A new film fes­ti­val aims to build a com­mu­ni­ty for filmmakers

The first ever Col­lec­tive Film Fes­ti­val Lon­don (CFFL) will take place lat­er this sum­mer with the aim of build­ing a new com­mu­ni­ty for emerg­ing and estab­lished film­mak­ers alike.

The one-day event in July will include screen­ings of shorts and fea­ture films from around the world (both in and out of com­pe­ti­tion), and host activ­i­ties that cel­e­brate film­mak­ing while broad­en­ing atten­dees’ skills in a vari­ety of disciplines.

Fes­ti­val direc­tor Antho­ny Van­der, a guer­ril­la film­mak­er for over a decade, says the idea for CFFL was born out of a need to ​“bridge the gap” between sea­soned and less-expe­ri­enced film­mak­ers, and the desire to equip more under­rep­re­sent­ed voic­es with the tools and per­son­al con­nec­tions to make them­selves heard.

“Cre­at­ing com­mu­ni­ty is some­thing that the film indus­try could always do with improv­ing”, Antho­ny explains. ​“It’s not just from my own expe­ri­ences, but more so the expe­ri­ences of cre­atives that real­ly want to break into the industry.”

This sen­ti­ment is echoed by deputy fes­ti­val direc­tor, Bethany Tay­lor-Goh, who hav­ing ​“caught the film­mak­ing bug” in 2024 believes she wouldn’t be where she is now with­out the peo­ple that she’s met along the way.

“I didn’t go to film school. I didn’t have these con­tacts or this knowl­edge of the indus­try that you feel like some­times you need to, and it can feel very alien­at­ing,” she says. It was very impor­tant for her and Antho­ny to cre­ate a fes­ti­val that’s valu­able for first-time and emerg­ing film­mak­ers, and that they them­selves ​“would love to go to and learn from.”

CFFL aims to help devel­op film­mak­ers’ skills through work­shops and Q&As focused on over­com­ing var­i­ous film­mak­ing road­blocks such as dif­fi­cul­ty net­work­ing, restric­tions on bud­get or access to locations.

Bethany adds, ​“Whether you’re inter­est­ed in cin­e­matog­ra­phy, light­ing, sound, you’re an actor, or you’re mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, there’ll be things at the fes­ti­val that every­one can learn from.” She and Antho­ny believe that the festival’s com­mu­ni­ty spir­it will be fur­ther fos­tered by slight­ly unortho­dox activ­i­ties like karaōke.

The pair believe in the pow­er of social media in build­ing com­mu­ni­ty, and will be lean­ing on it heav­i­ly to help pro­mote cre­atives’ work online and make their col­lab­o­ra­tion and net­work­ing eas­i­er. Bethany describes how in the past many of her col­lab­o­ra­tions have hap­pened from see­ing what peo­ple share on Insta­gram, rather than through film festivals.

“It can be dif­fi­cult some­times. You go to these film fes­ti­vals and meet so many peo­ple and then it’s just silence after­wards. If you don’t man­age to see someone’s film or catch them, and they leave the fes­ti­val imme­di­ate­ly after­wards, you’re not sure how to fol­low them up.”

Through mail­ing lists and social media posts, includ­ing vox pop-style inter­views, Bethany and Antho­ny hope to build a plat­form to help film­mak­ers keep in con­tact with each oth­er long after the first CFFL comes to an end. They also hope to inspire oth­er fes­ti­vals to empha­sise their poten­tial to build com­mu­ni­ties, an essen­tial for ampli­fy­ing under­rep­re­sent­ed voic­es.
Look­ing to the future, CFFL aims to be a year­ly event and even­tu­al­ly join the Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Film Festivals.

In terms of the screen­ing pro­gramme, the fes­ti­val will have an inter­na­tion­al flavour, show­ing films from around the world. The CFFL team has received sub­mis­sions from the likes of Nige­ria, India, Iran and Tai­wan, among others.

“They’re not just shorts, they’re fea­tures and doc­u­men­taries”, Antho­ny remarks. ​“We’re not just look­ing for films that are set in stone and have a par­tic­u­lar bud­get or crew cast attached, but also first-time and sec­ond-time film­mak­ers, and sto­ries that are not just root­ed in the UK but also worldwide.”

The inau­gur­al Col­lec­tive Film Fes­ti­val Lon­don takes place on Fri­day 18 July at Col­lec­tive Act­ing Stu­dio. Book tick­ets at col​lec​tive​act​ingstu​dio​.co​.uk and fol­low the fes­ti­val on Insta­gram.