Festival Spotlight: CINECITY Brighton Film Festival

Tim Brown's work in keeping this festival ongoing is commendable. How has he done it?

Film festivals are often important and significant to have in the film industry. These festivals provide a platform for filmmakers to showcase their talent, gain more exposure, boost their reputation in the industry, and connect with industry professionals who can open doors to distribution deals and funding opportunities. The validation and accolades earned at festivals boost their reputation and inspire further creativity. It’s one thing to look at festivals from a filmmaker’s perspective, it’s another thing to look at festivals from the perspective of those who founded them in the first place. Are they proud of their work, and what they have accomplished with their respective festival?

Tim Brown can say he is proud of his work. As co-founder of CINECITY, Brighton’s only film festival, now in its 21st edition, he has overseen 20 years of success. The festival continues to showcase films of a prestige nature (this year’s edition opened with Yorgos Lanthimos ‘Poor Things’ starring Emma Stone) and lesser-known films from around the world (the tagline for the festival is ‘Adventures in World Cinema’). So, how does Tim feel about his work, his partnerships with various venues across Brighton, and how the festival came to fruition?

According to him, it was all about filling a void in the market. No stranger to Brighton cinemas, having worked as a Special Events programmer at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse since 1997, he said: “Back in 2003, Brighton didn’t have a film festival of its own at that point, except for the Brighton Jewish Film Festival, which ran until 2003 when it switched to become the UK Jewish Film Festival. Brighton needed its own film festival, and there was a partnership there between Picturehouse Cinemas, Frank Gray (director of Screen Archives) and myself to set up CINECITY together as co-founders in 2003.”

Tim believes that due to the festival’s longevity, it has resulted in being able to consistently put on screenings each and every year that local residents appreciate. Tim said: “You do develop an understanding of what the audiences in the city are like, it wasn’t like I was coming from the outside, the festival grew and evolved naturally, which is important for local audiences, filmmakers and venues. It all developed very organically, and I knew what Brighton audiences most responded to. I had also before worked for the Cambridge Film Festival, so I had specific film festival experience. There was no master plan or any plan to set up a film festival, it felt very natural and organic.”

This year, the festival screened films across five different venues, one of which being the Depot in Lewes. Carmen Slijpen, the founder and creative director of Depot, said: “As I was building Depot in 2017, the CINECITY board members were aware I was doing this. As I was meeting them, I was updating them on what I was doing, and they expressed interest right from the beginning that they would be keen to collaborate. It was never a process of having to go through an interview or whether we were suitable, we were already acknowledged that we were suitable for each other.”

Naturally, having to juggle the various cinemas part of the festival and the films shown at each respective place can be difficult. As Tim mentions, “We must balance which ones play at which venues, and that might be due to issues of capacity. The Duke of York's has 278 seats, and if we think a film needs all those seats, it doesn’t make sense to play it at a smaller venue. It’s all about trying to balance things and listening to the wishes of the venues and what they’re interested in. The festival is often the only opportunity to see some films on the big screen, as films are not playing in cinemas for as long as they once were, and some aren’t even released in cinemas at all. With the festival, we must balance the budget and cover our costs, but we can afford to show films that need harder work to get an audience. There is an audience for almost every film, but sometimes you’ll have to work harder to make sure that everyone that would be interested in a particular film is there.”

Given the importance of film festivals worldwide, does Tim think the festival will continue to stay successful? He said: “Every town and city should have its own festival, we feel lucky that the opportunity to do one in Brighton came to pass, and we’ve reached 20 years and counting just because it works and we can still reach audiences, and audiences still want the cinema experience post-pandemic. At its heart, we’re doing something that connects filmmakers, audiences, and cinemas all together in an exciting way. As long as the audiences still want us, we’ll be back next year.”