The Riverfront, Newport
Sat 17 Nov
words: ALEX AND FLYNN’S FILM REVIEWS
The Annual Newport International Film Festival (NIFF) celebrates the very best upcoming independent filmmakers from South Wales and beyond, showcasing their talents at the very picturesque venue, The Riverfront. It’s an aptly titled location for a building quite literally situated on the riverfront and it’s one that indicates how far Newport has come in terms of nurturing its local creative prodigies and allowing them an opportunity to flex their creative muscles. This venue, along with the Newport Film School, is enabling young filmmakers the chance to prosper and take a step closer to their dream, and thanks to The Film Festival Guild, their dreams are being realised.
After a short introduction from the NIFF organisers, The Film Festival Guild, it was time to begin a packed day of films which left very little time to even catch your breath. We kick off with the Student Shorts, a selection of the very best work from student filmmakers from around the world. The standout films in this category were Callum, a film about bullying, Hath No Man, a fantastic WWII short, and Orpheus, a film similar to a drink-driving advert in the style of Inception.
Next up was the Shorts category, again featuring filmmakers from around the globe. The quality was of an extremely high standard and featured a huge variety of genres; from the heart-warming animation Make It A Great Day to some other standout films such as Busker Bout, a film about a rivalry between two singing buskers; Kiss, a powerful film about longing and companionship, and finally, Abgestempelt, a extraordinary film from Austria about terrorism which took home the award of best short.
Finally, it was time for the feature films, all of which were of an extremely high standard. First up was Jackals, a hard-hitting thriller about two hitmen. Then it was time for Hated, a beautiful music drama and The Sky In Bloom, a tough-as-nails gangster movie. The closing movie was Before Dawn, an excellent zombie movie set in the Yorkshire Dales. As with all the shorts, the features films included some enlightening discussion about budgets and filming which made the end products all the more enriching and impressive. The Sky In Bloom walked away with the award for best cinematography, actor and feature, whilst best actress went to Hated. The quality of all four features impressed and the healthy audience stuck out a pretty intense day of films to catch everything the festival had to offer.
The Newport International Film Festival has truly cemented its status within the Independent Film industry as a champion for promoting the talent of the future. Having completed their sixth year, credit must be given to the Film Festival Guild for their hard work and determination, and also to the film-makers for bringing their creative ambitions to life.
Roll on next year!
Check out Alex and Flynn’s podcast review of the festival by clicking here.
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And find out more about Alex And Flynn’s podcasts and film reviews from their Facebook page and website.