festivals

Festivals can be exciting and dynamic ways of celebrating creative expression and developing audiences that can engage creative work. Watching films can help us understand and appreciate the people around us and the world in which we live; exploring other cultures and other ways of life can enrich our own lives.

Film festivals can establish a sense of community; they can galvanise audiences, they bring people together around new and engaging talking points, crucially, they also make available a much greater variety of films than is normally available, so celebrating cultural diversity.

Our strategy
Our strategic aim is to assist the development and growth of sustainable film and moving image festivals of regionwide impact that deliver industry, cultural and economic benefits with the following objectives:

grow audiences and public interest in new products and regional creative industries
encouraging programming partnerships between regional festivals and regional film heritage/archive products, regional production, indigenous and international short films, animation, education and networking events and link to a regional calendar of festival and moving image exhibition
facilitating a promotional platform for regional industry through networking, education and training events
addressing social inclusion and cultural diversity activities represented as a core feature of the overall programme
encourage skill sharing and training initiatives for the exhibition sector
attracting cultural tourism through regionwide partnerships

Screen East's regionwide festival strategy is part of an integrated approach to audience and moving image education development, and we invest in projects which add to a national and international calendar of festival provision that offer clearly defined evidence of regional, audience, industry and economic benefit.

Screen East will fund three types of festivals:

Established - international, national and regional significance
Developmental - developing film and and moving image exhibition
Mixed Arts - where film and moving image are a component

To find out more about funding for festivals, or to apply, please click here.