Chichester International Film Festival - celebrating 30 years

Roger Gibson, artistic consultant and president of the Chichester Cinema at New Park, admits it’s been a stressy few weeks just recently.

But at the same time he knows there’s a real sense of achievement too as he puts to together the programme for this year’s 30th Chichester International Film Festival which will run from August 11-28 this summer.

As festival director, Roger is already well advanced on the one half of the festival which he can plan with a degree of certainty: that part of the festival which comprises retrospectives, tributes and celebrations of significant film anniversaries.

But it won’t be until he gets back from Cannes that he will be able to confirm – probably in June – the new films and the premieres which make up the other half of the festival.

It’s a furiously busy time.

Roger will turn 84 during this year’s festival. He is still travelling Europe’s big festivals in search of gems he can bring back to Chichester and he is delighted to say that he is yet to catch Covid.

Clearly not much is capable of getting between Roger and making this year’s 30th film festival a festival to remember, one befitting the anniversary.

As he says, when he looks back on how far the festival has come – an off-shoot of the Chichester Cinema at New Park – it really has been a remarkable story.

“The film festival began in 1992 and it was in the July as part of the Chichester Festivities as they were then, and I started it with maybe about 30 films over ten days. I thought it would be something that was worth developing in Chichester, a chance to show some films that would not normally be available to show in our normal programme. I think it was probably about five to six months in the planning and somebody had asked me about doing something for the festival and it went well. But in that first year because it was part of the Chichester Festivities it tended to get swallowed up in all the rest of what they were doing which was basically a big musical festival so the next year we moved into August which was much better for us especially as we had more control over the venue in the month of August.

“What we found in that first year was that it attracted different people. It attracted people who were interested in seeing things they wouldn’t normally see, and really it was just a development of our programming that we were doing already. We managed to offer a good mixture of things. and really it is extraordinary to think that it has grown from being what it was back then to being a big international film festival which is now celebrating its 30th anniversary.

“The move to August was better though I don’t think the film festival grew significantly for several years.

“It was about getting our reputation which was something we had to build up.

“I had to work on my negotiating skills with the film distributors. You’re having to persuade people to give you a film for one or two shows even before it gets released and so they want to know that you have got a good reputation.

“You have to build up the trust and I’m pleased to say that I’m still working with some of the distributors that I started working with back then.

“You create the trust and you build up the negotiations.

“When you try to create a festival you need to be able to say to people ‘Well, we did this this this last year and so this year we’re going to be doing that that and that.’ We were the only film festival around here and we still are.”

So does that mean that things have got easier over the years? Absolutely not and that’s because of the standards Roger sets himself.

“It has got more difficult because I’m becoming more and more ambitious with each year.

“The last few years I’ve been working to get more films from abroad and last year during the pandemic we resisted having a hybrid kind of festival.

“We wanted actual physical screenings and we managed to get about ten films from Europe most of which have never been shown over here. Last year I said we have got to have our 29th festival otherwise we wouldn’t have a 30th!

“And it was great that we had a full house for the first time in more than a year because of the pandemic.

“I think it is for other people to say what the festival has achieved but it is getting more difficult in terms of ambition and just trying to challenge and develop the festival.

“It has certainly got longer in terms of days.

“We went from ten days to 18 and we started to do open air screenings at Chichester Cathedral and then Priory Park and we moved from one auditorium and then started using the studio and now we’ve enlarged again. Last year we started using the Guildhall as well and we have just tried to broaden things in terms of venues and the scope.

“I always start out by thinking to myself that I need to do at least as well as I did last year with the festival. I feel a terrible feeling of responsibility.

“But of course, I love doing it as well.

“Last year we managed to have the film The Duke (the extraordinary tale of a masterpiece being held to ransom in Newcastle in return for free TV licences for pensioners).

“The film was going to come out in September last year and so it was a good time for us to have it at the end of August and so it was all worked out.

“We had it printed and then I had a call from Warner Brothers who said that Pathe who owned the film said it was too early to show the film. They wanted to keep it until April or March.

“I went up the wall! We had it as the gala in our brochure. I said ‘Is there anyway we can still have it?’

“I thought maybe we could have it as a surprise film but they said no. But I asked them to get back to Pathe and a couple of days later I got a telephone call and they said ‘Are you sitting down? I have got some good news! Pathe agreed to let you show the film!’

“I said ‘What changed their minds?’ and they said ‘I think it was a combination of your enthusiasm for the film and your stubbornness!”

An answer which probably explains the success of the Chichester International Film Festival from the very moment it was conceived…

2022 will mark 60 years of Chichester Festival Theatre; ten years of the Festival of Chichester; 40 years of Chichester’s Pallant House Gallery; 30 years of Chichester Cinema at New Park’s international film festival; ten years of The Novium Museum; and 200 years of the Canal Trust.

It is also 75 years of the National Trust at Petworth House.

Have you read: The Taxidermist's Daughter: This is the verdict of the arts critics of the national press

Have you read: Petworth Festival: This is when it is being held, here are the names of those appearing, and this is how to obtain tickets

Have you read: Hastings panto announced

Have you read: Exploring the great joys of the South Downs Way

Have you read: So many reasons to celebrate as Chichester's Pallant House Gallery marks 40 yearsHave you read: Search begins for 2022 Sussex Young Musician

Have you read: The Art of Chichester: 60 Years of Creativity - major new exhibition

Have you read: Everything you need to know: Chichester Festival Theatre summer 2022

A book about loss and hope

A remarkable tale of recovery from a rare form of cancer

New book inspired by days out with the family