Romford Film Festival: Championing Independent Cinema
It's time for the Romford Film Festival! Running from May 24th to 28th, the festival celebrates its seventh year with an exciting lineup of independent feature films, shorts, documentaries, and premieres. Screenings will take place daily from 11:00 AM to 11:30 PM on two screens, with two additional screens starting at 9:30 PM.
This year's festival includes over 30 world premieres and 40 UK premieres, with films from around the globe. Attendees can look forward to Q&A sessions with cast and crew, hosted by Ayvianna Snow, Peter Blunden, Philip Rogers, and Spencer Hawken. The festival also features the Eurasian Creative Guild Film Festival, showcasing films from Central Asia and the wider diaspora.
Additional activities include a photo shoot with Hannah Davis, legal talks by Sylvia J. Schmidt, live podcasts hosted by Martin Colton, and sessions on filmmaking and success on the festival circuit. The Projectionist Bar, open from 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM, will serve film-themed cocktails, and VR sessions will be available each afternoon.
Tickets start at £3.99 per session, with day passes available. For more information and the full line-up, visit www.romfordfilmfestival.com.
Here' a rundown of films 60 mins of longer that will be screening at this year's festival:
Romford Film Festival: Day One Schedule
Friday, 24th May 2024
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Screen 7
OCCUPANTS A film about Annie Curtis, an award-winning documentarian, and her husband Neil. While documenting their new eating habits, they discover a parallel version of themselves that threatens their existence. 80 mins | Science Fiction | Directed by Russ Emanuel | United States
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Screen 7
THE GARDENER A whimsical immigrant forges a deep-rooted bond with nature when life gives him a bitter one. 1 hour 15 mins | Documentary | Directed by Derek Shimoda | United States
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Screen 8
THERE AND BACK Eleven-year-old Mitya strikes up a friendship with the rebellious Marina in the hospital. The children run away in search of Crooked Cape, the place where wishes come true. 100 mins | Drama | Directed by Oleg Asadulin | Russian Federation
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM | Screen 7
MURDER BALLADS: HOW TO MAKE IT IN ROCK 'N' ROLL Rock band Stack of Corpses needs a hit song. Band members hatch plans involving stealing a dead rock star’s song and turning to a Russian gangster for help. Through 6 chapters, interspersed with advice from rock legend Richard O’Keefe, the band goes from nobodies to superstars. 97 mins | Comedy/Horror | Directed by Mitchell Tolliday | United Kingdom
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 1
THE MOVE In the midst of a chaotic house move, Roy's younger girlfriend gives him one hour to leave his dysfunctional family. What starts as a simple task spirals out of control as Roy discovers there's no such thing as a 'clean break.' 72 mins | Comedy | Directed by Will Haynes and Dan Hobson | United Kingdom
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 2
ENGLISH ROSE Follows Adam and Butterfly, a newly acquainted couple, as they embark on 24 hours of chaos in search of new beginnings. A violent thrill ride about love and desperation. 61 mins | Crime | Directed by Alexander Bather | United Kingdom
Romford Film Festival: Day Two Schedule
Saturday, 25th May 2024
1:10 PM - 3:10 PM | Screen 7
UNSPEAKABLE: BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP Renowned oneirologist, Ambrose London, is requested to Arkham Asylum to study the strange case of split personality in patient James Fhelleps/Joe Slater. 90 mins | Horror | Directed by Chad Ferrin | United States
3:10 PM - 5:00 PM | Screen 7
KILL YOUR LOVER Axel and Dakota are stuck in a toxic relationship, slowly poisoning each other both mentally and physically. When Dakota tries to break it off, it causes a violent physical reaction in Axel that starts transforming him into a monstrous creature. 70 mins | Horror | Directed by Alix Austin and Keir Siewert | United Kingdom
5:00 PM - 7:30 PM | Screen 7
ALL ALONE TOGETHER As a tormented filmmaker reaches new levels of success, the horrors of his film start to creep into his life. 105 mins | Horror | Directed by Maximus Jenkins | United States
