Festival History

Cambridge Film Festival was established in 1977 and ran until 1996, re-launching in 2001 after a five year break. Over the years it has developed into a high profile event with a reputation as one of the UK’s most prestigious and well-respected film festivals. The Guardian has described Cambridge as “a match for the Edinburgh and London Film Festivals…”, whereas The Times claimed that Cambridge “easily outclasses its metropolitan rivals”.

The Festival was originally conceived with a two-fold purpose: as a means of screening the very best of current international cinema; and to rediscover important but neglected film-makers and their films, which were either out of distribution or unseen for many years.

The Festival’s strands include: new features; shorts; documentary; revivals, artist’s moving image work; and a Children’s Film Festival. Engagement with the fullest range of film culture is generated by visits from actors and directors, parties and receptions, forums and conferences, workshops and education events, and free outdoor screenings. Films premiering at Cambridge have included Lady Chatterley, Bowling For Columbine, Before Sunset, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, 9 Songs, Crash, The Last Mitterrand, Tideland, A Cock and Bull Story and Volver, and we’ve played host to star guests such as Luc Besson, Cate Blanchett, Julie Delpy, Bruno Dumont, Jeremy Irons, Richard Harris, Terry Gilliam and Kenneth Branagh.

The 11 day Festival is based at the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge but also uses other venues in Cambridge, including The Junction and West Road Concert Hall, with outreach events taking place at locations across the Eastern region. Audiences have grown by 40% in the past 5 years, reaching 16,500 participants in 2007.

The Festival is now operated by the charitable Cambridge Film Trust, which was formed for this purpose in July 2007; the Festival is the highlight of a year-round programme which champions independent cinema by presenting a broad portfolio of film-related events in Cambridge and across the Eastern region.

Festival Timeline

1977
The first Festival set the pattern for innovation, diversity and the emphasis on world cinema, with screenings of Kurosawa’s DODESKA-DEN, Visconti’s CONVERSATION PIECE and Rosi’s ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES.

1978
The UK Premiere of THE CHESS PLAYERS is the centrepiece of a Satyajit Ray retrospective. The programme also includes Rudolph’s WELCOME TO LA, Jarman’s JUBILEE and HARLAN COUNTY, USA.

1979
Premieres include Bergman’s AUTUMN SONATA, Herzog’s NOSFERATU and Altman’s A WEDDING, with an Andrzej Wajda retrospective.

1980
UK Premieres include Petit’s RADIO ON, Roeg’s BAD TIMING and Loach’s BLACK JACK.

1981
A newly restored version of Gance’s NAPOLEON is a highlight, alongside a Bertrand Tavernier retrospective.

1982
UK Premiere of Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO.

1983
Sayles’ LIANNA is premiered. Mrinal Sen retrospective.

1984
Wim Wenders’ introduces PARIS, TEXAS, and the retrospective is of Volker Schlondorff.

1985
Francesco Rosi introduces CARMEN as part of his retrospective. Percy Adlon retrospective.

1986
MONA LISA and the new print of Powell and Pressburger’s GONE TO EARTH are presented. David Hare’s film and TV work is shown.

1987
Peter Greenaway presents THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT as part of a ‘Made in Britain’ programme which also includes a John McGrath retrospective.

1988
Jean-Claude Carriere is a Festival guest, and THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING is the centrepiece of a Philip Kaufman retrospective.

1989
Robert Bresson and Working Title retrospectives, a tribute to John Cassavetes and a series of films to investigate the influence of Cahiers du Cinema.

1990
Allen’s CRIMES AND MISDEMEANOURS is premiered, alongside a Pedro Almodovar retrospective, and screenings of Malle’s MILOU IN MAY and Stillman’s METROPOLITAN.

1991
The retrospective is of Monika Treut, with Premieres of Scott’s THELMA AND LOUISE and the Coen Brothers’ BARTON FINK.

1992
Bruce Beresford and Agnieszka Holland attend the retrospectives of their work, and there is a tribute to BFI film production. UK Premieres include RESERVOIR DOGS and August’s THE BEST INTENTIONS.

1993
Peter Greenaway attends the UK Premiere of THE BABY OF MACON. Other titles include Sayles’ PASSION FISH and Haas’ THE MUSIC OF CHANCE.

1994
The Premiere of the THREE COLOURS trilogy is the centrepiece of the first ever full Kieslowski retrospective.

1995
Jeunet and Caro attend the Premiere of THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. The Festival’s centennial tribute to Buster Keaton contains his rarely seen final masterpieces THE CAMERMAN and SPITE MARRIAGE. Two other retrospectives celebrate Patricia Rozema and Lars von Trier.

1996
French critic Michel Ciment introduces a French programme which includes Audiard’s A SELF-MADE HERO and Breillat’s PARFAIT AMOUR. Greenaway’s THE PILLOW BOOK Premieres. Retrospectives feature Jack Cardiff and Jan Jakub Kolski.

There was no Festival between 1997 and 2001.

