Five things to see at the Lon­don Short Film Fes­ti­val 2017

The Lon­don Short Film Fes­ti­val has been cham­pi­oning cut­ting-edge short for­mat cin­e­ma for the past 14 years, estab­lish­ing itself as an essen­tial event on the film fes­ti­val cal­en­dar. It grows in size every year and the 2017 edi­tion is not be missed, with a diverse pro­gramme boast­ing a healthy mix of voic­es new and old. Here are just a hand­ful of events worth look­ing out for when the fes­ti­val rolls into town again in the new year.

10 Jan­u­ary @ Pic­ture­house Central

What bet­ter way to cel­e­brate the life of David Bowie than to watch three short films spread over three decades of his life. The Image sees Bowie as a 20-year-old on the verge of musi­cal his­to­ry just before the release of ​‘Space Odd­i­ty’. This silent 15-minute piece will be accom­pa­nied by a Q&A with direc­tor Michael Arm­strong. From the ​’70s there’s Cracked Actor, the longest of the three at 53 min­utes, which doc­u­ments Bowie’s Dia­mond Dogs tour and his reflec­tion of his icon­ic Zig­gy Star­dust phase. Last up is Jazz­in’ for Blue Jean, shot in 1984 and con­sist­ing of an orig­i­nal sto­ry com­posed by Bowie himself.

12 Jan­u­ary @ ICA

Bar­den is a vet­er­an of the short film world and a promi­nent home­grown tal­ent. Her stand out role in a major film came recent­ly in Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos’ The Lob­ster as Nose­bleed Woman. You may recog­nise her from 2011’s Han­na and 2015’s Far from the Madding Crowd. Don’t miss this oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear from one of the most excit­ing young film­mak­ers in the UK right now.

12 Jan­u­ary @ Pic­ture­house Central

If you’re not already famil­iar with the incred­i­bly fun­ny Lim­my, then you real­ly haven’t lived. The Glaswe­gian man of many faces won a BAF­TA for his con­ven­tion-smash­ing show in 2010. Cov­er­ing a vari­ety of top­ics in equal­ly damn­ing and unapolo­getic ways, Limmy’s 600+ vines will be on dis­play in what is sure to be an insight­ful mean­der through the mind of an extreme­ly tal­ent­ed short filmmaker.

15 Jan­u­ary @ Pic­ture­house Central

Britney’s back and not just in those unbear­able EE adverts. After her musi­cal come­back this year, LSFF are screen­ing Tam­ra Davies’ cult favourite Cross­roads from 2002. Packed with nos­tal­gia and the likes of Zoe Sal­dana and Taryn Man­ning in their ear­ly days, this is sure to be a delight­ful blast from the past.

14 Jan­u­ary @ ICA

Speak­ing of Noughties, the sec­ond instal­ment of short docs explor­ing youth cul­ture through the decades looks set to be an elec­tric event. Fol­low­ing on from the pre­vi­ous three decades explored in part one, this sees sev­er­al films cel­e­brat­ing London’s eclec­tic youth scene. The shorts range from 1986’s Heavy Met­al Park­ing Lot by Jeff Kru­lik and John Heyn, which was report­ed­ly watched reli­gious­ly by Nir­vana, to 2009’s Grind­ing by Simon Wheat­ley, which doc­u­ments the ris­ing grime scene.

The LSFF runs 6 – 15 Jan­u­ary at var­i­ous venues across Lon­don. For more info and to book tick­ets vis­it short​films​.org​.uk