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The Birkenhead International Film Festival is taking place at the Convenience Gallery at the Bloom Building, Birkenhead, this weekend. On Saturday 2 October, it will be showcasing 20+ Short Animations from around the world.
Andrew Shaw of Convenience gallery said, “The theme of this year’s festival will be Animation. The event will take place from 3pm onwards and will involve workshops, food, drinks and of course films. The films will be shown in 4 screenings throughout the day with our first block starting at 3:45pm.
“The film festival will be a continued exploration into the very best animated short films from across the world. Tickets are donation-based with a suggested donation of £5 but pay what you can, we appreciate any donations.”
Ben Loveland is one of the people behind BIFF and birkenhead.news had a quick chat with him about the festival. “The Birkenhead International Film Festival is an idea to bring more films to the local scene.” He is aware that most of the arts and culture scene is drawn to cities like Manchester and Liverpool, but wanted to bring some of it to his home town.
“We’ve had a lot of nice submissions from all over England and indeed from around the world.”, Ben said, showing that it is truly an international affair. ” Submissions have come from the University of Bournemouth “which we’re very happy about! The graduate filmmakers seem very interested in BIFF.”
This is to be the third iteration of the festival, with the first being in October 2020, which had a horror theme to tie in with Halloween, then in May this year, they held a festival for which the submissions had to be a maximum of 30 seconds long. These two festivals were online-only, due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time.
“Now, the theme is ‘animation’ which is always something I’ve dreamed of hosting.”, Ben says. “I find animation so creative. It’s unreal what people can create just with art and still images. Animation is always a labour of love, and that’s what I love about it.”
“When a film grabs you, hooks you, that’s what we look for for the film festival – something interesting. You’d be really surprised at some of the films we get – they really come out of left-field.” Talking of the submissions to the festival, Ben says, “I’m always amazed by the quality of submissions we get and the people who submit are so talented and dedicated to the craft. I’m so happy that they’ve chosen to submit a film to BIFF.”
You can expect a truly international feel to the films to be shown. Submissions have come in from Russia, Puerto Rico, India and the United States. In all 200 submissions have come from 32 different countries with the best 20 being selected for screening.
The Birkenhead International Film Festival is at the Convenience Gallery, Bloom Building, Abbey Close, Birkenhead, CH41 5FQ (Near to Birkenhead Priory.) There are 4 screenings, with the first starting at 3.45pm on Saturday 2 October 2021.
Tickets are available from Eventbrite or you can make a donation on the door.