Movie festival gives platform to new filmmakers

Hendrik Harms said the festival had grown "huger and huger"

"Diamonds in the rough" are emerging at a movie festival that is supporting filmmakers setting out on their careers, one of its directors has said.

The Worcester Film Festival is under way, with its fifth outing hosting 120 screenings across seven venues.

Festival co-director Hendrik Harms said the festival had gone from strength to strength since it first started in the historic Henry Sanden Hall, but it now uses the two largest screens in the Odeon.

Seventy five people came in the first year, and last year the event had 1,600, he said.

This year's programme includes screenings, question and answer sessions with filmmakers and free workshops covering learning how to pitch, learning how to cast, and explaining the filmmaking process to actors.

'We showcase everything'

Mr Harms said: "We're really chuffed with the level that we see of the filmmakers' projects that come through, but it is also great because we do see some ones that are more like diamonds in the rough where people are just starting out on their careers."

"We get to showcase everything from the very smallest of budgets to much larger budgeted productions."

He said he set up the film festival in Worcester because he was from the city and and also had a production company there.

"I wanted to stay and create in this area," he said.

He said the original aim of the festival was to try and coax the film industry to visit and see work in the city, where not a lot of filming happened.

"I thought if we could bring more of that noise and a bit more of that industry here, that it would start growing," he said.

"What I didn't anticipate was it would be so well-received, that the festival's just got huger and huger every single year."