January 2024
Chichester Filmmakers Launch Event
27th January 2024
Roussillon Park, Chichester
Hosted By: Petrina Rodwell and Jonathan Brooker (co-Founders)
Attended by a diverse and wide-ranging audience from the local community, Education, Film Industry, from Chichester, West Sussex, East Sussex and Hampshire. The morning's event celebrated Chichester and the FIlm Industry with guest speaker's presenting topics including:
Adam Ethan Crow (multi-award winning writer / director) - His feature film thriller, 'LAIR' (Amazon UK)
Grace Couzins - Editorial Assistant (Paramount Studios) - talking about professional career networking, and editing workflow approach for 'Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning'
Gavin Saville (Lecturer in Film at Ravensbourne University, Director of WildIndie Film Festival, Co-Founder of Let's Make FIlms) - Talking about the many aspects of the process of Film Production from Development through Shooting and Post-Production
Supported By: Chichester Community Development Trust (*A Registered Charity)
February 2024
Chichester Filmmakers
Funding campaign launched to raise funds for the
development and training of local skills and community
from Chichester and the surrounding areas.
The aim is to provide financial assistance to either fund youth or aspiring professionals with a mix of hands-on film production experience and professional film industry training,
as defined by
ScreenSkills UK
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GoFundMe campaign launched to raise additional funding for the production / shoot of
The Barn in April 2024.
Funds will be used to supplement essential makeup and costume materials, and rental of equipment to supplement the crew's own resources which are being given for free to
help local skills development.
Supported By: Chichester Community Development Trust (*A Registered Charity)
March 2024
The Barn - PreProduction: Script Table Read (click here)
The Barn - PreProduction: Crew Location Visit and Scene Planning (click here)
The Barn team welcomes Kate Winslet (photo)
The 96th Oscars Awards takes place in L.A. - 10th March 2024
April 2024
Chichester Filmmakers' Production Team
The formal application for Charity Status has started. If awarded, Charity status will open the door to apply for, and, secure, public funding as a part of fulfilling our aim to provide skills development, hands-on training and career development to the local community, within actual film production projects.
Film Shoot counts down to 15th April and Shoot Day #01
13th April: Final rehearsals and costumes checks completed for The Barn
12th April: Final kit and equipment checks completed for cameras, lighting, rigging, sound, visual effects, costume, makeup, green room
12th April: Final team to crew The Barn is confirmed
11th April: Final cast is confirmed
10th April: Final documentation is printed
9th April: Locations and Props are confirmed
8th April: Shoot Schedule & Shoot Script is finalised
4th April: Final storyboard is approved
Warhol features at London Independant Film Festival (LIFF)
Directed by our good friend, Adam Ethan Crow, the award winning film is to be screened on 26th April 2024 at 9pm,
at the Genesis Cinema, London (click here for details).
May 2024
The Barn - Production Update
Filming completed on 19th April, and involved shooting at 6 locations at Weald & Downland Museum, and St.Andrews Church near Arundel
Post-Production has started, and will occupy a team of a dozen specialists with editing, sound, foley, music and scoring, and visual effects (VFX), as well as Old Chapel Productions, Shouting Sound & Motion Productions, and assistance from professionals from Ravensbourne University (London), Mission Impossible editorial team, Framestore UK, NewPark Cinema (Chichester).
The Barn - Showcasing Our Cast
A special showcase page will begin to show off the cast for The Barn from 16th May. Designed to add more content, photos and background information for each of our cast during the lead up to the Premiere in August 2024.
For more information, please click HERE or click on the CAST SHOWCASE button on the Film Productions page.
The Barn - Showcasing Our Wonderful Crew
A special showcase page will begin to show off the crew for The Barn from 21st May. Designed to add more content, photos and background information for each of the crew during the lead up to the Premiere in August 2024.
For more information, please click HERE or click on the CREW SHOWCASE button on the Film Productions page.
June 2024
Chichester International Film Festival
The Barn scheduled for public screening during the film festival during August - dates to be confirmed
The Barn premiere is confirmed and scheduled
Come and meet the Chichester Filmmakers team during the Film Festival
The Barn - Production Update
Additional supplemental filming takes place for The Barn with thanks to Paul Burton, Jakub Bors, Jazz Thomas, St.Andrews Church (Ford)
Additional Voice Over session recordings begin
Visual Effects (VFX) begins with use of Blender and Maxon
Old Chapel Productions begins upgrade to editing suite for full theatrical Dolby ATMOS surround sound editing
Music mixing and editing for the film-score commences
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Chichester International Film Festival
The Barn is scheduled for public screening during the film festival this August - dates to be confirmed
The Barn premiere is confirmed and scheduled for Cast & Crew and Production Team.
