December 1st is the final chance for Sheffield Adventure Film Festival submission
The submission deadline for the 2012 Sheffield Adventure Film Festival is only a week away. December 1st sees the window of opportunity for film makers around the world close if they want their films considered for ShAFF. Because ShAFF takes place at the end of the winter season (traditionally most similar events around the world take place during the winter months) it has a later deadline than most which means a wider pool of films to choose from.
Festival organiser and film programmer Matt Heason took a break from watching the 200+ films to report to OutdoorsMagic what the competition is like this year:
“Unbelievable. It sounds cliché’d, but it literally gets stronger and stronger every year. The best films are not necessarily leagues better year on year – there have always been very good film makers out there and very good stories to tell – but the overall standard has risen dramatically. It’s actually now rare to watch a poor submission, whereas four or five years ago you’d be lucky to be happy with 50 films from 200. What this means is that visitors to the festival are getting better value for their money than ever before.”
We asked him what the highlights would be in 2012:
“I can’t tell you yet. It’s not fair to let the cat out the bag when some people still haven’t even submitted their entries. I’m downloading about 10Gb a day at the moment and have a back log which will take me well into December before final decisions are made. I can say that the ski films this year are particularly strong – so much so that we’re considering some sort of ‘Ski Week’, perhaps in the run up to the festival.”
As well as the films ShAFF has a host of other activities planned including a quality line up of speakers, the ever-popular second hand kit sale (drop them a line if you have an attic full of stuff you;’ve never got around to shifting on ebay), the Arc’Teryx Adventure Shot with Niall Grimes and Ian Parnell, a brand new charity auction on behalf of Community Action Nepal, more live music than ever before and plenty more besides. It’s the same weekend as the Climbing Works International Masters. Still to be confirmed is the second running of the Steel City Downhill, and South Yorkshire Orienteers are discussing the potential for a city-centre based event that weekend making it a realy ‘City Of Adventure’!
ShAFF is on the weekend of March 9-11 2012. For information go to www.shaff.co.uk
There are also Best Of ShAFF screenings at The Showroom Cinema on Dec 8th (2011 films) and Jan 19th (classic films).
If you genuinely can’t wait for your adventure film fix, check out the Heason Events Facebook page for a Daily Adventure Dose www.facebook.com/heason.events
