MINT Chinese Film Festival, 3-5 Feb 2023 – in Keswick, Lake District, UK
We’re delighted to advertise the MINT Chinese Film Festival taking place in the beautiful English Lake District from 3-5 February this year, at the century-old Keswick Alhambra Cinema, (run by a Leeds/Edinburgh Chinese graduate).
Chinese curator Yixiang Shirley Lin and cinema owner Carol Rennie hope the Festival will become an annual event, held around Chinese New Year every year.
The inaugural Festival’s amazing weekend programme presents a selection of new and canonical films curated around the focus of women’s representation and cross-cultural communication in and with China. It opens on the Friday night with drinks, canapes and a classic silent archive film (Pan Si Dong, Cave of the Silken Web), with live musical accompaniment from Scottish harpist Aurora Engine. The weekend boasts 8 feature films (several of which are UK premieres), 1 documentary, 10-15 short films, in-person panel discussions, and recorded messages and Q&As with film directors. 300 filmmakers have submitted entries for the short film strand – up to 15 short films will be screened, and an Audience Award will be presented to one of these.
Early Bird Festival passes are on sale now (£55, £45 for students until 10 January, going up to £70/£50 after that date) – we will be providing links on the festival website to recommended and discounted accommodation. The nearest train station, Penrith, is well connected to the national network (3 hours from London Euston, 2 from Leeds and Edinburgh), with local buses from there to Keswick (and possibly transport arranged by us from the station for larger groups).
The full festival pass gives you access to:
- All feature films ✔️
- 10+ short films programmed in two strands ✔️
- Audience’s Choice Award Competition screening and voting
- Exclusive film workshop and themed discussion panels ✔️
- Every Director’s Q&A: interactions with participated filmmakers ✔️
- The ticket to the opening ceremony with reception ✔️
- Sidebar events and activities( both indoor & outdoor are planned) ✔️
- A designed festival full pass souvenir stub ✔️
We look forward to seeing you there for a wonderful weekend of stimulating viewing, conversation and networking!
Booking will open for individual films and events in mid January (tickets can be purchased individually – but we’ll email Passholders as soon as the events are listed, so you can make free reservations using your Festival Pass login to guarantee yourself a place – the main auditorium where feature films will be screened seats 157, but small Screen 2 where most of the short films and some discussions will take place only seats 28, so booking will be essential).
Yi-xiang Shirley Lin, MINT Chinese Film Festival co-founder and curator
Carol Rennie, MINT Chinese Film Festival co-founder and cinema operator
Please email mintchinesefilmfest@gmail.com with any questions