Come and meet the Chichester Filmmakers team during the Film Festival.
July 2024
The Barn Test Screening
19th July - The 1-hour test screening for The Barn was hosted by Chichester Cinema today, with Mark the wizard projectionist in the driving seat and attended by Jonathan Brooker (Director), Paul Burton (Editor), Petrina Rodwell (Producer), Matt Goddard (Assistant Producer), and Matt Summerfield (co-composer). Test screening is a critical moment during the creation of a film. Critical because its the first time the post-production team get to experience the result of their weeks, days and nights of hard intense work. The Barn is scrutinised in detail on a big screen in a cinematic surround sound room.
Thankfully, this was a good day. The film's grading and colouring is looking good, the stylising and production design is looking good, the titles and credits looks good, dialogue is almost there and the general sound quality is good. Only the film-score requires some attention (which at this stage is fairly normal). Now on to a week's mixing and tweaking to ready The Barn for its debue premiere on 4th August.
We can't wait !!
left to right: Matt Goddard, Jonathan Brooker, Mark Hoare, Paul Burton, Matt Summerfield
Press Packs for The Barn
A selection of informative packs and posters for Press and the Media have been released today (12th July).
Details are available from press@ChiFilm.studio and by clicking here.
August 2024
Chichester International Film Festival
Chichester Cinema, Newpark
22nd August 2024
The Barn
Premiere Screening
Public Screening
Come and meet the team
Chichester Filmmakers
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22nd August - 8:15pm: Public creening of The Barn as part of the Festival's Film Shorts Showcase
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15th August: The Barn has been selected by Chicago's Crown Point International Film Festival for Narrative Short
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4th August: Premiere of The Barn. Red carpet gala with fizz, photos, interviews and networking. Click Here for more on THE BARN project and production
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The Barn begins Film Festival circuit including it's first ever public showing at Chichester International Film Festival. (click here for more)
September 2024
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THE BARN Dominates our news again this month with the start of the film's Festival and Awards season. All Awards, Mentions, Selections, and the full list of film feestivals that have received The Barn in to their submissions inbox are listed on The Awards & Festival page, under Film Productions. Or simply click here
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REALE Film Festival, Milan, awards The Barn with Honourable Mention for Best Film
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Athens International Arts Film Festival awards Honourable Mentions to The Barn for Best Director, Best Editor, Best Short Film
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The International Sound & Film Music Festival has shortlisted The Barn for its prestigeous Crystal Pine Award. The festival takes place 11th to 13th October in Samobor, Croatia.
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Robinsons Film Awards (Campania, Italy) awards Best Editing to Paul Burton and The Barn
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Chicago's Crown Point Film Festival awards Best Narrative Short Film to Jonathan Brooker and The Barn, and awards Best Actor in a Short Film to Peter McCrohon for his part as William in The Barn.
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South American Film Festival, South Film & Arts Academy Festival awards a plethora of wonderful awards to The Barn, including:
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Best Indie Short Film (The Barn)
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Best Director (Jonathan Brooker)
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Best Cinematographer (Ian Coulson DoP)
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Best Production (Petrina Rodwell, Producer)
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First place Audience Award. (The Barn)
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Honourable Mention to Jasmine Thomas (Ellen) for Lead Actress
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Honourable Mention to Isabel Saunders for Costume Design
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October 2024
What's Next for Chichester Filmmakers? - Jonathan Brooker gives an interview with Sussex Newspapers. (click here to watch), read the Chichester Observer article here.
The Barn is to be screened at L.A's Skiptown Film Festival on 5th November
The Barn is selected by Stockholm City Film Festival
The Barn receives a Nomination for the much sought after Horizon Award for Best Film Score at the prestigious International Sound & Film Music Festival (Croatia), beating more than 900 other entries from around the world. We would like to congratulate THE FILM FACTORY composer Silvestar Kolbas for winning the 2024 Horizon Award. Click Here to see The Barn award in SoundTrackFest press Click Here for the ISFMF website
Chichester Filmmakers becomes a C.I.C. On 1st October 2024, Chichester Filmmakers was officially granted the status of Community Interest Company or C.I.C, with our own unique registration number. From this day we will be accounting for all donations and investments, income and spend which is reported annually to HMRC. But more importantly, CIC status will go a long way to opening a number of key doors to release funding to Chichester Filmmakers.
