To read more about the criteria, and to get submitting head to the Competition page

In 2012, we moved things forward. Partnering with Sight & Sound, we announced a call for women film reporters, asking writers to  ’report from a film shoot, festival or special screening, a conversation with a distributor, exhibitor or programmer about what colours your local screening options, or indeed an investigation into some aspect of the film world that puzzles you.’ Because, as we saw it, ’Women are under-represented in the film industry generally, and in film journalism as much as anywhere, and in the business of film reporting in particular.’

We are delighted to have chosen budding film journalist, Harriet Warman as our winner for 2013. In her piece Picking up The Stoker, Harriet demonstrated strong prospects as a reporter, choosing an interesting topic, demonstrating good interview skills and giving her reader new insight into a corner of the film industry. We hope you enjoy the read as much as us.

Picking Up The Stoker

How Edinburgh’s Filmhouse is expanding cinema – into other cinemas. By Harriet Warman.

The UK film distribution industry is saturated with companies vying to get their films on screen. Or so we often hear.

Ten of the 127 distributors in the UK held the monopoly on the theatrical marketplace in 2012 (see Geoffrey Macnab’s In the Swim report, page 20), making it increasingly difficult for small, independent distributors to affect the market. Costs are high, revenue is small – so why bother trying to push a film with limited appeal? Especially to an audience that already has a wealth of choice via cinema, video on demand (VoD) and DVD?

Joining the 127-strong list of distributors is Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema (home of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Edinburgh Film Guild, respectively the world’s longest continually running film festival and oldest film society). Recently the cinema acquired its ‘fourth screen’ by expanding into VoD, making available the kind of titles that are unlikely to appear on LoveFilm or Netflix, such as Icelandic comedy Either Way (recently remade by David Gordon Green as Prince Avalanche) and the Serbian documentary Cinema Komunisto.

Branching into VoD in turn inspired the decision to move into theatrical distribution, and in that guise, Filmhouse aims to sidestep the current difficulties facing UK distributors by waiting out the market’s competitive pressures. Filmhouse’s head of programming Rod White explains how, by keeping costs low, they will attempt to support films that, like those on the Filmhouse Player, “get left behind”.

“Many of us here who attend festivals see an awful lot of films and an awful lot don’t ever go anywhere,” he notes. “The bulk are never going to see the light of distribution in this country because of the money you need to spend to release a film. But it can be done extremely cheaply, if you wait long enough…”

He’s keen to emphasise that this new venture will be for “films that do deserve to have a wider audience than the current models allow. I’m not being critical of the existing system; it just doesn’t really allow for extremely small films to have any life… No one’s going to get rich out of it but that’s not the intention. The intention is to enrich [the] viewing experience of those who want to take it a little bit further.”

As an exhibitor turned distributor, Filmhouse would appear to be following in the footsteps of Picturehouse – which operates 21 venues and whose recent self-releases include The Imposter and Cave of Forgotten Dreams – and Curzon Artificial Eye, which describes itself as the UK’s “leading distributor of foreign language and art-house film” and operates six venues in London and Knutsford. White’s ambitions for Filmhouse, however, are significantly more modest.

Picturehouse and Artificial Eye are just two of many independent film distributors who might also claim to be providing cinema for those in search of a more challenging experience, but the difference is that White won’t be bidding in the markets in Berlin or Cannes anytime soon. This laid-back approach can be seen in the choice for Filmhouse’s first release: Aleksey Balabanov’s 2010 oddity The Stoker (Kochegar).

Having garnered positive reviews (Variety described it as “harsh and disturbing, but still a lot of fun”) since first appearing outside of its native Russia at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2011, The Stoker is typical of Balabanov’s dark oeuvre in its depiction of St Petersburg’s criminal faction. The titular stoker is an ex-military Soviet hero, Major Skryabin (Mikhail Skryabin), who turns a blind eye to the efficient dispatch in his furnace of ‘bad people’ by the Sergeant (Aleksandr Mosin), until it affects someone close to him. A deadpan anti-drama with a persistently catchy pop soundtrack, it’s is as enjoyable as it is baffling.

It’s evidently found an enthusiast in White, who says the Edinburgh Film Festival unsuccessfully attempted to secure it in 2011 on his recommendation. Branching into distribution is another way for him to tend such idiosyncratic cinema, in keeping with the ethos of Filmhouse, he insists: “We champion the form. This is just another way of doing that, and giving worthwhile films more of a life.”

It’s a commendable ambition, to be sure – one built on a trusting relationship with a passionate local cinephile community. The wider UK exhibitors’ circuit doesn’t always follow suit, White feels, but “in Scotland it’s understood. All our venues – us, the Glasgow Film Theatre, Inverness, Dundee – have their own programmers, all locals on the ground who know their audiences.

