Winchester Film Festival 2011 Launches at Serles House

Winchester Film Festival 2011 launched in style on the 3 May at Serles House, Winchester with Film Hampshire proudly sponsoring the opening night.

Film Hampshire was established in 2003 as an economic development initiative by Hampshire County Council and offers 350 locations to choose from, including over 40 country houses and 25 parks and forests.

The idea of the Winchester Film Festival is to screen great films in appropriate (and often unusual) locations in and around Winchester, providing the audience with an immersive and unique viewing experience through which they can rediscover these classic films, or perhaps even catch them for the first time.

This year’s Winchester Film Festival offers Hampshire residents the opportunity to experience Carol Reed’s film noir classic 'The Third Man' screened in the atmospheric Chesil Tunnel, Hitchcock’s taught thriller 'I Confess' in Winchester Cathedral and Peter Weir’s tense drama 'Witness' in a barn in Yavingdon – as well as many other great films ‘on location’.

Each year, the Winchester Film Festival works in partnership with a local charity. This year, all the proceeds from the Festival will be donated to the Winchester Churches Nightshelter. Audiences are being asked to pay £5 for each seat that they book for any of the fabulous film experiences, every penny of every £5 ticket sold will go directly to this charity. So, viewers can experience a unique cinematic event while also raising funds for a very worthy cause!

The Future of Film Award was also presented at the Festival launch ceremony. The competition was open to 14-19 year olds in the Hampshire area. The winner of this competition was Lauren Maher, from Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh. Lauren commented:

“I am so pleased that I entered the competition and I hope it will encourage other people to do the same because it has given me just what I need to continue with my film studies. I am absolutely delighted with the invitation to undertake work experience at Form Films, and I would urge anybody else who is interested in film to get out there and do something about it!”

For more information on the Winchester Film Festival and to purchase tickets via Ticketweb, please visit www.winchesterfilmfest.com