Film festival embraces its move online

THIS year’s North Bellarine Film Festival (NBFF) will be without the usual red carpet and wine, but there is still plenty on offer as it moves online.

The event, which is normally hosted at the Potato Shed in Drysdale, will go digital from November 13-15.

NBFF boasts 69 films, including 16 Australian premieres and two world premieres along with the emerging filmmaker award.

The festival will go live at 7.30pm with the NBFF kicking off with the Australian premiere of Turkish feature-length film, Toprak.

Pearl Wilson, part of the NBFF team, said she would miss the glitz and glamour of the event but given the circumstances of this year the festival is aiming to offer patrons more content than ever.

“This year the festival is bigger,” Ms Wilson said.

“We’ve had a lot in the past… but we thought we’d put more films on to make up for what’s missing in a way.”

Ms Wilson said the films covered many themes, highlighting international, experimental, pride as well as documentaries.

Above all, she was rapt to still be able to support local filmmakers.

“There’s a lot of really interesting films. This festival tries to support local filmmakers… some people call us the film festival with a heart.

“We just hope we get an audience that appreciates it and hopefully we’ll be back in the theatre next year.”

There will be an in-depth question and answer session available online regarding Toprak while the two films making their world premiere have been created by Geelong filmmakers.

David King is the man behind ‘Imaginarium of the Unknown Traveller’. King is an experimental filmmaker and won the 2016 Best Director Award for his film ‘Exit’ at the Hell Chess Film Festival in Madrid, Spain.

While ‘Recollection’ has been created by Jesse Leaman and Taylor Adams who have previously produced the short film ‘Lorne’, starring Guy Pearce, which was widely screened across international festivals.

Anyone wishing to purchase tickets to the festival, which will be hosted on video platform Vimeo, can do so on the website northbellarinefilmfestival.org as of November.