2024 Film Festival Comes to an End

Chichester International Film Festival: Celebrating Success under new Artistic Direction

The conclusion of the 2024 Chichester International Film Festival on Sunday 25 August marked a wonderfully successful celebration of cinema under new Artistic Director, Walter Francisco. Local MP Jess Brown-Fuller (pictured) was present and assured the audience that she would do all in her power to make sure the Arts are seen as a necessity in Chichester.  With a diverse and exciting programme of screenings and events, the Festival attracted record numbers and new audiences from across the area.

Walter comments: “I have been overwhelmed by the feedback so many of our audience members have passed on to me and the team. It is a huge team effort to put on this 15-day Festival of Film. The special events, new venues, film choices, strands and visiting filmmakers were extremely well received, and I hope that my first Festival as Artistic Director has attracted some new people to the wonder of film.”

Despite a shortened Festival, this year’s event still presented almost 100 films over 15 days across six different venues showing the Festival’s commitment to increasing access for everyone. There were 15 UK/English premieres, 10 previews, 4 talks and 10 Q&A screenings with visiting filmmakers and actors including Juliet Stevenson, Rory Kinnear, and acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Tony Palmer.

Over 2,000 people flocked to Priory Park for the Festival’s annual opening weekend of Open Air Screenings; with ‘Barbie’ on the Friday night, ‘The Lego Movie’ and ‘Dirty Dancing’ on the Saturday and on the Sunday, ‘Wonka’ and ‘Stop Making Sense’. The screening of ‘Wonka’ was in partnership with Stonepillow which supports local homeless people.

The Audience Award for Best Feature Film went to ‘Blaga’s Lessons’ (Bul) by Stephan Komandarev, and for the first time the Festival presented the Gibson Award. An Award judged by Roger Gibson (Founder of the Festival and Chichester Cinema) and Walter Francisco (Festival Director) which is given to the film which best embodies the qualities that Chichester Cinema and the Chichester International Film Festival have championed in film since 1979. The inaugural Gibson Award went to ‘About Dry Grasses’ (Turkey) by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
Full Awards results below.

Now a staple of the Film Festival, some memorable live events included a captivating jazz performance by the three-piece ensemble, HarmonieBand which played their own score to Anthony Asquith’s stylish and atmospheric silent 1920s romantic drama ‘Underground’ at St John’s Chapel; the combination of live music and cinema was also seen during Buster Plays Buster at The Spring in Havant where drummer Buster Birch’s jazz quartet performed a wonderful score to the very funny ‘Sherlock Jr’ starring Buster Keaton which celebrates its 100^th anniversary this year; The Chichester City Band honoured ‘100 years of Film Music’ at St Paul’s Church, with a specially curated film montage; Havana Bar played host to a special Prince-themed evening, with a packed screening of ‘Purple Rain’ followed by a club night; while the tapas bar El Matador vibrated to the sound of castanets with its tapas banquet and Flamenco evening following the screening of ‘A Chef for Dali’. In a joint venture with the Chichester Cabaret Club, the Festival presented a new Canadian film about a Drag artist called ‘Solo’ followed by a live performance from the club’s Mistress of Ceremonies, Dawn Gracie and entertainment from The Madame. 

The Film Festival is run by Chichester Cinema, the independent cinema based at New Park which is also a registered charity.  With its small staff and team of volunteers, the annual event presented documentaries, a shorts programme, retrospectives and talks, and this year, a programme boasting films from 25 countries. Executive Director, Anne-Marie Flynn commented: “With titles from all over the world, we pride ourselves on showing films which are not available anywhere else, films which show the world through the eyes of different countries and cultures and this has also enabled us to work with other charities like My Sister’s House and Sanctuary to provide access to these films for people from a diverse range of backgrounds”.