Film Festival Programme Features 95 Events

By Alastair HamiltonAugust 26th 2014

Shetland actor Steven Robertson is among the guests at ScreenPlay (Courtesy Shetland Arts)

Shetland Arts" annual film festival, ScreenPlay, is once again curated by Mark Kermode, Linda Ruth Williams, and Kathy Hubbard, and welcomes film fans to 95 events.

In the eight years since it was founded, ScreenPlay has grown in scale and range. These days, it also benefits from being able to use two of Britain's most modern cinemas in Mareel, Shetland's new arts centre. Between 29 August and 7 September, this year's programme includes twenty feature films, eleven Q&A sessions, six documentary screenings, six education screenings, three workshops, two film quizzes, two outreach events, a lecture, and a host of local and short film showings, not to mention parties.

Festival Director Kathy Hubbard says:

“There are hundreds of film festivals every year and we want to establish our own unique place on the "festival landscape". To this end, we have received a significant grant from Regional Screen Scotland to help us develop the festival, and we are, perhaps naturally, looking north. As the UK"s most northerly film festival we will be seeking out partnerships with other festivals that are "most northerly" along the North Atlantic Rim over the next couple of years and celebrating with them the similarities and the differences in our respective screen cultures."

The guest list for this year's festival includes actors Brian Cox and the islands" own Steven Robertson, seen in Shetland, the television adaptation of Ann Cleeves" crime novels. Others appearing include Gruff Rhys, formerly of Super Furry Animals, who will be showing his film, American Interior and talking about it in a Q&A.

Film Festival Programme Features 95 Events

Alastair Hamilton

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