Screen thrills galore await at North East anniversary festival
Sign up for screenings, workshops and Q&As
It might seem an uncompromising choice with which to open a film festival but horror fans will no doubt be looking forward to the screening of Bone Lake at the Tyneside Cinema on October 21.
According to the RogerEbert.com website, which keeps alive the name of the late American movie critic, up-and-coming director Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s film is “a fun, messed-up horror thriller”.
Telling what happens when two sets of couples find they’ve accidentally rented the same holiday home, it has an 18 certificate in this country – so (spoiler alert) we’re not talking about differences over the washing up.
But it is just one of many attractions at this year’s North East International Film Festival (NEIFF) and not all will have you yearning for the traditional refuge behind the sofa.
Ahead of the 8pm Tyneside screening, supported by Newcastle City Council and sneaking in before the film’s official November release date, NEIFF guests will toast the festival’s fifth birthday.
As festivals go, it’s a relative newcomer, but it’s our film festival and it owes everything to the drive of volunteers led by founding director Lisa-Marie Tonelli who was awarded the MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Recently she told UK Film Reviewer website: “We lean into our North East identity - not as our limitation but as our power.
“NEIFF is proudly rooted in the cultural vibrancy of this region and we combine that local authenticity with an uncompromisingly international outlook.”
The screen action is packed into a week, beginning on Monday, October 20, with an afternoon workshop on AI (Artificial Intelligence) aimed at filmmakers, screenwriters and producers.
On the following Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday you can experience 3D Immersive and VR films for free in the 5G Immersive Lab in Grey’s Quarter, Eldon Square.
Then on the Friday (October 24) the action moves to North Tyneside with screenings of three feature length films (each with Q&A) at The Exchange 1856, North Shields.
They’re The Corinthians: We Were the Champions, a documentary about a women’s football team from Manchester that took on the male establishment in 1949; the award-winning documentary Arming the Arctic; and Poised, a documentary set in Sunderland about community activist Steven France and his efforts to improve kids’ lives through mixed martial arts.
There’s also a programme of shorts and, to round things off, a festival Film & TV Quiz Night at Tynemouth pub The Murphy.
Back in Newcastle for the weekend, the festival comes at you thick and fast with screenings at the Everyman Cinema, Alphabetti Theatre, The Black Swan at Newcastle Arts Centre and the Tyneside Cinema again.
Check out Sunday screenings of Breakwater at The Everyman and The Long Quiet at the Tyneside before the festival’s closing Gala Awards Night at the Biscuit Factory on Stoddart Street.
A night of “glitz, glamour and celebration” is promised as the prizes are handed out. Who needs an Oscar?
Find details of all attractions plus ticket information on the NEIFF website.