BeggarsLifebySteveBabb

Summary -  Isle of Man Film Festival 2014 rundown of events and reactions plus list of winning films and categories for press distribution.

Photos -  Amma Asante and Mark Kermode and 'Beggars of Life' Silent Cinema image (Babb Photography)

The Isle of Man Film Festival 2014 came to a close yesterday after a hugely successful 5 days of varied events, which saw filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike cramming social network feeds raving about what they’d seen and heard.

Hosted predominantly by BBC & Observer Chief Film Critic Mark Kermode, who has family ties to the Island and is a Patron for Island of Culture 2014, the festival opened on Wednesday night with the first screening of clips from musician Davy Knowles’ highly anticipated documentary ‘Island Bound’ co. produced and edited by Festival Programmer Christy DeHaven and Directed by Dave Armstrong Festival Director. Afterwards he was joined on the stage by some of the musicians who featured in the documentary and treated the audience to some brilliant original music.

Thursday’s Future Shorts Fringe events were sold out in advance. The audience discussion and reaction to the fabulously varied mix of short films was passionate and entertaining, and the venues themselves enthused about the events afterwards: 

Friday night was game of two halves - firstly a superb Q&A screening of Isle of Man Film / Pinewood Pictures feature ‘Belle’, with Mark Kermode interviewing BAFTA winning Director Amma Asante. The discussion was fascinating, funny and hugely inspiring. Kermode later described Asante as ‘a wonderfully eloquent filmmaker’ and Amma herself tweeted repeatedly about how much she enjoyed the experience, saying “I had a beautiful evening, Isle of Man and Isle of Man Film Festival have my heart”.

Following the screening, guests were treated to an exclusive late night VIP party hosted by Mark Kermode's rockabilly skiffle band The Dodge Brothers, where Amma Asante herself was spotted dancing amongst the enthusiastic crowd.

Saturday was one of the highlights of the festival; firstly, Mark Kermode took to the Gaiety Theatre stage for his “Audience With Mark Kermode” event. He proceeded to entertain the crowd thoroughly for almost an hour, with hilarious anecdotes collected through the years and an engaging audience Q&A. 

Later he was joined onstage by the Dodge Brothers and Neil Brand who performed a stellar soundtrack to the wonderful 1928 silent movie ‘Beggars of Life’, keeping the audience entranced and enthralled.

Sunday saw the screening of the 12 Shortlisted films from the 2014 International Competition, during which audience members took part in the Audience Vote award by selecting their favourite film. That afternoon, the Red Carpet Awards event took place and the following superb films were announced as category winners: 

Best Documentary Short: North (Temujin Doran)

Best Short Drama: Cancer Hair (Gail Hackston)

Best Comedy Short: Modern Man (Sebastian Solberg)

Island Life Award: Postcard from 2013 (Brook Wassall)

Audience Vote Award: The Boy with a Camera For A Face (Spencer Brown)

Special Commendation: Adventures of a Cardboard Box (Temujin Doran)

Best of the Fest: Cancer Hair

With such a superb international reaction to the festival, there is no doubt that IOMFF is going from strength to strength - highlighted by a comment by Mark Kermode in interview after the event: “It's a matter of making the Island feel that it is part of the global filmmaking community, for people to think of it as a destination to come and talk about films, show films and meet other filmmakers" 

Organisers thanked Mr Kermode for his ongoing support and enthusiasm, along with all of their sponsors - in particular Island of Culture and the Isle of Man Arts Council - and their dedicated army of volunteers, without whom the festival simply would not have happened.