Cromarty Film Festival

Welcome to the ninth Film Festival—the festival that defies definition but refuses to die.

Last year, while clearing up, there were five smug, slightly hungover Committee members, congratulating themselves that they had already booked four great guests for next year. Nothing to do but a few wee meetings, lots of wine and running the Film Society. Three weeks ago, we had one guest, all the others were “shooting”, “rehearsing”, “having a deserved break”. Huh, have they no thought for us poor voluntary committee members creating the best film festival in the u.k. However, thanks to favours, friends and fortune we have succeeded.

Our guests include: a great guest from the Highlands—storyteller, sailor and novelist Ian Stephen; the queen of all Scottish actresses—Barbara Rafferty, our favourite kind supporters—Iain Smith and Karen Krizanovich; our perennials—Lawrence ”Couthy” Sutcliffe with his crap Scottish films; the lovely, patient Allan Mackay with his suitcase of Archive films; Matt Lloyd, who stupidly agreed to programme another great menu of shorts along with documentary filmmaker Duncan Cowles; Andy Mackinnon from North Uist, who has been making lovely films over there for the last twenty years; vfx director Andrew Jackson, who is joining Ian Smith to talk about their work on MadMax Fury Road; Christo Hird from Dartmouth Films, who came up in April to show us Still The Enemy Within; and has mercifully returned; producer and music supervisor Bob Last. Not forgetting our most loyal and beautiful guest, the town of Cromarty. Just remember watching films in a large room with people that laugh and cry together is the best thing. Thanks for financial support from Regional Film Scotland and lots of support from Ginnie Atkinson. Also big thanks to our patient and efficient administrator Nick Fearne.

My Favourite Film Festival: Essential Information: This Festival is run by a wholly Volunteer Committee. We do our best to make the weekend as interesting, enjoyable and wacky as possible. If you are unhappy about anything or have any great suggestions for the future, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. The social centre of the Festival is the Hub, the old Brewery, down along Shore Street or at the end of Church Street. There will always be somebody there from the Committee, or Nick Fearne our administrator, to help with any queries. The Hub will be selling food and snacks all weekend and it also has a licensed bar for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 1.00 p.m. to 1.00 a.m. John McNaught has been photographing the Cromarty Film Festival since 2009. These images are to form the basis of a project called MonoCrom to be exhibited during this year’s Film Festival at the Hub. Film Festival T-Shirts and Cromarty posters are available to buy at The Hub. Transport: Nigel, our trusty driver, has a mini bus to take people around town or up to the Stables. Just ask at The Hub if you need a lift.

All screenings with one of our Guests are £7 for adults; all other feature films are £5; shorts, archive films and lectures are £3; children’s tickets are £3. We scrape through, keeping afloat so there are no concessions.