6:00 PM - 10:30 PM | Screen 8
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (Longest Ever Cut) A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life. 250 mins | Gangster | Directed by Sergio Leone | Italy/United States
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 7
BURNT FLOWER Set in two time periods; the late 1960s and the early 1990s, the film’s plot sees Detective Francis Alban, played by Amber Doig-Thorne (Blood and Honey, 2022), explore the disturbing underbelly of 1960s London in the search for a serial killer who was never caught. 100 mins | Horror | Directed by Michael Fausti | UK
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 2
CHILDREN OF THE PINES Over her winter break, Riley, a college junior, is persuaded by her estranged parents to visit. Unbeknownst to her, they've developed an unsettling friendship with her high school ex while seeking supernatural healing for their family's deep-rooted issues. 92 mins | Horror | Directed by Joshua Morgan | United States
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 1
DAN HAWK PSYCHIC DETECTIVE Ex-detective turned writer Dan Hawk returns to his hometown to discover that someone has taken on the guise of his most famous book creation and is killing people off one by one! 70 mins | Black Comedy | Directed by Steve Thomas | United Kingdom
Romford Film Festival: Day Three Schedule
Sunday, 26th May 2024
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Screen 7
ALFONS JITTERBIT – CLASS TRIP CHAOS! In a last-minute dash across town, Alfons just barely manages to catch the bus for his class trip to the Baltic Sea. With adventures, funny pranks, and a disaster involving his mother's clothes, Alfons' trip becomes unforgettable. 90 mins | Family | Directed by Mark Schlichter | Germany
11:00 AM - 1:10 PM | Screen 8
DIARY OF AN ELEPHANT ORPHAN A documentary about the rise in orphaned elephant calves in Southern Africa due to poaching and habitat destruction. The film showcases an orphanage providing these elephants with a family structure essential for their well-being. 105 mins | Documentary | Directed by Hermien Roelvert-Van Gils | South Africa
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Screen 7
10 SWORDS & THE MOON When Kal meets Molly, it feels like love at first sight until he suspects it's grief that binds them. As he gets involved in artist Sukhminder Kaur’s dark tarot-themed exhibition, Kal unravels, believing his life is scripted. 100 mins | Romance | Directed by Fenella Greenfield | United Kingdom
1:10 PM - 3:00 PM | Screen 8
VILLAINS INC. After the death of their villainous boss, low-level henchpeople Beatrix, Cain, and Harold struggle to make ends meet. Determined to strike out on their own, they plot to take over the world by any means necessary. 101 mins | Comedy/Action/Sci-fi | Directed by Jeremy Warner | United States
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Screen 7
ROSWELL DELIRIUM In the 1980s, after a wave of nuclear attacks, survivors pretend everything is normal despite radiation poisoning. Young Mayday tries to contact her astronaut father but instead receives an intergalactic distress call, leading her on a perilous journey. 110 mins | Science Fiction | Directed by Richard Bakewell | United States
3:20 PM - 5:00 PM | Screen 8
OLD RIGHTEOUS BLUES A young man confronts his limitations and ghosts of the past to lead his town's Christmas Choir Band to glory, paying the price for his father's choices 20 years ago that fractured the community. 100 mins | Drama | Directed by Muneera Sallies | South Africa
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM | Screen 7
KIM'S VIDEO A documentary following filmmaker David Redmon's quest to track down the legendary collection of rare and esoteric films from Kim's Video, which was moved to a small Italian village and then seemingly disappeared. 84 mins | Documentary | Directed by Ashley Sabin, David Redmon | United States
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Screen 8
STRAIGHT THROUGH CREW On Christmas Eve, a group of friends prepares to attend a village rave, but dynamics are challenged when substances and feelings collide. 80 mins | Drama | Directed by David Campion | United Kingdom
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 7
SLEEPING CLOSE A woman experiences stages of her own evolution through the changing features of fourteen female protagonists, symbolically dying and resurrecting. 110 mins | Drama | Directed by Giulio Pereno | Italy
