Festival organisers forge European links

Edouard Gradziel, from the Comite De Jumelage invited eotp festival director, Bryan Gartside, to attend the event as a VIP guest, and to bring with him some of the best films from the Bognor 2007 festival.

The initiative marks a new concord between both the towns and the respective film festivals.

As well as developing arts, business and cultural links through the film festivals, it is also hoped that more young people will be able to engage in exchange programmes over the coming years.

The idea will be to have young film makers around the Bognor Regis area exchanging films with their French counterparts and taking those films to the 2008 San Maur festival.

The idea is part of a larger European initiative spearheaded by eotp director Bryan Gartside.

'This is a fantastic opportunity for any budding young film maker who is under 25 and it will mean their work will be seen by a wider audience.

'As well as San Maur we have five other European festivals in our network and by 2008 we feel this will have risen to ten or more.

'The newest member of the group is the world renowned Cartoon Club animation festival held in Rimini Italy.

'This festival is 25 years old in 2008 and one of the top animation festivals in the world. The implications of our network are obvious for the town's economy and we will see droves of European film tourists heading for Bognor in the future,' said Bryan Bartside.

'There is a great deal of hard work however that has to go into making links with other festivals.'

Accompanying the festival director was festival events director Roz Anderson, Alex Parent, the new San Maur liaison officer and student film maker Orfeas Peretzis, whose film '˜Small Talk' was screened at San Maur.

The Best of the End of the Pier Festival DVD was presented to twin town committee vice-president Edouard Gradziel outside of the Cine Le Lido in the centre of San Maur to mark the official coming together of the two festivals.

For more information about films and film making in Bognor Regis please email [email protected] or call 01243 841775.