Instagram News
Our original 'Chichester_FilmMakers' instagram account which was created in 2023 shortly after the birth of Chichester Film Makers, has become inaccessible due to an authentication issue which Instagram are not able to resolve.
We have now created a new instagram account which to all intense and purposes will replace it. The new Instagram account is ChichesterFilmMakers (ie. without the underscore). All other Instagram accounts owned and managed by Chichester FilmMakers (see list on About page) have already been re-directed to the new Instagram account. The old instagram account cannot be de-activated or switched off, so will continue to exist for perpetuity. We are so lucky to have reached 615 followers, and hope we can regain this following with the new ChichesterFilmMakers instagram account.
November 2024
21st November: The London LiftOff Festival selects The Barn for Best Short Film, and, for their Distribution Awards category
19th November: The Barn is being selected By Golden Short Awards for Best Short Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography
17th November: The Barn's film has been updated today. The update includes: Revised colour grading to better match the vision for style, look and feel which were created during post-production by Jonathan Brooker (Director), Ian Coulson (Cinematographer) and Paul Burton (Editor).
5th November: The Barn is being screened at Skiptown Film Festival in Los Angeles, USA. Where the Barn is also selected for a possible award.
1st November: The Barn has been selected for the LINK International Film Festival, taking place from 3rd December
News Letters: The first of our new monthly newsletters e-mails will start on 1st December. Please signup on the Home Page with your e-mail address to receive the newsletter, which will include news, film production news and updates (not found on the website), forthcoming events, and a little editorial piece about someone that has been involved with one of the films projects that we have either produced or supported.
December 2024
1st December: Our first ever newsletter will be dispatched tomorrow (2nd December). Please ensure you have signed up on our Home page to receive this and future newsletters.
12th December: The Barn scoops 4 more WINS and 3 Honorable Mentions at the Five Continents International Film Festival (Venezuela) -
Winner of Best Art Director (Nikita Dare), Winner of Best Costume (Isabel Saunders), Winner of Best Fantasy Film, Winner of 1st Place Audience Award, and Honorable Mentions for Best Director (Jonathan Brooker), Best Cinamatography (Ian Coulson), Best Sound Design (Paul Burton).
11th December: LINK International Film Festival (UK), awards The Barn for WINNER OF Best UK Short Film
10th December: Chichester FilmMakers awarded financial support towards its 2025 community activities programme, from Chichester City Arts Forum
6th December: The Barn is awarded with an Honorable Mention by New York's East Village Film Festival.
1st December: The Golden Shorts Film Festival awards a WIN to The Barn for Best Producer, together with 3 runner-up nominations for Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Short Film. With a nomination to it's annual film festival for Best Producer.
January 2025
Chichester FilmMakers
Annual Event
25th January 2025
Chichester Cinema & New Park Film Center
Guest Speakers:
Howard J. Ford - Feature Film Director with films in the Netflix top 10
Mark Adams - Major Film Festival Director & Film Producer
Stephen Baysted - Film Score & Games Composer from University of Chichester
Screening of our debut film, The Barn
Screening of PaperCut - a locally produced short film by Issie Collier
Networking & Refreshments
Your Projects & Film Production Launches for 2025
Launch of £££ prize winning competitions for 2025
Launch of 2025 studio tours to some of the major film studios such as Elstree, Shinfield, Pinewood, Bottleyard Studios
News of activities, events and film making workshops
Supported By
Chichester Arts Forum, Lets Make Films, Wild Indie, NewPark Centre,
Chichester Community Development Trust, Old Chapel Production, Sussex Film Office, IMDb
Sponsored By
Chichester Cinema, Chichester International Film Festival
Chichester City Council
OTHER NEWS
GENERAL NEWS
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Chichester FilmMakers appears in newspapers across West Sussex, with an article by Phil Hewitt, highlighting our forthcoming Annual Event, and plans for 2025 / 26
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Chichester City Council awards seed funding to Chichester FilmMakers C.I.C to help support our activities in the community
FILM FESTIVAL NEWS
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Los Alamos Film & Culture Festival (New Mexico, USA) selects The Barn for screening on 22nd February, and for a live Q&A Panel
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London Director Awards (UK), makes THE BARN a Finalist for Writer/Director with Best Original Idea
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Veneto International Film Festival (Italy) nominates THE BARN for Best Narrative, Best Producer, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing
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REALE Film Festival (Italy) awards an Honorable Mention for Paul Burton's Editing in The Barn
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Hollywood Gold Awards pick The Barn for winner of Best Fantasy Film, and award Jonathan Brooker as winner of Best Director of a Short Film
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Top Indie Awards (Tokyo, Japan) nominates The Barn for Best Short Film
February 2025
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The Barn is selected for the Folkestone International Film Festival
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Barcelona Indie Awards film festival nominates The Barn for Best Short Film and Best Editing
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Veneto International Film Festival (Italy) nominates The Barn for Best Short Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography
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Howard Ford interview at The Berlinale Film Festival, including a mention of his next films. See the interview i full on YouTube, or, click here.
