London Short Film Festival gears up

The full programme of the London Short Film Festival – which runs 6th-15th January 2017 – showcases the cross-arts programming that the festival has become synonymous with since its inception.

Now in its 14th year the LSFF will feature the best of British talent with around 350 short UK shorts selected from 2000 open submissions. The festival continuesto highlight international talent for a 3rd year, as well as an ongoing dedication to documentary short film.

2017 also sees the launch of With Teeth; a long-term short film commissioning fund, with an aim to become a solid support base for the most exciting emerging cinematic voices and auteurs, supported by Arts Council England National Lottery Funding. Grace LaDoja, Alex Taylor and Alnoor Dewshi are the first recipients who will premiere new work, commissioned via the fund, at the festival.

Other highlights will include David Bowie: Sound & Vision, a celebratory screening on the first anniversary of his death, showing short films from across three decades at 18 Picturehouse cinemas across the UK. London based Picturehouse Central will host a Q and A with directors Alan Yentob, Michael Armstrong and Julien Temple.

This year's LSFF comedy strand will see 600 of Glaswegian comedian Limmy's provocative, frenetically contradictory, naïve, insightful and knowingly dumb, six second vines screened, providing a unique and deliriously disturbing insight into the existential terrors of the 21st century where paranoia, mental illness, sexuality, boredom and the internet all come under scrutiny. The post screening Q&A will be hosted by Armando Iannucci, the comedy producer and director known for such shows as The Thick of It and Veep.

Other sections will feature an exploration of the work of late US short story writer Raymond Carver and the ground-breaking nineties LGBT work of London filmmaker Annette Kennerley.

For more information on the festival visit http://shortfilms.org.uk/

19 December 2016, by Laurence Boyce