The Cheltenham Film Festival

…to create memorable cinematic experiences, while making a diverse cross-section of film accessible to a general public … providing a platform of dialogue for young people about the film industry.

Mission Statement

The Cheltenham Film Festival will serve as a platform to celebrate the medium of film, across varieties of mainstream and alternative cinema, by creating memorable screening experiences that appeal to all. Inclusivity is at the heart of our philosophy, as we aim to ensure wide popular appeal, spanning the breadth of mature and youth markets. Each year the festival will be discreetly thematic, celebrating an aspect of contemporary culture.

The festival is more than a platform for celebrating the diversity of film. It is intended as a social enterprise that will locate itself throughout local communities, building creative partnerships that draw upon and contribute toward the local economy of Cheltenham and beyond.

Predominantly, this will be achieved via the Cheltenham Film Festival Educational Programme, which will co-ordinate and facilitate a variety of public lectures and seminars hosted by film industry professionals. Such events will target young people, and budding independent filmmakers in the Cheltenham and Gloucester area. In addition, The Educational Programme will provide diverse workshop opportunities for local schools and colleges, encouraging students to explore and learn new creative skills, and employ those abilities accrued in the classroom in a meaningful way within a functioning business.

Sir Michael Parkinson

"Cinema has been responsible for much in my life.  It had me riding around Yorkshire pit villages collecting stories as Humphrey Bogart, journalist, and that's when I wasn't surveying the frontiers with my John Wayne Swagger. In the back row, I fell in love for the very first time.  Ingrid Bergman was the lucky girl in question, and we'd probably live up near Barnsley Football Club.  Well that didn't happen, but I've never ended my love affair with the silver screen and that irreplaceable Hollywood glamour. 

As a long term fan of the Cheltenham Jazz and Literature Festivals, it's wonderful to hear that a new Film Festival will be added to the line-up in 2010, and I look forward to seeing it take shape." 

Sir Michael Parkinson