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Chichester FilmMakers appears in newspapers across West Sussex, with an article by Phil Hewitt, highlighting our forthcoming Annual Event, and plans for 2025 / 26
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Our 2025 Annual Event is over but we are thank ful to everyone that came along on 25th January to learn of our plans for the year ahead, learn about local projects, meet and learn from our guest speakers (Mark Adams, Stephen Baysted and Howard Ford), and enjoy meeting and networking with one another and the Chichester Film Makers team.
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The next Chichester Film Makers event is taking place on 26th April 2025. Keep watching our News & Events pages for details and updates.
March 2025
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Final Truth has launched pre-production for it's Chase Scene, with filming expected to take place in May 2025
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Crown Point International Film Festival (Chicago) has nominated THE BARN in a number of categories for its Annual Best of The Fest awards. This follows WINS for Best Actor, Best Narrative Short and Best Director at the CPIFF monthly awards during 2024. The awards ceremony takes place on 7th June 2025 at The Logan Theatre, Chicago (IL), USA.
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Our debut feature film, FINAL TRUTH, moves forward with planning towards the shooting of 2 key scenes in the story. Planned for May 2025, part of the modern day chase scene will be ramping up in the coming weks as the production team attaches cast & crew, works through storyboards and scheduling, and works out kit requirements and sourcing it, as well as licensing and insurance etc. Details can be found on the FINAL TRUTH pages under Film Projects.
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Chichester FilmMakers was recently invited along to the film production studios at the Bognor campus of the University of Chichester. The amazing Stephen Baysted gave Jonathan Brooker a tour around the sound stage (big enough for a pub set or an 80 piece orchestra), green room studios with motion capture, the amazing Dolby 12.1 dubb stage and mix studios, and the edit suites. It was lovely to talk shop with some of the staff and there and to learn about some of the wonderful student projects currently being produced at the University. We hope to visit again sometime soon, perhaps to assist with a film production, or even to shoot our film, FINAL TRUTH !! photos below
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The next Chichester Film Makers event is taking place on 26th April 2025. Keep watching our News & Events pages for details and updates. You can get your tickets by clicking HERE
April 2025
SPRING EVENT: Our quarterley Spring Event for Chichester FilmMakers took place on 26th April 2025.
Featuring Guest Speaker: Darren Black (Writer / Director / Actor / Acting Coach);
Screenings of Its Out There (Annabella Rich), Trailer for The Death Of Us (Annabella Rich); Trailer for DarkGame (Howard Ford);
Project Updates for Final Truth and VileBites (Chris Millward); Extended networking sessions.
We would like to thank everyone that came along and helped to make this such a wonderful event. Lovely to see everyone engaging, making new contacts, exchanging business cards, with plentiful supplies of energy and passion for film and film making within the community.
Thank you to everyone that has offered to get involved with the film productions for VileBites and Final Truth. We shall be in touch in the coming days.
FINAL TRUTH: Action-Chase scene auditions took place at NewPark Centre on 24th April, and despite the production's demanding schedule and setting the bar very high, we have now selected the main cast for the intensive 3-day film shoot, which features a number of complex martial-arts oriented fight scenes, an action chase through the streets of Chichester (UK), motorbikes, armed police, a well-known restaurant, thugs, Chichester's Council offices, a bus, and a fruit stand!! Click here for more information
May 2025
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FINAL TRUTH: Action-Chase Scene completes filming on 23rd May without a hitch. Comprising of fast-action running and fighting around Chichester Cathedral's grounds, motorbike chase and double-decker bus stunt, restaurant chase and fight scene, crowded street chase, and final jiujitsu style fight at the City Council's offices. A carefully planned and rehearsed week of filming that required 7 months planning, with a cast of 21 and crew of 30. All largely from in and around Chichester, including a number of aspiring actors and crew, students from University of Chichester and Southampton, and the community.