“And it works. Dundee’s a really good example. They’re building their audience year on year because the person on the ground is paying attention to what’s going on.” White won’t be drawn into direct criticism of his fellow exhibitors outside of Scotland except to say, “when you’re dealing in this very, very specialised market, the venues should always be in control of their own output.”

For now, as a distributor, Filmhouse will be holding out for the unclaimed gems of the festival circuit, and this non-competitive approach means its choices will be limited to less obviously marketable films. But the low-risk, relaxed approach seems entirely appropriate to an endeavour in its early stages (with The Stoker a test case for White’s long list of other titles “left behind” by mainstream distributors).

It also contrasts with the lengths to which Filmhouse as an exhibitor goes to present little-seen features as they were intended to be seen, often in rare formats such as 70mm. That exhibition work will, of course, remain Filmhouse’s focus for the foreseeable future. But with bookings for the film already programmed at ten venues including Bristol’s Watershed and Sheffield’s Showroom Workstation, White’s new venture has evidently found programmers who share his ideals and faith in a passionate audience beyond the multiplex.

you can read more of Harriet’s work on her blog, and be sure to follow her on Twitter

UnderWire, the UK’s only short film festival dedicated to showcasing the raw cinematic talents of women, are launching Time of the Month, a series of bi-monthly networking events in London. The events will include an ‘open mic’ session where women filmmakers (that includes women working across all the crafts) can screen their shorts, or a work-in-progress, for audience feedback.

As a safe peer-to-peer network space to gain constructive feedback on your latest projects, the UnderWire Networking events provide female filmmakers working across the crafts a meeting point to find new collaborators, start conversations and get creative together – and it’s free!

The first event will be on Tuesday May 14th from 6:30PM, upstairs at The Yorkshire Grey. Come along and join the Underwire team for a drink and a chat.

For more details and updates, head over to Facebook.

If you would like to screen your film/rough cut, please get in touch with chloe@underwirefestival.com

Back with friends the London Short Film Festival with their LSFF 2013 and Beyond series of events, on May 29th we’ll be spending the afternoon diving into the murky, mysterious and sometimes misogynistic world of short film protagonists and asking where are the women, and what are they doing?

We’ll be kicking off the afternoon at 3pm with a film surgery where we’ll be looking at films with female characters at the centre of the story. A panel of experts including Underwire Director, Gemma Mitchell, and Underwire Co-Fouder and Euroscript Board Member, Gabriella Apicella will provide feedback on a variety of shorts screened. If you’d like your short to screen, email the team at 2013andbeyond@shortfilms.org.uk

Later in the afternoon a panel will be cooking on gas as we take on female characters – the good, the bad and the ugly (and maybe even the sinister, aloof and angry too) – with filmmakers and academic guests.

Continue the conversation late into the evening with networking drinks.

Tickets to LSFF: 2013 and Beyond are available for purchase at a cost of £30 and the event itself will run at the ICA in London. This one-off payment allows each participant to attend as many sessions as they like and we fully welcome those who would like to attend the full programme. When you have booked your place, please email 2013andbeyond@shortfilms.org.uk with your selection.

Underwire has been a great opportunity for me. The support from the team and exposure I’ve received has been like no other film festival I’ve been a part of. They’ve given me a platform to talk about my work and meet exceptionally talented directors, editors and scriptwriters.

Through Underwire I was picked up by production company Shameless,  who I’ve been directing music videos for, and included in the Future Shorts Winter season which has enabled me to reach a huge global audience.  

I’m currently in pre production for two fashion films; one for Janvier London featuring an eccentric ‘Donness’ and another for Wonderland Magazine in which four girls are sent to retail purgatory for their sins. I’m keeping my fingers – everything crossed for an opportunity to attend the Sundance Writers Lab to get my feature off the ground and looking for funding for an experimental short set at the end of a wedding reception where the combination of raucous celebration and personal reflection makes everyone go bat shit crazy.  

You can see Lucy’s winning short film Candy Girl over on vimeo now.

Having your film ‘Pitfall’ as one of the award winners of the festival in 2012, what did you take away from the experience of Underwire?

There’s so much to gain when a festival like Underwire recognise your efforts. For starters, there’s the prize and support that accompanies the award. Gaining access to Euroscript and WFTV has already been a huge help to the current projects I’m working on. I’ve met a range of fantastic people through networking events via Underwire and their prizes – it’s a great opportunity to broaden your networks. It’s also a brilliant platform to market yourself, especially if you find it hard to ‘big yourself up’ which I think a lot of us do.

