A SMALL film festival which was held for the first time last autumn is to expand this year after swiftly gaining a glowing reputation.
The Walthamstow International Film Festival was launched at the 2010 E17 Art Trail and attracted widespread praise and more than 900 visitors to its short movie screenings at a shop in Walthamstow Village.
Following on from its success, this time around organisers have enlisted the help of a series of well-known faces for its judging panel, including Withnail and I actor Paul McGann, former MP and baroness Oona King, Walthamstow director Barry Bliss and film critic David Jenkins.
An additional extra venue is being sought to cope with an expanded programme of events and sponsors including entertainment magazine Time Out and the British Film Institute have already agreed to help with the costs.
Organiser and co-founder Liza Fletcher said: “We're really pleased about how it's all going so far and we've already had lots of films coming in from all around the world.
“This is not a festival aimed at huge directors – it’s about allowing talented people an opportunity to have their films shown.
"We’re getting entries from around the world but it's been great we've received many from Walthamstow already.”
As organisers whittle down a shortlist of entries, they are also in the process of making a short promotional film for the festival and are appealing for budding moving makers to help.
Festival Director Paul Fletcher said: “We want the residents of Walthamstow to send us local examples of the words in the title plus shots of landmarks, or people unique to the area”.
He added: “Instead of the usual suspects like the dog track or town hall we want unusual and innovative shots of recognisable E17 landmarks from the Walthamstow area.”
Residents who want to participate are being urged to email short clips and images using the words 'Walthamstow', 'International', 'Film', 'Festival' and '2011' which can be used in the montage.
Clips and images can be sent to e17films@gmail.com by Wednesday May 18.
To enter a film in the festival, which can only be a maximum of three minutes long, and for more information visit the www.e17films.com. The deadline for applying is Sunday July 31.
This year’s festival will take place between September 2 and 11.
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