2001
The Festival bursts back onto the scene with Premieres of SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK, BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, OTESANEK, BEIJING BICYCLE, BETELNUT BEAUTY, SWORDFISH, SCRATCH, THE ISLE & SW9. Claude Lansmann attends the Premiere of SOBIBOR, & the Premiere of INTIMACY is the centrepiece of a Patrice Chereau retrospective. Tribute is paid to the work of Timothy Spall & Ray Harryhausen, & the Children’s Film Festival is launched with Premieres of CATS AND DOGS & FINAL FANTASY.

2002
The Festival is launched with the UK Premiere of TALK TO HER and closes with the UK Premiere of David Cronenberg’s SPIDER. Other Premieres include BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, LOST IN LA MANCHA, GERRY, HEAVEN, and INTACTO. Alex Cox attends the Premiere of his REVENGERS TRAGEDY and Richard Harris makes one of his last public appearances at the UK Premiere of MY KINGDOM. Peter Wintonick attends a season of his work, and we host tributes to Milos Forman, Tod Browning and Lon Chaney, and Darius Mehrjui.

2003
Amongst 50 UK Premieres we screen SPIRITED AWAY, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, GOODBYE, LENIN!, TIME OF THE WOLF, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, BELLEVILLE RENDEZVOUS, WHALE RIDER and SPELLBOUND; Cate Blanchett and Joel Schumacher attend a special screening of VERONICA GUERIN, Jane Birkin presents MERCI DR REY, and Peter Greenaway attends the Premiere of his TULSE LUPER SUITCASES PART ONE: THE MOAB STORY. We host the first UK Film Parliament, and hold an Alexander Dovzhenko retrospective.

2004
Highlights amongst the Festival’s 47 UK premieres included STAGE BEAUTY, BEFORE SUNSET, SUPER SIZE ME, CLEAN, COMME UNE IMAGE, COFFEE AND CIGARETTES, RIDING GIANTS, Spike Lee’s SHE HATE ME, and Robert Lepage’s THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON. The Festival brought scores of international film-makers to Cambridge: Sir Richard Eyre launched the Festival at our opening night presentation of STAGE BEAUTY; Julie Delpy presented the closing night screening of BEFORE SUNSET; and Robert Carradine introduced the UK premiere of Sam Fuller’s THE BIG RED ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION (and was so entranced by the Digital projection of the new version that he watched it twice!) Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton presented a special preview of CODE 46, author Jonathan Coe introduced a tribute to little-known British talent BS Johnson, and Jeremy Irons charmed the audience at the UK premiere of Zeffirelli’s CALLAS FOREVER. Our special event A CRITICAL CONDITION: THE STATE OF FILM JOURNALISM IN THE UK stimulated a broad-ranging debate from an auspicious group of the UK’s leading film critics and broadcasters including Mark Kermode, Jonathan Romney, Nick James, Charles Gant, Damon Wise, Nigel Floyd, and Karen Krizanovich.

2005
A packed silver jubilee programme included 57 UK Premieres including THE LAST MITTERAND; CRASH; BROKEN FLOWERS; Hayao Miyazaki’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, introduced by the author of the film’s source novel, Diana Wynne Jones; KING’S GAME; NIGHTWATCH; SARABAND; SILVER CITY (attended by director John Sayles); WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS - PUSHER 2 introduced by director Nicolas Winding Refn, who also curated a season of film’s that have influenced his work; GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE; ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM; ROCK SCHOOL; and FOREST FOR THE TREES, alongside a Studio Ghibli season and a retrospective for the Russian silent director Dziga Vertov. Michael Winterbottom and producer Andrew Eaton attended for a surprise screening of their latest collaboration, and other Festival regulars Monika Treut and Peter Greenaway brought new work to the screen. Sir Christopher Frayling was in town to talk about his book ‘Once Upon a Time in Italy’, while a one-day forum on the cultural overload brought some of the country’s top film writers to the city. Speakers included: Jonathan Romney (The Independent on Sunday), Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian), Tim Robey (The Daily Telegraph), Nick James (Sight and Sound), Charles Gant (Heat), Peter Preston (The Guardian), Damon Wise (Empire), and Gareth Evans (Vertigo and Time Out).

2006
The 26th Cambridge Film Festival was the most successful to date. Admissions were higher (over 17,000) and a record number of voters registered their reviews and ratings of Festival films online, producing a Top 20 list that included titles as diverse as SILENTIUM, GYPO and A SCANNER DARKLY and was topped by Audience Award Winner VOLVER. Two major additions to the Festival proved highly popular; an ambitious programme of free screenings introduced Artist’s Moving Image work to new viewers, and the daily Festival Podcasts were a huge hit. Featuring interviews with Festival guests, audience members and programmers the podcasts made high-quality film journalism available to anyone with Internet access, developing the Festival audience and demonstrating the CFF’s ongoing commitment to technological innovation.

