This month we say au revoir to Rhiannon Hobbins, ÉCU’s Festival Manager for the past four years. Rhiannon was the ultimate resource for all that is ÉCU but she is moving on to her next adventure back in her home country of Australia. It’s hard to express how much she will be missed but her influence will be everlasting as the festival builds upon the fabulous foundations that she put in place. So, without further ado Rhiannon tells us in her own words how the last four years...

Going to make a film with a heart in the middle   By Anna Pook   With the European Independent Film Festival on the horizon, my thoughts turn to 2008’s indie big-hitters and what it takes to win those coveted festival prizes. What connects this year’s winners such as James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire, which charts Philippe Petit’s death-defying tightrope walk between the twin towers in 1974 (Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at...

ÉCU 2009 Events ÉCU 2009 will feature an exciting array of workshops hosted by dozens of industry experts. The workshops will cover a variety of topics relating to cinema including writing, directing, acting, editing and distribution. And they will be free and open to ALL festival attendees including members of the public. These events offer the unique opportunity to learn from the best in the business. The workshops were a huge success in 2008, and will be even bigger and better in 2009!Dire...

War zone filmmaking: Going into battleBy Kellie SouthanSo you’re an independent filmmaker and you’ve got it pretty tough. Filmmaking is an expensive business, and you have to tell your story with a limited budget. Worse, you’ve got to fight tooth and nail to find the revenue in the first place. If you work long and hard enough, you might finish your project on schedule and then it’s up to you to promote it, get it seen, take it to festivals, find a distributor and garner support. Not exa...