British Comedy Guide

Cofilmic / WeGotTickets drinks party, Edinburgh

In conjunction with WeGotTickets, Cofilmic Short Comedy Film Festival are having an event at the Library Bar at The Gilded Balloon Teviot, Bristo Square on Tuesday 16th August from 9.30pm onwards (free drinks included!) where you can find out more about Cofilmic and speak to people involved.

Cofilmic is a brand new festival designed to give budding TV and film hopefuls a leg-up into the industry, and will run from 31st October to 1st November (press release below).

If you'd like to attend please send RSVPs to ben.lyttelton@multitudemedia.co.uk, and we will send you an invite which should be printed off and taken to the event to gain entry.

We hope to see you there!

Thanks
---
Asha Bhatt
Multitude Media I 3 Bloomsbury Place, London, WC1A 2QL

Press Release - Cofilmic

COFILMIC COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL TO PREMIERE IN 2011

A brand new event designed to give budding TV and film hopefuls a leg up into the industry will launch later this year with the arrival of the Cofilmic Comedy Film Festival.

The Cofilmic Comedy Film Festival will run from 31st October - 1st November 2011, and will offer those hoping to break into comedy film and television production - including actors, writers, comedians, producers and directors - the chance to submit a short film to a leading panel of judges, and will also include a programme of panel discussions and workshops from industry experts.

The event will be held at The Comedy Store in Deansgate, Manchester, which will also be the venue for an awards ceremony on the evening of the 1st November to celebrate the films selected by the judges.

The judges so far include:

- Charlie Hanson, BAFTA winning producer whose recent credits include Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's TV series Extras, as well as their film Cemetery Junction
- Jon Mountague, BBC Comedy North executive producer
- Leslee Udwin, East is East and soon-to-be-released sequel West is West producer
- Don Ward, founder of The Comedy Store
- Lindsay Hughes, Executive Producer and Head of Talent, Baby Cow
- Andy Baker, Managing director of global filmmakers community Mofilm
- Henry Normal, co-founder of Baby Cow

Associates - who may be involved in the judging process, partner with Cofilmic and contribute work - include:

- Kristian Smith, production and commissioning, BBC Comedy North
- Dave Spikey, comedian, writer and comedy actor
- Beth Pattinson, BBC film
- Jason Cook, comedian and sketch writer
- Pete Thornton, Commissioning Editor Comedy Central;
- Martin Riley, Lion Eyes production company
- Mandy Ward, International Artistes.

Cofilmic is the brainchild of Manchester businesswoman Janet Harrison who, after producing her first comedy short film in 2010, would like to progress onto making comedy features, as well as providing people in a similar position to herself support to progress up the comedy film ladder.

Having managed to persuade the likes of Looking for Eric and The Royal Family actor John Henshaw and Noreen Kershaw - whose directing credits include Coronation Street and Shameless - to be involved in the film, Master Motivator was premiered in Manchester and London.

The lack of a dedicated comedy film festival, the rich heritage of comedy in the North West and the dwindling amount of support organisations inspired Janet to look at how she could collaborate with comedy and film professionals in the North West. Cofilmic will also provide an ongoing, professional talent development platform for budding hopefuls. The overarching aim being to create an environment that may kick-start a whole new era in comedy film making for the UK, based out of Manchester.

The Cofilmic Comedy Film Festival will run on the back of the Manchester Comedy Festival - held during the last two weeks of October - which this year was bigger than ever before with over 200 shows across 34 venues around Manchester.

The event was launched at The Comedy Store, Manchester earlier this year at an evening hosted by Dave Spikey and attended by numerous press and partners. Submissions for the event opened in July, and budding hopefuls have until September to submit their work.

Cofilmic founder and director Janet Harrison said: "We have a wealth of talent in the North West who can inspire others to achieve great things. Lack of funding means that new filmmakers will have to be very commercial in their approach, no matter how small their project and we hope to help people with this process into a formal career path.

"We have been amazed by the amount of support we have received so far and we have some exciting partnerships in the pipeline - watch this space!"

- ENDS -

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