By Lakeisha Goedluck
With the Film4 summer screen at Somerset House,
and the Rooftop Cinema Club both in high demand (the latter is already sold-out, *sad face*);
it’s clear us Londoners
enjoy an outdoor cinematic experience. For some film related fun in the sun, The Portobello film festival, a two week annual extravaganza, is set to return to Notting Hill
from the 28th August - 14th September.
So how did West London’s equivalent of the Cannes film festival (ok, not quite) begin? Back
in 1996, way before The Electric cinema appeared on Portobello road in 2001,
the British Film industry was a bit…lacking.
As a result the festival was curated in order to give new and emerging talent a
platform to showcase their amateur productions. With free entry-and it’s still free- the festival had to take
place where an issue like capacity wouldn’t be a problem. Queue Notting Hill’s glorious parks, theatres and clubs. The first screenings were in a
couple of tents on Athlone Gardens, but now venues include the picturesque
Emslie Hornimans park and even the nightclub Sub Terrania. Starting off with
around 1,000 visitors, up to 15,000 have been in attendance in recent years.
As well as lesser known films, the festival
screens movies from world renowned directors: including Guy Ritchie’s ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ in 1999, and Lars Von Triers ‘The Kingdom’ in 2001. If you fancy yourself as bit of a film director, the
festival is welcoming submissions until June 14th 2014. Just fill out an
application form on their website http://www.portobellofilmfestival.com/entryform.html
and you could be in with a chance of winning a Golden Trellick award!
