Film festival celebrates Discworld premiere
YOU can expect the arrival of a mini Discworld in Llanelli next week for the start of the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival.
Fans of author Sir Terry Pratchett will be arriving in Carmarthenshire to celebrate the magical fantasy world.
The occasion is the European premiere of the film of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Troll Bridge.
“We are expected up to 400 Discworld fans for Monday’s premiere at Ffwrnes Theatre, Llanelli,” said Kelvin Guy, the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival chief executive.
“Most will be attending in fancy dress, so it will be weird and wonderful. Carmarthenshire won’t have seen anything like this before.”
This is the eighth annual Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, with the previous events all having been held at the Stradey Park Hotel, Llanelli.
Mr Guy said: “We will always be grateful to the Stradey Park Hotel for helping the festival get ‘lift-off’ but the time is right now for the festival to venture into new territory with a bigger and better event at Ffwrnes Theatre.”
Screening on the opening day of the festival on Monday, May 27, Troll Bridge is a short film based on a short story by the Discworld author.
It’s been produced by Snowgum films and directed by Daniel Knight.
The premiere will see director Daniel Knight flying in from Australia to take part in a question and answer session after the screening.
It’s been quite a journey for the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival.
The first festival, in 2012, saw 35 submissions in different film categories. The 2018 event saw more than 650 entries from 52 different countries.
Mr Guy added: “We have had film-makers flying in from the US, Holland, Italy, France and many parts of the UK.
“The number of festival partners has also grown, with Stradey Park Hotel, Bafta Cymru, RTS Wales, S4C, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Felinfoel Brewery and many more helping.
“The festival is now a Bafta Cymru/Wales qualifying event, which means that any film screened during the festival and made here in Wales is eligible to apply to be considered for a Bafta Cymru award.”
Monday will also see the presentation of the John Hefin Lifetime Achievement award 2019.
This year will be fourth lifetime achievement award in honour of Wales’s most celebrated and respected television director and former head of BBC Wales drama John Hefin (producer of Grand Slam and other TV classics).
Former recipients of the John Hefin award have included Euryn Owgen Williams, Endaf Emlyn and Beti George.
This year, the John Hefin award goes to John Morgan of JM Creative.
John Morgan is the managing director of JM Creative, a position he has held for 20 years.
He was formerly the head of television and radio promotion at BBC Wales.
His ground breaking work has been recognised at awards festivals all over the world.
The Royal Television Society presented John with a special award for his outstanding contribution to television.
Before joining BBC Wales, he worked at Sky Television where he was responsible for a number of corporate commercials and the on-air launch of Sky Sports.
The president of the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival is Wynford Ellis Owen.
Patrons include Arfon Haines Davies, Sharon Morgan, Euryn Ogwen Williams, Julian Lewis Jones and Marc Evans.
The festival runs from May 27-30.