University of Bristol to host Screentest

The second year of the UK’s only student-run national student film festival, Screentest, is being held at the University of Bristol from March 17-19, showcasing the very best in young filmmaking talent from across the UK.
The event will be held over in the University of Bristol Union, Queens Road, Clifton and is sponsored by Deloitte, SUBtv, the University of Bristol Alumni Foundation and Cobra Beer. This is only Screentest's second year and though run entirely by student volunteers, organisers have pulled together a fantastic weekend in celebration of student films and their makers.
The event kicks off on Friday afternoon at 4:00pm with an address from Duncan Kenworthy, the Chairman of BAFTA, followed by screenings of new student films all afternoon. At 11:30pm that night Screentest takes over Odeon Bristol for the popular Lock-In screening, showing after midnight the darkest and most challenging films to brave audience members.
There will be a Q&A session with celebrated filmmaker Ken Loach, whose work includes ‘Kes’ and ‘Sweet Sixteen’. London’s Raindance will also be teaching their renowned 99 Minute Film School. Senior executives from Sky will be giving a seminar on film commissioning, while the UK Film Council will also be giving exclusive one-on-one sessions on individuals’ filmmaking future.
Also at the weekend are the best films from Bath’s famous Great Onion Film Challenge; seminars by George Kiriptopolus, critic for Total Film; Peter Owen, Oscar nominated for his make-up work on ‘Lord of the Rings’; Chris Cook, director of ‘The Penalty King’, premièring at the weekend; and an exclusive screening of new British black comedy ‘The Battersea Ripper’ starring Denise Van Outen and Dexter Fletcher, directed by Stephen Fingleton. Workshops will be running every 90 minutes from 10:00am until 5:30pm on the Saturday.
The festival concludes at 2:00pm on Sunday with the Screentest Awards, which will honour student filmmakers and show the very best student films submitted this year. A full timetable can be downloaded from www.screentestfest.co.uk (GB/SP)