Are you South London’s answer to Spielberg, Lambeth’s David Lean or the Brixton Bertolucci? If so, this weekend’s 48 hour Film Challenge may just get your creative juices flowing. And even if you’re not, keep reading to see which films you can see at this month’s Herne Hill Free Film Festival…with emphasis on the word FREE. Adam Marshall has more details. 
If your life’s ambition comprises a burning desire to shout at actors through a loud hailer while slumped in a uncomfortable looking chair with the word ‘Director’ printed on the back, then you’re in luck…
As part of the third annual Herne Hill Free Film Festival – which runs for the entire month of May – organisers are once again giving locals the chance to realise their dreams with the 48 hour Film Challenge.
The premise is simple. Head down to the Prince Regent pub in Herne Hill between 11am and 1pm this Saturday 2 May and you’ll be given a Herne Hill location, a line of dialogue and a prop to include in your movie. Go forth, make your flick and return with your celluloid gold within the next 48 hours.
Winners will be picked from three categories – families, under-16s and over-16s – with prizes in each. So regardless of your age and experience, you’ll have a great chance to pick up a gong at the Portico Gallery awards ceremony on 23 May. Start preparing your unnecessarily long acceptance speech now.
Struggling for inspiration? Watch last year’s winning entry from Lukas Nollet and Lilas Robin-Prevallee below. A charming and witty black-and-white silent film about a dastardly shop heist. Action…
If your cinematic passions extend less to producing and more towards popcorn, then this year’s Festival program has a varied schedule of delights to enjoy around various unlikely Herne Hill locations. 
The Ladykillers opens the festival in Station Square on Friday night. Anybody still haunted by Tom Hanks’s southern drawl in the Coen Brothers’ bafflingly ill-conceived remake, fear not. With great relief and delight, I can confirm that it’s the classic 1955 Ealing Studios original starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers that will be shown.
Wes Anderson’s popular The Grand Budapest Hotel gets a screening at Brockwell Lido (Saturday 9 May), French social realist The Kid with a Bike takes this year’s cycling related slot at the Velodrome (Friday 15 May), while local director Paulette Caletti will introduce her first feature The Cake Maker at the Prince Regent before hosting a Q&A session (Thursday 21 May).
The totally bodacious Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure brings the Festival to a close on Saturday 30 May as the sun comes down on a warm and dry (you have my guarantee) Brockwell Park.
To see the full schedule, head to the Herne Hill Free Film Festival’s official website.
