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York student films premiere at Aesthetica Short Film Festival

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Posted on Wednesday 2 November 2016

Surreal drama, sci-fi, and horror movies are some of the genres on show at a special event celebrating the work of University of York students as part of the city-wide Aesthetica Short Film Festival.

The Babysitter by Hope Kemp

The BAFTA qualifying festival will take place in 15 venues across York, showcasing 400 films as part of its Official Selection 2016. The festival also includes Q&A sessions with film industry experts and networking events offering advice and support to emerging practitioners.

As well as providing a platform for established filmmakers, the four-day festival aims to profile fresh projects from the UK’s leading universities to give audiences the opportunity to view some of the best works being produced by emerging movie creatives.

New talent

Eight films from York Film and Television students will be unveiled at the Showcase Screen event on Saturday, 5 November, where students will get the opportunity to reach audiences with stories across multiple genres, including period drama, sci-fi, documentary, horror, thriller, and tragedy.

Ed Braman, Head of Film and Television at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television, said: “Film festivals are a really important way of identifying new talent and allowing established and emerging filmmakers to share the spotlight and learn more from each other.  We have eight projects in this year’s festival and we are very excited by the creative talent on show.” 

Short films, such as The Babysitter, directed by undergraduate student Hope Kemp, takes an alternative view on the traditional horror film roles of ‘villain’ and ‘victim,’ whilst student documentary filmmaker, Joseph  Driscoll, takes on the controversial topic of the HS2 train line and its impacts on local communities in the film Better Days.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFlGuBNZwWw&feature=youtu.be

Other films include Catharsis, a story about a theatre hijacking; A Match Made in Heaven, a documentary exploring how much domestic animals means to us; Journey Home, about a spaceman returning to earth; Sympathy for the Devil, a documentary about the cult following of horror films; Love Bite, a story about an undercover filming operation; and Someday Soon, a short film about loss in 1950s rural Britain.

The event will take place between 12.30 and 2.30pm on Saturday, 5 November at City Screen, York. Tickets are £5 (concession £4) for a single entry and can be booked here: http://www.asff.co.uk/tickets/

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