And possibly the most important aspect is that it’s a huge pat on the back for all your hard work! So many of us struggle to keep morale up, especially when you’re constantly working on independent/low budget projects – it’s like wading through mud at the best of times. We all have those moments of complete defeat in which we question if we’re doing the right thing. But when Underwire takes you under their wing, it’s a reward within itself. It’s almost like they’re giving you permission to keep going, keep making your films, don’t give up! I’ve gained so much from the whole experience. I’d definitely encourage others to get involved in the festival.

On the 24th of April we are honoured to have with us the esteemed Christabelle Dilks as our mentor for the evening. Christabelle Dilks is a writer and script editor with a background in drama commissioning at Channel 4. She has worked with the BBC, Channel 4, UK Film Council, Warp Films, Sentinel, History Channel and Wavelength films as well as developing several independent feature films.

The Underwire Forum is an intimate dinner with peers and mentors, together setting goals and objectives to support you through to the next level of your creative career.

Aimed at female writers who have already made their first short or two and have professionally established themselves to a certain level, the Forums are focused, craft-specific meetups over dinner . We want to create a space to allow you to think ambitiously and confidently about progressing in your creative career. A female mentor from the local region will also attend the dinner, to share with the forum her experiences and advice. We want you to talk about your work, what problems you might be facing in progressing in your career and together we will set goals for the year.

There is a cost of £20, with your meal and wine/soft drinks included.

When: 24th April, 7pm

Where: [tbc, Norwich central]

There are only 7 places available at the dinner, and you must apply and be accepted to attend. Please email gemma@underwirefestival.com with a brief description of your work to date and why you would like to attend the forum. You will receive a response no later than 12th of April to confirm your place.

This is the third event in Women in Film and Television‘s screening programme in honour of International Women’s Day and we’ll be joining in the fun showcasing a collection of some of our favourite shorts from the 2012 Underwire film festival.

Not only will we be screening the films, but we’re delighted that the filmmakers will be joining us for a post-screening QnA.

The films are:

Unravel (Prano Bailey-Bond, Editor Award, 14 mins)
On Another Note (Emma Dove, XX Award,12 mins)
Pitfall (Francesca Fowler, Scriptwriting Award, 17mins)
Candy Girl (Lucy Luscombe, U-25 Outstanding Talent Award 14min)
Passengers (Isla Ure, Actor Award, 12mins)

The screening is taking place on Wednesday 20th March at the BFI’s Stephen Street Screening Rooms, please be there for 6pm to give you enough time to sort out your pass for the building before we kick off the screening promptly at 6.30pm

Oh, and did we mention that it’s free! Make sure to book your place here.

“2010 was a busy year, I wound up my day job as Development Producer working with the consortium of Scottish production companies: DigiCult (Scottish Shorts initative), Brocken Spectre (SHELL) and Edge City Films (LORE); completed PARIS/SEXY wr/dir Ruth Paxton for DigiCult; and delivered my last Glasgow Short Film Festival as co-founding Director. I headed to the Berlinale Talent Campus, and picked up lower level production work to earn my bread working with the amazing production team behind Zam Salim’s UP THERE. I then headed down to London to produce my first project for my company Proud Mary, the last UK Film Council & Screen South commissioned digital short, NOCTURN wr/dir Leanne Welham. Whilst NOCTURN was in post with Oscar nominated editor Kant Pan, I was invited to attend the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab, and was the only emerging European producer selected. I came back to London to finish up on NOCTURN and production manage the BAFTA nominated TUMULT! wr/dir Johnny Barrington for Young Films.

In 2011 Leanne was amazingly successful in the delivery of our festival strategy with NOCTURN premiering at SXSW, and going on to screen internationally and picking up the Producers and XX Awards at Underwire Festival. Also in 2011, PARIS/SEXY won the UKFC Best Short at London Short Film Festival, and I was in Australia, stuck in floods…! I ended up staying in Australia for a bit, working on Sydney Film Festival, with distributors Transmission Films, and co-programming and managing Flickerfest, Australia’s premiere short film festival and only with BAFTA and Academy accreditation.  In June I came back to UK and took on the role of Acting Programme Manager of BFI Festivals. I delivered the first London Film Festival with the new Festival Director, and BFI Head of Exhibition, the amazingly talented and outrageously colourful, Clare Stewart. I also worked on the programme for London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. I am very proud of being part of the team that created and delivered these programmes and have now finished up at the BFI with a view to focus on my first love, filmmaking, working in tandem with my producing partner Ciara Barry to develop and produce an exciting slate of features and shorts. We’re based in both Glasgow and London.”

NOCTURN is distributed by Shorts International and available to purchase on itunes.

PARIS/SEXY is distributed by DigiCult.