BIAFF 2004

More than 200 people headed towards Harrogate for one of the largest gatherings of amateur movie makers that we have seen for years. The Saturday Gala buzzed with excitement as 158 sat down to dinner and entertainment. The Sunday audience was bursting at the seams, with even more arriving every minute to snap up day tickets. We signed up some new IAC members, and many first time visitors were eager to find out what was going to happen in their own Regions. Such large numbers create their own problems and our thanks go to those who had to be offered accommodation elsewhere because we ran out of rooms. David Newman has already said it sets a challenge to next year’s Festival in Chesterfield. Let us hope that it also sets a trend of supporting what each of our Regions are always so actively arranging.

Throughout the weekend the Hotel worked efficiently to serve everyone within some very tight time schedules. Linda Gough, the Festival Officer worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure everything ran smoothly. But for us the Festival is about movies. Brian Dunckley, our Competition Manager, had dealt with an increase in entries (which belies some fears that putting entry fees up would deter entrants.) Like everything else that we run we have to seek to make our activities cost effective if we are to continue. The 4 mini-cinemas, working ceaselessly throughout Saturday, enabled him to squeeze in the opportunity for us to see 126 movies over the weekend. (The difficult choices on Saturday were left to us.) Thanks go to club members from Darlington, Huddersfield and Wakefield who provided the equipment and operated the cinemas throughout the weekend.

On Friday Jim Kenworthy, NERIAC Chairman, got the show on the road by introducing Peter Coles and his selection of winning AV sequences from the Geoffrey Round Competition.
Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to the moving image. Saturday saw the surprise arrival of Cyril Cook in his full Chelsea Pensioner regalia. He had been the subject of Tania Mathias’ Silver Award winning video "You can’t tell people" which sympathetically illuminated his harsh memories of life in the First World War.

What was so encouraging was the enthusiastic and talented contribution from our youngest entrants. They are the future of the amateur moviemaking and from the evidence it is in good hands. There was a murmur of delight when Reg reminded us that one of the animations shown on Sunday, winning a Gold Award was by Sonia Ashbee who was only 14 years old.

Another group were the 5 youngsters from Bornholm in Denmark. Their delightful entry "My Granddad’s Autumn" was only seen by those in a mini-cinema. However they endeared themselves to us all when Heidi Mattson and Maya-Maria Staehr, who wrote and sang the theme song, gave us an impromptu performance at the Gala. They call themselves Novalee and don’t be surprised one day to see them representing Denmark in Eurovision ("Dix points")

Next time we complain about the problems of getting to an IAC venue remember that these youngsters flew to Newcastle, then took a 90 mile taxi-ride and still couldn’t find a room in the Cairn Hotel. Thank you for coming.

Another highlight of Saturday's Gala was the presentation of the UNICA Medal to Val Ellis. Val has been a tireless worker for amateur moviemakers and this was final International Recognition of all that she has done, and continues to do, on our behalf.

Finally Reg Lancaster, our energetic Chairman, opened the gold envelope to announce that "Strings of Life" by Mino Croce and Guido Wilhelm of Italy had won the Daily Mail Trophy. Unfortunately the maker was unable to attend but he did send a video message to conclude a wonderful weekend.