Town goes to the movies for a five-day festival (From Witney Gazette)

Town goes to the movies for a five-day festival

3:00pm Friday 12th October 2012 in News By Tom Jennings, covering Witney and West Oxfordshire. Call me on 01865 425403

VENUES across Witney will be converted into makeshift cinemas when the annual film festival comes to town.

The event takes place over five days, between October 22 and 26, and will feature dozens of shorts by professional and amateur filmmakers.

Venues including Abingdon and Witney College, Fat Lil’s, The Blue Boar and Langdale Hall will be converted into cinemas for the screenings.

The highlight for many will be a screening of Tortoise in Love, which was filmed in Kingston Bagpuize, on October 24 at The Blue Boar.

The romantic comedy’s director, Guy Browning, will give a talk beforehand.

Organisers have been working on the festival since May and have received more than 200 entries from professional and amateur filmmakers.

Organiser Jenny Learney said: “We are really, really excited. This is going to be the biggest and best so far.

“Last year we expanded to two nights and this year it is five.

“It is nice to have so many different venues because it makes it a lot more like a festival and every evening is really unique.

“There is a really, really good mixture, some really funny films, some which will make you cry and some that will make you wonder what you just watched.”

Events kick off on October 22 at Fat Lil’s, Corn Street, where some of the festival’s more adult content will be screened in a late-night showing.

Abingdon and Witney College, in Welch Way, will screen students’ work on October 23, followed on October 24 with the Blue Boar screening of Tortoise in Love.

St Mary’s Church in Church Green will host an exhibition on October 25 featuring posters from the former Palace Theatre and a documentary about Witney.

It culminates on October 26 with short films at Langdale Hall in Langdale Gate.

Miss Learney already has plans for next year’s event, which she hopes will be even bigger than this year’s.

She said: “We would like to introduce a competitive element to next year’s festival. We get a lot of questions about whether we have got a competition. I think film makers will be more interested when we introduce an award.”

• For more information about the festival, visit witneyfilm.com