In July, Max Harding, film programmer for Flatpack Festival, visited the New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, with the support of our bursaries available to Film Hub Members to help them learn from and be a part of the wider community of film programmers.
In a new blog post, Max reflects on their experience of the festival, exploring how it made them think bigger and expand their vision for the team at Flatpack Festival and what films they can bring into next year's programming.
"I know Flatpack is a very different sort of festival to New Horizons, but going to the festival has really made me think about how we could be thinking bigger, especially concerning sponsors. "
Blog written by Max Harding
The first thing you notice when arriving at Kino Nowe Horyzonty (the hub and main venue for New Horizons festival) is the size of the place. Housing over 2000 seats across 9 screens, it’s completely different from anything here in the West Midlands. This size and scope continues across the festival - from banners across the city, deals in restaurants, shops and bars for ticket holders, and an enormous range of sponsors, including banks, cars, and magazines. I know Flatpack is a very different sort of festival to New Horizons, but going to the festival has really made me think about how we could be thinking bigger, especially concerning sponsors.
The cinema itself also made me realise that I’ve really missed having a festival hub! Having a place where any questions about the festival can be answered, you can count on things going on, and also just hang around in between events, is something I miss about Flatpack, and something I’ll be pushing for again soon.
Then, of course, there’s the films! New Horizons tends to get a lot of the films that have recently premiered at Cannes, and so I saw lots of incredible films. Primarily features, of which programming has recently become a role of mine at Flatpack. Seeing these films has already given me an idea of some films I am looking forward to (hopefully) showing at the next Flatpack. In particular, the film Sirāt - a Spanish/French production set in Morocco, which has some of the best sound design I’ve ever heard, and as Flatpack has always had a particular interest in sound, I think it could be a great fit.
There were, of course, also some fantastic shorts. Shorts don’t make up much of the New Horizons programme, so it was easy to see them all, and they were (largely) great. There were two programmes of Polish shorts and one programme of Austrian shorts. While not absent, Polish shorts don’t tend to make up much of the Flatpack programme, and so getting a chance to see more than I normally would was great. Austrian films, however, do tend to show up a lot in the Flatpack programme, and this Austrian programme at New Horizons proved why: there’s a lot of experimental, musical and very “Flatpack” films coming out of Austria, and I saw some excellent ones that I am very excited to show at next year’s festival.
And finally, there was an enormous Karaoke night at the Arsenal - a venue close to the cinema that hosted afterparties/club nights after the films finished every night. As something that almost the entire Flatpack team loves, I can’t believe karaoke isn’t something we do every festival!
Inspired to attend a film festival? You can find all you need to know about applying for a bursary to attend vital events for industry progression here.