Festival of Fantastic Films (UK) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Festival of Fantastic Films is an annual non-profit celebration of cinema fantastique, held annually in central Manchester, England. It was created by Tony Edwards and the late Harry Nadler (both members of the Delta Film Group, an amateur film-making society active in the 1960s and both past organisers of an Eastercon

Eastercon

Eastercon is the common name for the British national science fiction convention. From 1948 until the 1960s, the convention was held over the three-day Whitsun bank holiday at the end of May. Since then it has been held over the four-day Easter holiday weekend...

), together with their fellow enthusiast Gil Lane-Young.

Past guests have included: the producer Tony Tenser

Tony Tenser

Tony Tenser was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He specialised in producing Exploitation film movies and founded his own production company Tigon British Film Productions in 1966, which also made more mainstream films such as Witchfinder General and other horror films...

; the producer/director Roger Corman

Roger Corman

Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...

; directors Robert Fuest

Robert Fuest

Robert Fuest is an English film director, screenwriter, and production designer who has worked mostly in the horror, fantasy and suspense genres....

, Val Guest

Val Guest

Val Guest was a British film director, best known for his science-fiction films for Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s, but who also enjoyed a long, varied and active career in the film industry from the early 1930s up until the early 1980s.-Early life and career:He was born Valmond Maurice...

, Robin Hardy

Robin Hardy

Robin Moore Hardy is the author of more than twenty published books and several unpublished manuscripts. She currently resides in North Texas. Her first novel, Chataine's Guardian, was the runner-up for the Gold Medallion Book Award in 1985....

, Jorge Grau

Jorge Grau

Jorge Grau is a Spanish director, scriptwriter, playwright and painter. In 1974 he directed Let Sleeping Corpses Lie aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue.-External links:...

; actors Andrew Keir

Andrew Keir

Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...

, Robin Askwith

Robin Askwith

Robin Askwith , is an English film actor, most famous for his role as Timmy Lea in the Confessions... sex comedies.-Confessions...:...

, David Warbeck

David Warbeck

David Warbeck was a New Zealand actor best known for his film roles in Europe.-Career and move into Italian cinema:...

, Ken Foree

Ken Foree

Kentotis Alvin "Ken" Foree is an American actor probably most famous as the hero Peter in Dawn of the Dead and Kenan & Kel as Roger, Kenan's dad.- Early life and career :Foree was born in Indianapolis, Indiana...

, David Hess

David Hess

David Alexander Hess was an American actor, singer, and songwriter.-Music career:In 1956, Hess recorded the original version of the Otis Blackwell composition "All Shook Up" under the stage name David Hill...

, Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington

Norman Rossington was an English actor best remembered for his roles in The Army Game, the Carry On films and the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night.-Early life:...

; actresses Caroline Munro

Caroline Munro

Caroline Munro is an English actress and model known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s.-Early career:...

, Barbara Shelley

Barbara Shelley

Barbara Shelley is an English film and television actress.She is now retired, but was at her busiest in the late 1950s and 1960s when she became Hammer Horror's number one female star, with The Gorgon , Dracula, Prince of Darkness , Rasputin, the Mad Monk , andQuatermass and the Pit among her...

, Anne Robinson

Anne Robinson

Anne Josephine Robinson is an English journalist and television presenter, known for her assertive views and acerbic style of presenting. She was one of the presenters on the long-running British consumer affairs series, Watchdog, from 1993 to 2001 before returning in 2009...

, Catriona MacColl

Catriona MacColl

Catriona MacColl is an English actress who has worked extensively in both film and television across Europe.-Acting career:In 1979, MacColl made her debut in the title role of "Lady Oscar" directed by Jacques Demy in Japan...

, Ingrid Pitt

Ingrid Pitt

Ingrid Pitt was an actress best known for her work in horror films of the 1960s and 1970s.-Background:Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Warsaw, Poland to a German father of Russian descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II she and her family were imprisoned in a concentration camp...

.

Two prizes are presented each year: for the best amateur film screened (see entry for the Delta Film Award

Delta Film Award

The Delta Film Award is presented annually at the Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England.Shortly after the 2004 event, British freelance journalist Steve Green assumed the role of administrator; he'd been a judge since the early 1990s. Other judges have included the film director Norman J...

) and the best independent entry.

The 19th Festival of Fantastic Films was held on 17 - 19 October 2008 with Jess Conrad

Jess Conrad

Jess Conrad OBE is an actor and singer from England.-Career:Having started his career as a repertory actor and film extra, Jess Conrad was cast in a television play "Bye, Bye Barney" as a pop singer...

and Lamberto Bava

Lamberto Bava

Lamberto Bava is an Italian film director, specializing in horror and fantasy films.Bava was born in Rome, Italy, the son of cinematographer/director Mario Bava, and grandson of cameraman Eugenio Bava...

among the guests appearing.

The 20th Festival was held on the 16 - 18 October 2009 with Emily Booth

Emily Booth

Emily Katherine Booth , also known by her stage name Emily "Bouff" Bouffante, is an English actress and television presenter.- Early life :...

, John Carson

John Carson (actor)

John Carson is a British actor noted for his appearances in film and television.Making his film debut in 1947, he carved out a career appearing in low budget British movies such as Seven Keys ; Smokescreen ; and Master Spy...

, Jenny Hanley

Jenny Hanley

Jenny Hanley is an English actress, the daughter of Dinah Sheridan and Jimmy Hanley.She remains best known for being one of the presenters of the ITV children's magazine programme Magpie....

, John Hough, Ian McCulloch

Ian McCulloch (actor)

Ian McCulloch is a Scottish actor.He is best known for his role as Greg Preston in Survivors. Though he debuted in the second episode, "Genesis", Greg would become the male lead for the first series, and got to show off his singing and guitar playing in several episodes...

, Derren Nesbitt

Derren Nesbitt

Derren Nesbitt is an English actor. Possibly his best known role was as SS Major von Hapen in Where Eagles Dare.In 2008 he was writing a book on "biblical myths and falsehoods".-Acting career:...

and Peter Sasdy

Peter Sasdy

Peter Sasdy is a British film and TV director.As well as numerous TV credits, notably the Nigel Kneale-scripted The Stone Tape , he directed several horror films for Hammer, including Taste the Blood of Dracula , Countess Dracula and Hands of the Ripper...

appearing. The winner of the best Independent Feature film at the 20th International Festival was Kirk, a community project film by the Strathendrick Film Society, directed by Michael Ferns and produced by Joan Macpherson.

External links

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