Glimmer!

Am now home (and freezing cold) and have walked straight into a busy week as it's "Glimmer!", the Hull International Short Film Festival right now. I just got back from tonight's screenings of UK shorts, an eclectic mix of drama, comedy, film installation, and quirky vignettes. Tomorrow's looking good - "Anatomy of a Film" at 2pm with Sue Everett and Rob Speranza discussing the making of "Mother Mine", their recent short, followed at 5pm by a panel discussion on "Films, Filmmakers and Film Festivals", which I will be taking part in as a panellist, so if you've ever wondered what I get up to at the film festivals I go to, come and listen (and ask questions, so long as they're not rude!). Then at 8pm we have one of the sessions I'm most looking forward to, the screening of all the BAFTA nominated shorts for 2008, including Simon Ellis' "Soft", and BAFTA winner, "Dog Altogether" directed by Paddy Considine.

On Saturday there are more UK shorts, and a BAFTA Screentalk with Simon Ellis at 7pm, amongst other things.

On Sunday, there's the Hull competition and the Yorkshire competition, and I'm a jury member for both which is pretty exciting because I've never been a film competition jury member before. We have the award winners showcase at 7pm at Reel, and the closing night party and screening run by Slack Video at Lamp at 9. This features a DVD free-for-all, so if you have a film but missed the deadline, or just happen to have a DVD of your short about your person on the day, come to the party and if there's time, they'll screen it.

There's more information about the festival here at ITV Local, including interviews and clips, and the full programme is here so check it out and come along. And whether or not you can make it, tell everyone you know who is interested in short films and film making to come too, because it's going to be a fab weekend.

See you there!