Other Festival highlights included Luc Besson presenting ANGEL-A; Terry Gilliam discussing TIDELAND; Neil Brand and Gunther Buchwald accompanying THE OPEN ROAD; Mike Figgis discussing erotic cinema with Rowan Pelling (former editor of The Erotic Review); Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and Stephen Fry mingling with guests at the open air screening of A COCK AND BULL STORY at one of the film’s principal locations, Felbrigg Hall near Cromer; Graham Fellows (aka John Shuttleworth) and photographer Martin Parr discussing IT’S NICE UP NORTH; Fred Kelemen with KRISANA; Damian Lewis with KEANE; a filmed introduction from Eric Khoo to BE WITH ME; and UK Premieres of A SCANNER DARKLY, ATOMISED, THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, RENAISSANCE and 4.30.

The New German Cinema season and UK Focus brought many young film-makers to Cambridge and the Festival’s special seasons were strongly appreciated by both audiences and national press: PROJECTING BRITAIN: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION FILMS AND THE PIONEERS OF THE BRITISH DOCUMENTARY MOVEMENT celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Central Office of Information with a series of five programmes tracing the British documentary from the 1930’s to the present day, culminating with a discussion comparing this cinematic heritage with prospects for the future, led by Professor Ian Christie.

The first complete retrospective of BRUCE WEBER’S work in film included a short film made specially for the Festival as well as a live internet broadcast Q&A, using a high speed broadband link, projected on screen, in which Bruce Weber answered audience questions about his work, from his home in Long Island. THE BEST OF BAGHDAD showcased the re-emergence of Iraqi cinema with screenings and discussions featuring Iraqi film- makers and cultural commentators and received substantial coverage by The Times, The Independent, BBC4, Radio 4, Al-Jazeerah International and Sky News.

2007

Launching the festival with style (with the kind support of the Austrian Film Museum) audiences enjoyed the rare opportunity to see Michael Nyman accompanying a programme of films including Dziga Vertov’s KINO PRAVDA 21 and Vigo’s A PROPOS DE NICE.

The festival in 2007 was strongly influenced by the unprecendented number of submissions which were received (over 800) including a spectacular range of UK and International shorts, features and documentaries, from which 8 programmes of the best in short film-making were compiled and 7 new features and 3 documentaries were added to the programme. Many of the film-makers travelled from as far afield as South Africa and Canada to present their UK premieres and Cambridge audiences took these films to their hearts, voting not only Seth Grossman’s THE ELEPHANT KING and Nino Leitner’s EVERY STEP YOU TAKE into the Audience Top Ten but also ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: THE WAY OF THE TOSSER to the coveted People’s Favourite Film Award, following in the footsteps of previous winners, VOLVER (2006), BROKEN FLOWERS (2005) and STAGE BEAUTY (2004).

UK premieres included the opening night film LADY CHATTERLEY, ANNA M, THE WALKER and the latest film from Studio Ghibli, TALES FROM EARTHSEA. The festival closed with UK premieres of THE HOAX and THE 11TH HOUR. A season celebrating the best in New German cinema was once again curated by Monika Treut and eclectic shorts and documentaries including THE MAN WHO SHOT CHINATOWN and DELIVER US FROM EVIL contributed to the programme.

A particularly strong element of this year’s festival was our Cinecology season, highlighting the most interesting work inspired by all things eco. Also well received were classic revivals including Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL and THIEF OF BAGHDAD and the ever-popular MICROCINEMA strand – featuring the UK premiere of acclaimed filmmaker Sarah Turner’s ECOLOGY. The History of Children’s Film and Television strand brought nostalgia and rediscovery with our festival Dalek thrown in for good measure. Adding charm to the corridors of the Arts, a very special exhibition of Harold Lloyd prints made the journey from LA, courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, to compliment a revival of films fondly selected and introduced by Lloyd’s granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd.

Highlights at partner venues included a performance by magnificent band Youth Movies at the Junction – which had us all watching our favourite big screen kisses to a very contemporary live soundtrack. For the first time ever we also screened a selection of features and short films at the Curzon Soho in London during the festival.

The festival welcomed a whole host of filmmakers and acting talent to Cambridge – from Croatia, Poland, Germany, France, Austria, Canada and the US – and of course, the UK - Kenneth Branagh and Brian Blessed were here to charm audiences following AS YOU LIKE IT. Plus visits from French director Bruno Dumont (FLANDERS) and UK actor Ben Chaplin (CHROMOPHOBIA).

The response from the wider media was strong. With coverage and acclaim in, amongst others Time Out, The Independent, The Guardian and Empire – who remarked that “the Cambridge Film Festival is one of the key screen events in the UK calendar”. In addition our local media partners were equally as enthusiastic – with key coverage from The Cambridge Evening News (“..one of the premier events of the summer calendar”), Q103 Radio, BBC Cambridgeshire and the East Anglian Times (“A film festival with something for everyone”).

Our brand new website, designed by local web company Studio24, was a big hit and 11,209 unique users made a total of 18,700 visits during the festival period and viewed 98,283 pages between them. 191 keen reviewers submitted 437 reviews of 126 festival films. Cambridge Film Festival also embraced Web 2.0 with RSS feeds for festival news and reviews, a Facebook group and even a YouTube channel for the festival, building on the podcasts and MySpace presence introduced in 2006.