Virtual film festival hailed a huge success

The event came to a close on Sunday evening with the main event which saw Ben Price’s film Three Minutes of Silence, about an unlikely friendship forged in a Greater Manchester boxing club, scoop the overall award to add to its victory in the North West event.

Paul Flannery took the animation award for his darkly comic and moving short Bernard, about his uncle’s battle with the demon drink, while the event for young film-makers saw the prize head across the pond to Canadian director Spencer Hetherington for his piece The Day The Embers Burned Cold, a look at the issue of school shootings.

Having seen the event grow in stature in recent years, the organisers were delighted that they did not have to can the festival entirely on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wigan and Leigh Film Festival chair Paul Costello said: “Considering we are in a pandemic I thought we did very well this year.

“There were some cracking films included in the line-up.

“The most important thing for us is keeping connected. Had we cancelled the festival it could have been two years before we connected again with some of our friends who are film-makers.

“It was especially good for our young film-makers.

“They don’t make a lot of films so it was nice to give them a showcase and that encouragement.

“The standard of the films in the young directors’ event was extremely good.”

Mr Costello thanked Cinema For All and the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (Alra) North for their support of this year’s virtual event.

Film enthusiasts were able to buy a ticket which gave them access to the website hosting the three events, with the line-up of short movies for each weekend then being available to watch during a window of around 48 hours.

Mr Costello hopes that next year’s event will be staged in a physical format and take place in the community cinema at Leigh Spinners Mill which will serve as a base for Leigh Film.

It is also hoped that the festival will still be able to team up with acclaimed Wigan artists Al and Al and the project The Fire Within to stage a showcase of animation at The Galleries Shopping Centre.

The Wigan and Leigh Film Festival is also considering staging future online events due to the amount of interest created by the virtual screenings on social media.

Find out more at www.wiganleighfilmfestival.org.uk