremely well curated set of competition
programs. And this festival knows how to party. The winner of the "best
party of the year" award for any festival anywhere that will never be
topped was Roller Disco Night, a combination of roller skating, free vodka
shots and oysters on the half shell, followed by the Cinema Eye Nominations. I
DARE someone to come up with a more terrifying combination than that and I paid
dearly the next day for it. Go to Sheffield. It's beer for breakfast and
they'll kill you with the food, but you'll die happy as a clam.
Industry: "This has become as must-attend market and fest. The market is well-organized and the quality is high. The fest selection doesn’t quite match the market, but that may be because of the proximity to IDFA, and may change as they are thinking of moving Sheffield to June. What that means for US attendance remains to be seen – will it be too close to Silverdocs?"
Industry: "Really impressed over the last few years how they’ve grown. They’ve got that problem of how do you deal with growth, which is not a bad problem. I think the emphasis on the market has come at the expense of the films. They do panels really well. The meet market is really good. It’s so concentrated and so busy and so successful and so social that people aren’t really going to screenings. They’re in that position before IDFA where they aren’t getting that many premieres. It’s a tough place to launch a film because I think it’s tough to get attention there. They’re definitely an event that can give IDFA a run for its money as to which is the key market event in the fall – if they stay in the fall."
Industry: "Still improving every year under Heather’s stewardship – choice and breadth of panels is second to none and this year programming was more consistent. Parties hugely improved and being in the North it is a huge party festival. The larger it gets though, the more business orientated it becomes and while it is becoming indispensable industry wise some of the old spirit has been lost – a chance for filmmakers and industry to watch films and mingle at the Showroom Bar. The MeetMarket is well curated and immaculately organised. Niggles about the venue – huge amount of tiny tables crammed into one room. All the buyers you want to meet are here now...but also quite a few you don’t that you are obliged to have waste of time meetings with."
Industry: "I have to say that Sheffield was the most fun festival I was at this year. I think the panels are super but I just don’t think that it holds up as a festival. I’m really looking forward to them moving to June. You can’t expect people to pay attention to the films when you’ve got MeetMarket going on for two days and parties that go on til 4 AM. The films suffer. They shouldn’t have so many small categories of films. There’s too much going on. But it was so much fun. The panels were amazing and the MeetMarket is so great. It’s an amazing place for American filmmakers to go to try to secure British money for their projects."
Industry: "Very much on the ascendent, both in terms of industry (the meetmarket here is the one to beat) and in terms of audiences. A good showing from CEs lifts the excitement of producers, and I think real deals get done. The film selection is sometimes a little idiosyncratic, but because of the lack of premiere policy, you get to see more of the festival films of the year here than pretty much anywhere else."
Comments