Acclaimed film festival adds new Welsh language film category

Stephen Price

One of the premier festivals in the film maker’s calendar has added a new Welsh language category for future events, with an aim to nurture new talent and shine a spotlight on Welsh language film making on the world stage.

With 15 categories in total, Carmarthen Bay Film Festival’s newly added Welsh Language Short Film is one of two new additions alongside a brand new ‘Micro Short Film’ category.

During the festival viewers can watch all the selected films online, including those by the likes of Kate Bush, Stephen Fry and Michael Spicer, reaching global audiences.

The winner of this year’s Short Film Made in Wales was ‘Box of Frogs’ directed by Ian Puleston-Davies and starring Mathew Horne, Amit Shah and Anna Chancellor.

This category always has a vast number of submissions and includes films in the Welsh Language. Simon Howlett, Director of CBFF says that splitting the category means that “We are placing the Welsh Language in its rightful place within the cultural cinematic landscape of Wales and upon the world stage”.

Delyth Lloyd, Development manager at CBFF, believes that “this new category will give confidence and pride to Welsh filmmakers to make short films in their language, to tell their stories and to see their films showcased on the big screen”.

S4C currently sponsors the Short Film Made in Wales Award and Llion Iwan, S4C’s Chief Content Officer shared: “S4C, which has proudly supported the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival for several years, is delighted to announce that it will sponsor a brand-new category next year for Welsh-language short films – an important step in nurturing creative talent, strengthening the presence of the Welsh language on the big screen, and reflecting S4C’s ongoing commitment to promoting and sustaining Welsh within contemporary culture and entertainment.”

CBFF celebrated its 15th birthday this year with yet another successful festival held at Theatr Ffwrnes in Llanelli.

Over 4 days, 130 films were selected to be shown after receiving over 700 submissions from across the world. CBFF is a BAFTA Cymru, BAFTA Short Film, BIFA and IMDb qualifying festival and the biggest in Wales.

Both Mark Evans and Euros Lyn spoke at this year’s festival and their message was clear that regardless of where you are from, if you want to make a film, make it!

The second new category, Micro Short Film is open for films of 90 seconds or less.

The creative challenge will be to convey a complete story or message within the limited time frame which will require concise scripting and effective storytelling that demonstrates an in depth understanding of cinematic techniques and craftsmanship.