FilmBath Festival 2020

In a year of lockdowns and “stay at home” directives, having a film festival in real life felt almost miraculous.

Here’s what YOU had to say about our 2020 festival in Green Park Station:

Creative director Philip Raby writes:

There are always silver linings, even in the most unpromising circumstances. The original plan was to stage the screenings at Green park Station at the same time as AMPLIFY! Was running. The change in national rules made that impossible, so the dates for GPSS were moved from November to December. Which made life a lot easier.

When the suggestion for screening films at Green Park was first made, there were a lot of doubts expressed, and with good reason.

How much was it going to cost to provide sufficiently good equipment for the experience to be attractive? And who would provide it? Could we socially distance the audience? Would people come at that time of year? And would we be able to screen films that people wanted to see?

The answer to last question was made a lot easier when the wonderful Tara (at Fox/Disney) allowed us to screen Chloe Zhao’s stupendous award-winning Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand. This film, which will by rights be a major Oscar contender, was screened twice on the opening night, and sold out on both occasions. At the other end of the 5 day event, we showed Supernova with Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as a gay couple facing an unbearable challenge. This was also hugely popular.

In between we screened a number of excellent films, which managed to forefront the issue of being a young woman growing in a world where being young and female is not easy; and in the case of Miss Juneteenth, being Black as well. In short, the programme was an outstanding success, and we are hugely grateful to all the distributors who enabled us to show their films.

This terrific programme did indeed attract a very good audience, who came prepared to put up with wintry weather, and stayed to enjoy themselves unreservedly. The feedback, both at the time and subsequently could be abbreviated in the following phrase: “Can you do you it again?” Almost accidentally, we have stumbled across the perfect recipe for outdoor cinema – big screen, top projection, radio headphones and a roof in case of rain. Plus food and drink right behind you. All we need to do is move it earlier in the year so that audiences don’t have to wear three sweaters and long johns.

So, we also offer a big thanks to Tony Jones and his team, who – along with FilmBath’s in house geniuses, Alastair and Chris – made the event snag-free from start to finish. And the team of volunteers who took everything done at night and put it up again the next day are also to be congratulated.

This event was as close to a cinema experience as the audience had had in a year, and the fact of it being outdoors was – apart from the Big Chill – one of the reasons people enjoyed it. It was communal, it was unusual and it worked.

Obviously, a huge amount of work went on before, during and after that was invisible to the audience, and Holly and her team did an amazing job of making it happen, helped by having those extra few weeks after Amplify to concentrate on ensuring its success.

To see photos of the opening nights click here.