BFFS National Conference for Community Cinemas 2011
Over a hundred delegates gathered at the Institut Francais in London on the 17th-18th of September for the 5th BFFS National Conference for Community Cinemas and Film Society of the Year Awards 2011.
The weekend kicked off with a keynote speech from Ed Vaizey MP - Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries on the value of volunteers and the importance of the community cinema sector.
‘Local people know what is best needed in their areas and the tireless volunteers in the community cinemas and film societies up and down the country bring film, culture and social cohesion to their communities. Their activities create communities, build relationships and strengthen local connections across all ages from the young to the old.’
We were also delighted to welcome Togo Igawa, star of Le Herisson to be our special guest presenter at the Film Society of the Year Awards 2011.
The theme of the weekend was The Volunteer and delegates had the chance to attend training sessions focused on recruiting, valuing and motivating their volunteers alongside a programme of film screenings and networking sessions. There was also a session aimed at helping struggling film societies made possible by a donation from Cheltenham Film Society.
Audiences were treated to preview screenings and filmmaker Q&A's with the directors of Way of the Morris and Sound it Out and got the chance to see newly released Tomboy as well as micro budget caper The Red Machine and French classic The 400 Blows. The most popular film of the weekend was Le Herisson with a fantastic audience reaction score of 96.7%. The documentaries also went down brilliantly with scores in the 80s for Way of the Morris and We Were Here.
Download the Audience Reaction Index
The Film Society of the Year Awards took place on Saturday evening with Swindon Film Society coming away with the Engholm Prize for Film Society of the Year.
See pictures from the event on Flickr here: http://bit.ly/oOMmLd
You are welcome to use these pictures in your publicity but please credit Ivan Lieman Photography. If you are featured in any publications, please send a link to the story to Bryony Forde
