Student Film Festival London

Last week Birds Eye View, a British organisation which ‘celebrates & supports international women filmmakers’, announced that it would not be running its annual film festival in 2012. The festival’s cancellation is a direct result of the government’s dissolution of the UK Film Council, which had previously provided funding and support through their Film Festivals Fund and Diversity Grant in Aid.

The withdrawal of this support left the festival with a 90% drop in public funds. However, despite the festival’s cancellation in 2012, Birds Eye View are promising to ‘maintain activity’ and they will still be organising a number of events across the UK throughout the year. They are also working on ‘building a sustainable model for 2013 and beyond’. The British Film Institute, who have taken over from the UKFC as the nation’s public funding body, have pledged their support to Birds Eye View, and are expected to contribute future funding once they have the appropriate funding schemes up and running. It is hoped that the Birds Eye View festival will return in 2013.

The festival’s 2012 cancellation has come at a time when British female filmmaking is riding high, with Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin scooping the award for Best Film at this year’s London Film Festival, and with half of the films in that festival’s New British Cinema strand coming from female directors. One can only hope that the lack of a Birds Eye View festival in 2012 won’t derail this progress.

To find out more about the cancellation of the 2012 Birds Eye View Film Festival, please visit - http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/news/2011/10/26/no-festival-in-2012/.

To find out more about how you can support Birds Eye View and join their membership scheme, please visit - http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/2574/the-nest/the-nest.html

Alex Barrett.