This morning the BFI announced that the 56th London Film Festival will be of a shorter duration that usual but will encompass more of the capital’s cinemas.
The festival will run from the 10th to the 21st of October and the reduction of days in the festival (2011’s festival ran from the 12th to the 27th, 2010’s from the 13th to the 28th) is part of Festival Director Clare Stewart’s new strategy designed to ‘give a wider audience more opportunities to take part in the Festival.’
The new venues taking part in the 2012 festival are:
• The Hackney Picturehouse
• The Renoir in Bloomsbury
• Screen on the Green in Islington
• Rich Mix in Shoreditch
All good choices and the focus on more evening and weekend screenings is a fine one as it will ensure there’s more opportunity for the public to take in the festival’s cinematic bounty. There is a concern that with a widening of venue choice on a shorter timescale that some of the smaller films and festival programmes may be overlooked. It’s a shame in casting a wider net there wasn’t the option to maintain the length of the festival. Hopefully the focus on venues will allow the public to further engage with the festival while not diluting the usual rich flow of new visions and voices.