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 8
REMNANT After a tragic accident and an experimental technology heals her body, a young woman becomes supernaturally linked to the horrors of her past. Haunted and hunted, she must uncover the truth to be free. 112 mins | Horror | Directed by Mike Horan | Australia
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 2
REMI MILLIGAN: LOST DIRECTOR A docufiction exploring the life and films of Remi Milligan, a little-known amateur filmmaker of trashy b-movies who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2006. 71 mins | Mockumentary | Directed by Samuel Lodato | United Kingdom
Romford Film Festival: Day Four Schedule
Monday, 27th May 2024
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Screen 8
RAY OF HOPE The 26-year armed conflict in Sri Lanka compelled numerous Eelam Tamils to seek refuge in foreign nations, notably in Canada. Rathika Sitsabaiesan, a former Canadian Member of Parliament, revisits her traumatic memories and advocates for justice for the Tamil community. 90 mins | Documentary | Directed by Ryan Singh, Nikila Cole | Canada
1:15 PM - 3:15 PM | Screen 7
THE FOUNDER EFFECT A perfect family getaway is upended when a policeman’s grandson disappears. Jack Rooney, who has already lost a son, sets out to rescue the boy, confronting family history and mysterious phenomena along the way. 111 mins | Sci-Fi/Mystery | Directed by Justin MacGregor | Canada
3:15 PM - 5:00 PM | Screen 7
WAR BLADE Banks, an agent of the British SOE, is tasked with rescuing a French resistance fighter from a hidden Nazi bunker. With a group of allies, he must use guile to outwit the enemy and survive the mission. 95 mins | War | Directed by Nicholas Winter | United Kingdom
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Screen 8
DEATHPIT Retired pro-wrestler turned MMA veteran Jack "Horsepower" Silver is kidnapped and forced to fight in an underground tournament against the world's deadliest criminals. 90 mins | Action | Directed by Greg Burridge | United Kingdom
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Screen 7
MELODRIVE After separating from his wife due to an emotional affair, a homeward-bound musician goes on a road trip. When he bumps into his high school sweetheart, his feelings become even more off-balance. 90 mins | Drama | Directed by Oscar Wenman-Hyde | United Kingdom
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Screen 8
FYRE RISES A debt-ridden former killer must return to his mercenary ways to eliminate his international competition in exchange for a clean slate. 111 mins | Thriller/Action | Directed by Paul Knight | United Kingdom
9:00 PM - 11:00 PM | Screen 7
LAYERS OF LIES Returning to Iran after years in exile, Sam finds that he has not escaped his past. His wife is kidnapped, dragging him into a violent scheme for revenge. 90 mins | Action | Directed by Ramin Sohrab | Finland
9:30 PM - 11:00 PM | Screen 8
BIG SMOOTH From basketball star to world record actor, Big Smooth is a documentary telling the life story of Neil Fingleton. 81 mins | Documentary | Directed by Paul Stainthorpe | United Kingdom
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 1
FOLIE À FAMILLE The Lacámaras come together for a family lunch and discover once again that they deserve nothing more than to be bound to each other forever. 91 mins | Drama | Directed by Alex Sereno | Spain
Romford Film Festival: Day Five Schedule
Tuesday, 28th May 2024
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Screen 7
THIRD EYE A wandering photographer in the streets of New York unexpectedly forms a connection with a Love Doll around a photographic project tracing the life of a couple made of both flesh and silicone. 116 mins | Drama | Directed by Becquet Genel Tatiana | France
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM | Screen 8
HANS CROSSES THE RUBICON Hans, a 90-year-old man, faces the draconian management of an old-age home and becomes a rebel to lead an anti-ageism revolution. 100 mins | Comedy | Directed by Corne Van Rooyan | South Africa
9:30 PM - 11:30 PM | Screen 1
INDELIBLE MEMORIES A street musician and a stage actor meet and fall in love, but their relationship faces challenges when one of them starts acting strangely and eventually disappears. 98 mins | Drama | Directed by Shin Sonoda | Japan
