The 2012 Ffresh, student Film and Video awards will take place in Newport next week.
Newport University’s Film School have achieved 28 nominations in this year’s festival, hosted by the University’s City Campus, and the Riverfront Theatre and Arts centre.
Running between the 8th and 10th February, the underlying theme of this years festival is the basic building block of all film making: ‘Story and storytelling’.
As well as the awards, a series of events make up the festival. On Monday 6th February, prior to the event, Master filmmaker, Palme D’Or winner and Oscar nominee Mike Leigh, (Vera Drake, Happy Go Lucky, Another Year) will deliver a masterclass about his unique films, at the Riverfront Theatre.
Professor Chris Morris, of the university’s Film School and Chair of Ffresh 2012 said: “Mike Leigh was keen to come to Ffresh but is judging films at the Berlin Festival next week. Fortunately, he agreed to do this one off special for us – and it’s free for all staff and students to attend.”
Newport will also welcome back two highly successful Film alumni; Asif Kapadia (The Warrior, Senna) whose work moves effortlessly between drama and documentary, and Merlin Crossingham who creates his stories out of clay, as creative director of Wallace and Grommit.
Those attending FFresh will also hear from Matt Lipsey (Little Britain and Psychoville) on directing comedy, Jes Benstock (The British guide to showing off) on ‘showing off’ and from the USA, documentarian Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation, Walk away Renee), on low budget production and the art of telling the story of your own life.
Professor Morris added: “This is a festival designed for people who love watching and telling stories. It’s billed as a ‘student’ film festival, but when you look at the line-up, its really of interest to anyone. Personally I can’t wait for it to begin.”
