This year’s Herne Hill Free Film Festival includes screenings of 11 feature films, three short film nights, a film quiz, and the ever-popular 48-hour film challenge.
Now in its 12th year, the festival runs from Wednesday 30 April to Friday 23 May, with showings at landmark locations across Herne Hill, from its historic velodrome to Brockwell Lido.
As usual, it will showcase local talent – from a night of short films by young Black Londoners, to Herne Hill’s own Mark Rylance, who closes the festival playing a wannabe champion golfer in The Phantom of the Open.
Hollywood comes to Herne Hill with We Live in Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, which was shot around Herne Hill station and Brockwell Park.
A highlight of the festival will be an evening of entertainment – including the wacky silent movie Hundreds of Beavers – in the renovated stables area of Brockwell Hall, giving festival-goers a sneak peek at the swanky £7.7m restoration.
Quiz buffs should start to swot up on movie knowledge to be ready for the festival quiz hosted by Big Ritzy Quiz compère Zoe Maltby. It kicks it off the festival on 30 April.
Feature films on offer include the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun, an immersive drama set in the Orkneys (showing at the reinvented Whirled Cinema, now named Coldharbour Blue); and, on many a film critic’s top 10 list, Love Lies Bleeding, a neon-soaked, adrenaline-fuelled thriller starring Kristen Stewart (at the newly expanded Bird House Brewery).
The documentary programme takes viewers from the wilds of East Sussex to the musical heart and soul of Brixton.
First up, on 1 May, aptly showing in Herne Hill’s own natural paradise of the Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses, the festival presents Wilding, about the inspired experiment to let 400-year-old Knepp Estate return to the wild.
On 8 May at Off the Cuff you can rediscover the familiar jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves of the Brixton-born band Cymande in Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande, followed by a Q&A with the director, Tim MacKenzie-Smith.
We Live in Time is it at Herne Hill Baptist Church on 14 May. Mark Rylance closes the festival on 23 May with The Phantom of the Open, as delusional wannabe champion golfer Maurice Flitcroft, who gatecrashed the 1976 British Open Golf Championship.
Participants in the 48-hour film challenge are given a line of dialogue, a prop, a location, and just 48 hours to create a three-minute short film.
The clock starts ticking at midday on Saturday 3 May, when filmmakers register at The Prince Regent, only to return exhausted but elated 48 hours later, on Monday 5 May, with their finished film.
The always-riveting results will be showcased and winners announced on Sunday 18 May at Station Hall, above Herne Hill Station.
Also showing at Station Hall, on 17 May, is a film for all the family, the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated animation Wild Robot, which will warm the hearts and dampen the eyes of children and adults alike, say the organisers.
HHFFF’s short film offering is bigger and better than ever this year. The Prince Regent will again showcase local talent at the short film night on 12 May. At the Herne Hill Velodrome the festival’s third set of cycling shorts, will feature among others, Tour of Tigray, about Ethiopia’s premier cycling event.
New to the festival is an evening of short films by young Black Londoners at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning gallery on Railton Road, exploring issues that matter to them.
The event puts the spotlight on the work of Bridge the Gap Studios, which suppor young people and families through creative therapy and workshops, and The Spit Game, a youth-led platform celebrating Black culture and social justice.
Old favourites on show include thew 21-year-old zomedy Shaun of the Dead, screening outdoors at the Lido (where Zombie costumes may be worn – but spare a thought for unsuspecting mortals as you wander back through the Park at night).
Finally, in a first for the much-loved outdoor screening at the historic Velodrome, there’s a people’s vote to choose the feature – voting is online at https://take.supersurvey.com/poll5450666x4acc99eA-162 for Stand By Me, Galaxy Quest or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind … friendships, spaceships or relationships?
Since the first festival in 2013, HHFFF has screened 168 feature-length films and 125 short films to more than 20,000 local residents.
The festival is supporting the Lambeth & Croydon Foodbank. Any donations by card or cash at each screening would be greatly appreciated to help this wonderful charity continue its admirable work, say the organisers.
The festival is a volunteer-led community event made possible by the generous support of Pedder Property, Bunhead Bakery, Fison Fitness, Lowie, Artemidorus, Dugard & Daughters, Llewelyn’s, Macatia and Coffee, The Paper Cat, Volcano Coffee Works, White Feather and Wild + Lees and other local businesses, along with audience donations.
Socials …
- Facebook: HerneHillFreeFilmFestival
- X (Twitter): @HerneHillFilm
- Instagram: @hhfreefilmfest
- Bluesky: hhfreefilmfest.bsky.social
All festival events are free and no booking is required
Full programme at freefilmfestivals.org/filmfestival/herne-hill
