Films

BIFF 2008: Miss it, miss out!

For the Festival's artistic director, Tony Earnshaw, this sixteen day celebration of films is one of the highpoints of the year - and it's only February! Naturally, he's "really pleased" that both Palin and Branagh have accepted invitations to come to Bradford, Palin to receive a BIFF Lifetime Achievement Award and Branagh to receive a BIFF Fellowship Award. Tony seems particularly proud that the former Monty Python star is heading back to his native north: "Palin's always been pigeonholed as either 'the Monty Python guy' or 'the guy who does the travel programmes'. People tend to forget that he's actually a very, very fine comic actor and he hasn't had that big an opportunity to showcase his talents...For the last 20 years Palin's been kind of subsumed by telly, which is great - he loves doing it and it's great for people who like him doing it - but for those of us who think he's a far better actor than people imagine, it's a bit of a loss."

Hosting a head-to-head interview with Palin, Tony will also get to ask the really pertinent questions - a task he's looking forward to: "There are two questions that have to be asked. One: will you ever do anything with the Pythons again? And two: will you ever make more movies? I'm sure that the answer to the latter is 'yeah' - if the right project comes along and he's got time, if he's intrigued and excited by it then he would. The Python question, well, I think we all know the answer to that one but you've got to ask it!"

Tony Earnshaw launching BIFF '08

From the big names to the obscure, Bradford International Film Festival 2008's programme clearly seems to offer a bit of everything, not least when it comes to showcasing a selection of films which you won't have seen anywhere before - guaranteed! The strand is called Uncharted States of America and it's one for all fans of low (or no) budget movies from across the pond. Programmed by BIFF's international consultant Neil Young, Tony Earnshaw says: "Neil's argument is that Indie cinema in America still isn't getting a fair crack at the whip. There are Indie films - pukka Indie films - and there are the 'Indie' films put out by the studios which aren't Indie films at all. Neil wanted to focus on the genuine, low-budget guerilla film makers out there whose films play the festival circuit around the world and pick up a modicum of interest and success and off the back of that they can make their next low budget film with a few hundred thousand dollars more." The reason for showcasing these films, says Tony, is that they're doing what mainstream cinema is failing to do: "They want to make movies about people and about things that matter. They're not interested in car chases, sex scenes and explosions."

BIFF premiere: In Bruges

And if the audiences at this year's Bradford International Film Festival are inspired by what they see up there on the silver screen then, says Tony Earnshaw, so much the better: "It's a kind of carrot-and-stick situation...If you can spark something in somebody's head and they say, 'This guy's got two cameras, a cast of nine, he's directed, produced, edited, shot, co-acted and written this movie AND done it for ten thousand quid' then it shows it can be done. The movie might be the biggest piece of garbage anyone's ever made but at least they're doing it. The worst thing in the world is for someone to say, 'I always wanted to make movies when I was younger but I never did it." Just do it. Do it and fail. Do it and fail ten times because you'll have made ten more movies than anybody else. You know how it works. Get out there and do it and one of these days you might make something that people pick up on and suddenly the hobby becomes a job, the thing you dreamed of becomes that thing you do. I'd love for that to happen!"

Great Escape: Widescreen @ BIFF 2008

But what's the REAL highpoint of the whole Bradford International Film Festival for Tony Earnshaw? His answer may come as a bit of a surprise: "I have to be honest and say that despite all the art, artistry and artists I really want to watch The Great Escape! [Part of BIFF's Widescreen Weekend] I grew up on it, watching it at Christmas with my folks, but I've never seen it in the cinema. We've got a brand new digital restoration of it and it's going to look as good as new. Many of the people I grew up with have never seen it so I'm going to be calling up a few pals and we can watch Steve McQueen bounce his bike up towards the Swiss border. In terms of movies, that's the one for me!"