This Friday marks the start of CineCity 2015, one of Brighton’s most prominent film festivals. Now in its thirteenth year, CineCity boasts A-list patrons Steve Coogan, Nick Cave and actor Paddy Considine, who has frequently collaborated with directors Shane Meadows and Richard Ayoade and starred alongside Coogan in cult film 24 Hour Party People. CineCity works in partnership with The Duke of York’s Picturehouse, Screen Archive Southeast and the University of Brighton, with film events, screenings and exhibitions featuring all year round as well as putting on the CineCity Brighton Film Festival.
The Brighton Film Festival focuses on first features, highlighting new talent. Most notably, the debut of Laszlo Nemes’ ‘Son of Saul’ which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. The festival shows highly anticipated titles ahead of their general release as well as many one-off screenings from around the world. Coming-of-age seems to be the theme that runs through the festival this year with many selections featuring a young protagonist. As well as this there is also the recurring theme of cinema itself, with screenings of The Forbidden Room, Hitchcock/Truffaut, and Einstein in Guanajuato as well as many others. There are also essay films, illustrated talks and live audiovisual performances that explore aspects of cinema in the past, present and future. BBC arts strand Arena is celebrated at the University of Brighton Gallery this year, marking its 40th anniversary with a twenty four hour visual journey that follows the pattern of day and night. This is running free of admission from the 21st of November.
There are also many other free events going on during the festival, from workshops to exhibitions. For example, on the 16th of November, an evening of film and video screenings, installations and performances from staff and students of the BA (Hons) Moving Image course at the University of Brighton is being put on for free. The Exquisite Corpus, as mentioned above, is also a free event, as is the Brighton Film School showcase. Also, if you find yourself stuck in the lovely Brighton Station during the festival, you may see a short film called Kiss in the Tunnel being shown on the big screen. The short film was made by early film pioneer George Albert Smith, who was himself from Hove.
There is so much going on at this year’s CineCity, with so many amazing films and incredible exhibitions being put on that it’s completely unmissable. To find out more about CineCity go to their website http://www.cine-city.co.uk/
Holly Martin
