Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2012

With the Cannes tan dismally fading and the London rain in constant pelt, we reckon you’ll agree that it’s about time something happened worthy of some cheer. With that said you’ll be glad to know that the annual Rushes Soho Shorts Festival opens tomorrow, kicking off 10 days of insightful events and entertaining screenings.

Promising something for everyone, with days split up into different categories and favourite must-attends like the New Filmmakers Market at BAFTA, the festival – now in its 14^th year – will also hold its awards ceremony on the final night, honouring the best from established and aspiring directors alike. Festival Director, Joe Bateman, is as excited as ever about what lies ahead and here we probe him about this year’s line-up and what the Festival means for him personally.

So the festival begins again tomorrow. How does it feel to be on the brink of another one?

They come around very quickly! It’s a great feeling. The very best part of the year is receiving the entries and planning - anything and everything is possible between January and April. The real downer hits us when we have to make our minds up and decide what we’re actually going to do and select the shortlisted filmmakers. Reality is never a pleasant thing to have to face. But right now we’ve a huge number of excited filmmakers and supporters clambering for things to kick off. Now comes the fun…

What’s the calibre and mix of submissions been like this year?

We consistently get brilliant work. Sure, of course I’d say that, but it’s true. The noticeable differences are production levels are definitely on the up. Filmmakers are getting really good at using the tools available to them.

Tell us about this year’s programme and why should people get involved in the events?

199 new films from 22 countries will be competing across live action, animation and factual categories, with the official category screenings taking place every evening throughout the Festival at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). 70 events and screenings through the 10 days across Rushes, The Hospital Club, De Lane Lea, MPC, BAFTA, Apple Store, Tattershal Castle, Curzon Soho and Cafe De Paris.

Each day has a theme: Live Action (Thurs 12/ Sat 14/ Sun 15), Music Videos/Pushing Boundaries (Fri 13), Documentary (Mon 16), Animation (Tues 17) and Advertising (Weds 18).

If you like the film, media, advertising, documentary, music or animation worlds, there’s something here for you. The best thing about joining is you’ll make new contacts and be inspired by new ideas.

Is it hard to split your time as a team and do you all have personal preferences on what you’d like to attend yourselves?

A few of us will try and be at everything. It’s practically impossible but we’ll try. We definitely all have our favourites and there’s a divide between the CG/animation and the live action gangs but there’s a huge grey area in the middle – getting bigger each year!

Tell us a bit about tomorrow’s opening screening…

On April 2 2011, LCD Soundsystem played its final show at Madison Square Garden. LCD frontman James Murphy had made the conscious decision to disband one of the most celebrated and influential bands of its generation at the peak of its popularity, ensuring that the band would go out on top with the biggest and most ambitious concert of its career.

The instantly sold out extravaganza did just that, moving the thousands in attendance to tears of joy and grief, with New York Magazine calling the event “a marvel of pure craft” and TIME Magazine lamenting “we may never dance again”. Shut Up and Play the Hits is both a narrative film documenting this once-in-a-lifetime performance and an intimate portrait of James Murphy as he navigates the lead-up to the show, the day after, and the personal and professional ramifications of his decision. The film is directed by Pulse Films’ Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern. It’s great.

You’ve hooked up with BAFTA again; would you say that Sunday is an essential part of the programme for people attend?

Absolutely indispensable, you’ll meet a very broad and interesting range of people from across all sectors of our industry. It’s a destination day and we make it as accessible for everyone. Presented with Shooting People, London Film Academy, London Film School, National Film and Television School, YouTube, Creative Skillset, Advance Films, Sara Putt Associates, Film London, Aesthetica, Crossroads Films, FujiFilm, the BBC Writers Room, Women in Film and Television, Channel 4, The Smalls and shots.

£5 per session also gives you access to screenings, a trade fair and Networking Drinks.

Considering that anyone can be a filmmaker these days (with platforms and tools such as iPhones, Vimeo etc.), what does that mean for the future of short films in your opinion and will it benefit or damage the medium?

If the calibre of work entered each year is anything to go by, the explosion of equipment used to record material and the ever increasing range of software available to tweak that material is challenging people to be better than ever.

It’s making the shortlisting process increasingly hard especially with live action work where production values are definitely increasing alongside the filmmaker’s ability to drive the narrative through their work. The obvious reason for this could be that people are able to practice more cheaply using digital workflows.

But there’s also the rise of brand-related short film competitions, compelling filmmakers to make content within shorter time frames which possibly makes them think about who the audience is for the work and also means they create sharper, more succinct edits of that work to fit the remit of those competitions. The knock-on effects being that a filmmaker has a better sense of what they create in general. Another environmental consideration could be the dearth in funding over the last few years has increased the competitiveness between filmmakers, sharpening their senses.  I’m rambling now.

What’s been your personal favourite/most memorable memory of a Rushes Festival?

I’m not sure it’s possible to find a single memory that’s better than another. There’s an overriding sense of completion and loss at the end of each one. In the early years before YouTube etc. there was a complete frenzy of activity in and around the bars and cafes in Soho, filmmakers running from one screening to another, not such a huge events programme but many, many screenings.  Granted we’ve grown up, we really appreciate being able to show the work at the ICA each night and it’s far nicer seeing the work on a big screen but some elements of our early days our missing. That’s one of the projects for next year.

And what are you most looking forward to about this year’s events?

Hanging out with our ‘festival family’; it always takes a few days for our regular attendees, filmmakers, partners and festival team to get to know each other but as soon as they do we have our family. It happens every year and we have a lot of fun.

And is the awards ceremony in the same place again this year?

The ceremony is at Curzon Soho, it’s been our home for the Rushes Awards for many years and long may it continue – they’re a fantastic partner. The Closing Night bash is at Cafe de Paris. We’re completely overexcited to be returning there after four years.