The No Gloss Film Festival is a UK public film event held in October at several venues around Leeds, West Yorkshire. The festival screens more than 100 shorts, features, documentaries and animations from the UK and other countries. It has a particular focus on Guerrilla filmmaking, a type of micro-budgetindependent film-making, championing "Do It Yourself" unconventional cinema to increase accessibility to independent, rarely screened, self-made films. The NGFF programme also typically includes film-maker Q&As, film discussion panels and live workshops.
History
2011
In 2011, after discovering an online community of film bloggers and directors supporting and producing raw, no-budget shorts, Trent Rampage, a cultural blogger and event organizer from the LeedsDIY community proposed the idea of a "no-frills"independent film festival for Leeds. The rationale behind the idea was that even though the city is already home to the more established Leeds International Film Festival, there was no film festival, at least in the North of the UK, which specifically showcases micro-budget films that might not otherwise appear in mainstream cinemas. The film festival's "no frills" policy avoids red carpets, celebrities and luxury venues, and entry to the festival is made more accessible to a wider section of the public by employing the use of a simplified “one wristband” strategy to allow the audience the opportunity to access all films in the festival with just one entry fee.
2012
In 2012, the first No Gloss Film Festival took place in Wharf Chambers, a former Victorian pie factory located in Leeds City Centre. It received over 180 submissions and screened over 70 films to a sold out audience.
2013
In 2013, NGFF founder and Festival Director Trent Rampage was joined by Sophie Marfell as Development Director. Together they developed a broader and more inclusive No Gloss programme that extended to independent films that do not necessarily fall under the “micro budget” category. This allowed multi-award winning independent features and animations to also feature in the programme. The directors also incorporated audience workshops facilitated by film-makers, Q&A sessions where the audience is invited to engage with the film-maker present, and built on retaining a “true festival experience” with the availability of festival street food, music, live art performances and craft beer. The second edition of the festival was held at Canal Mills, in Armley, screening over 100 films from the 220 submissions received, to another sold out audience. The 2013 festival featured several UK premieres: Quite A Conundrum by director Thomas L. Phillips, Matthew Hashiguchi’s documentary The Lower 9 and the winner of the 40th Student Academy Award short film The Compositor by John Mattiuzzi.
2014
In 2014, the festival was held at Temple Works, a Grade I Listed flax mill built between 1836 and 1840. The festival has received over 700 submissions with a screening programme of more than 60 films with more emphasis on features, workshops and discussion panels.
2015
The film festival was held at The Carriageworks Theater in Leeds, a venue which took its name from the "West Riding Carriage Manufactory" that was housed in the Grade II listed Stansfield Chambers built in 1848.
2016
For its fifth edition, the festival returned to Canal Mills, an 18th century former textile mill in Leeds. The programme included several UK premieres which includes O, Brazen Age by Canadian film directorAlexander Carson and Catalina Gonzalez's feature, Ekaj. Three Minute Warning, one of the short films in the festival programme, was collaboratively made by filmmakers who met each other by chance at the 2014 edition of No Gloss Film Festival. The short was also selected to close the 20th edition of the Oscar-qualifying Urbanworld Film Festival in 2016, hosted in New York City. Another short film in No Gloss Film Festival's 2016 programme called Marianne by London-based director Tomisin Adepeju was also previously selected for the 2015 edition of the Academy Awards qualifying Urbanworld Film Festival.
No Gloss Film Festival Core Team
Founder and Festival Director: Trent R.
Development and Festival Director: Sophie M.
Awards
The Audience Choice Award – for the best audience voted film. This award is given jointly by the NGFF and the award sponsor of the year.
2012
;The Audience Choice Award Presented by NGFF.
2013
;The Audience Choice Award Presented by NGFF and sponsored by Cinetics.
