Leeds Independent Film Festival
| Location | Leeds, UK |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 |
| Awards | Audience Choice |
| Language | International |
| Website | http://www.noglossfilmfestival.co.uk |
The No Gloss Film Festival (also known as the Leeds Independent Film Festival) is a UK public film event held in October at several venues around Leeds, West Yorkshire. The festival (sometimes referred to as NGFF) screens more than 100 shorts, features, documentaries and animations from the UK and other countries. It has a particular focus on Guerrilla filmmaking, a type of micro-budget independent film-making, championing "Do It Yourself" (DIY) unconventional cinema to increase accessibility to independent, rarely screened, self-made films.
The NGFF programme also typically includes film-maker Q&As, film discussion panels and live workshops.
In 2011, after discovering an online community of film bloggers and directors supporting and producing raw, no-budget shorts, Trent Rampage, a cultural blogger and event organizer from the Leeds DIY community proposed the idea of a "no-frills" independent film festival for Leeds. The rationale behind the idea was that even though the city is already home to the more established Leeds International Film Festival, there was no film festival, at least in the North of the UK, which specifically showcases micro-budget films that might not otherwise appear in mainstream cinemas. The film festival's "no frills" policy avoids red carpets, celebrities and luxury venues, and entry to the festival is made more accessible to a wider section of the public by employing the use of a simplified “one wristband” strategy to allow the audience the opportunity to access all films in the festival with just one entry fee.
In 2012, the first No Gloss Film Festival took place in Wharf Chambers, a former Victorian pie factory located in Leeds City Centre. It received over 180 submissions and screened over 70 films to a sold out audience.
In 2013, NGFF founder and Festival Director Trent Rampage was joined by Sophie Marfell as Development Director. Together they developed a broader and more inclusive No Gloss programme that extended to independent films that do not necessarily fall under the “micro budget” category. This allowed multi-award winning independent features and animations to also feature in the programme. The directors also incorporated audience workshops facilitated by film-makers, Q&A sessions where the audience is invited to engage with the film-maker present, and built on retaining a “true festival experience” with the availability of festival street food, music, live art performances and craft beer.
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