Director of cult gangster film to host special screening for festival opening
BARBARA HODGSON HAS THE LATEST NEWS ON THE NEWCASTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
GET Carter director Mike Hodges will be back in Newcastle this spring for a special screening of his Geordie classic.
The film-maker, whose 1971 crime thriller starring Michael Caine is now a cult favourite, is to be one of the star attractions at the inaugural Newcastle International Film Festival.
March 29 will see the 85-year-old back in the city where he shot the film that made his name, and where he will open the festival with a showing of the only remaining 35mm copy.
It has been announced that Hodges will also talk about the film at the firstday event, which will be attended by celebrity guests whose identities are currently under wraps.
The news is set to delight not just Get Carter fans but all North East film buffs as excitement builds over the debut festival, whose special guests will also include the North East-born awardwinning screenwriter Peter Flannery and director Neil Marshall.
Yesterday organisers unveiled details of the March 29-April 1 festival programme, which will see all genres of films and events play out at venues across the city including not just cinemas but also galleries and pubs.
Since first unveiling plans for the ambitious festival last summer – at an event attended by Hollywood actress Caroline Goodall and local favourite Craig Conway – the festival team have received more than 2,000 film entries from 80-plus countries. Having whittled down the submissions, they have come up with a wide-ranging programme featuring independents, award-winners, world premieres, shorts – including a British short film which was just been nominated for an Oscar – and a 4K digital restoration of Night of the Living Dead to mark its 50-year anniversary. Besides its international focus, the festival is set to be a showcase for North East talent too. Neil Marshall will be back on home turf for a screening and chat about his 2008 action hit Doomsday, while Jarrow-born Peter Flannery is to talk about his ground-breaking TV series Our Friends in the North, which is having a marathon screening. Other popular home-grown actors
involved in the festival include Jill Halfpenny and Denise Welch.
The film programme will be screened throughout Newcastle at Tyneside Cinema, Cineworld, Side Cinema, The Holy Biscuit and Cluny 2; and across the river at Vue Gateshead.
Linked events will be hosted at The Assembly Rooms, Aveika, Colonel Porters, The Mining Institute, The Biscuit Factory and Newcastle Civic Centre, as well as at Gateshead College.
Schindler’s List actress Caroline Goodall will be back to host a question and answer session following a retrospective of the work of Indian actor Om Puri.
And North and South actor Richard Armitage is expected to attract fans in Newcastle as the star of Urban & the Shed Crew, which features music by Noel Gallagher and is among the films set to have a first official screening at the festival.
Another will be transgender-theme film This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple. Festival president Jacqui Miller Charlton said: “As the opening date moves ever closer of the first ever international film festival that Newcastle, and indeed the North East, has ever held, it’s scary and exciting in equal measure.
“Scary because we want to ensure we deliver to the region an event that the people connect with and understand; and exciting because we’re working on some truly amazing events to ensure there really is something for everyone.”
And actor Craig Conway, who also works as a writer and director and is a producer of the festival, said that having been involved in theatre, TV and theatre the world over it is a “blessing” to be part of something being created in the North East.
“The Newcastle International Festival is the foundation and springboard needed to develop a sustainable industry that will create global success for us all,” he said.
The festival programme is still being fine-tuned but tickets are on sale now.