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Final Truth has launched pre-production for it's Chase Scene, with filming expected to take place in May 2025
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10-May-25 The English Riviera Film Festival will be screening The Barn as a part of its annual film festival on 10th May 2025 (click here for festival trailer on YouTube, The Barn features in this trailer at 01:04)
June 2025
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The Barn gains a Nomination at Montreal's Digital Griffix Awards for Best Narrative Short Film
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FINAL TRUTH: Action-Chase Scene completes filming on 23rd May without a hitch. Comprising of fast-action running and fighting around Chichester Cathedral's grounds, motorbike chase and double-decker bus stunt, restaurant chase and fight scene, crowded street chase, and final jiujitsu style fight at the City Council's offices. A carefully planned and rehearsed week of filming that required 7 months planning, with a cast of 21 and crew of 30. All largely from in and around Chichester, including a number of aspiring actors and crew, students from University of Chichester and Southampton, and the community.
July 2025
SUMMER EVENT (26th July)
A massive success with more than 60 attending. Including many new faces from Chichester and the local area, and many travelling in from as far as Dorset, Hampshire, Brighton, Guildford and London.
Featuring Screenings of:
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Tobey Gannon's Worn Edges trailer
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The Writ (short film) directed and written by Ketan Majmudar
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Artificial (short film) directed by Tyler Woods (University of Portsmouth)
Production updates for:
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VileBites (Chris Millward)
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Cast call for singer / actor for trailer shoot in September
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Final Truth: Chase Scene; BTS Sizzler; Ancient Egypt - Investor Sizzler; Q&A
New Projects & Productions including Cast & Crew Calls.
Networking & Refreshments went on well in to the evening with many exchanging business cards, making new contacts, learning about new film productions, chatting about recent film shoots, and enjoying the food and refreshments on offer at the Old Cross pub (North Street).
A BIG thank you to everyone that attended, and especially to Chichester City Council for allowing us to host this event at their Assembly Room.
Please refer to our Facebook Group for ongoing cast & crew calls for these and other productions.
Chichester International Film Festival 2025 kicks off on 31st July. Don't Miss It.
August 2025
Chichester International Film Festival 2025 kicks off on 31st July. Don't Miss It.
Featuring Lee (starring Kate Winslet) on 24th August
Preparations are underway for the launch of the Chichester 48-Hour Film Challenge. All we know is that it will take place every 6 months, and that some interesting prizes are forecast. With it's launch taking place on 31st August at 6pm, on social media.
Members of the Chichester FilmMakers team attended a number of great events during the Chichester International Film Festival, including the BFI Event Producers Panel, Women In Film (featuring Kate Winslet), The Shorts Showcase (featuring a number of locally made short films, including 'All We Have' by Ellise Gwynn, which won 3rd place in the Audience Award).
September 2025
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Autumn Event preparations begin for 25th October 2025 at the New Park Film Centre, Chichester.
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Bournemouth International Film Festival (BIFF) makes The Barn a FINALIST for Best Short Film. BIFF takes place on 3rd / 4th October. Click here for details
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VileBites (Created by Chris Millward & Produced by Paul Burton of Old Chapel Productions) continues PreProduction with cast & crew calls for its forthcoming trailer. See how you can get involved by contacting Meg Cumberbatch (meg@oldchapel.tv)
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Worn Edges (Tobey Gannon), short film, nears the end of post-production with Editor Josh Ilsters.
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Final Truth (Chichester FilmMakers) returns to editing the feature film's screenplay and pitch deck
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Our 48 Hour Film Challenge competition has launched. Teams of film makers have just 48 hours to create their film and submit it, with £500 CASH up for grabs for the best overall film, and awards for categories such as Best Cinematography, Best, Acting, Best Soundtrack. The first 48 Hour Film Challenge kicks off at 6pm on 14th November, BUT teams MUST first register before 15th October, with £35 discount on the entrance fee if registered before the end of September. GET INVOLVED !! Click here for details.
October 2025
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Our quarterly Autumn Event took place on Saturday 25th October 2025. With very special guests Carol Younghusband (writer) and Kate Cheeseman (BAFTA winning Director) presenting and screening Blue Room, followed by Q&A and a mention of their latest film, Between The Piers, which has just started its film festival circuit. We also had the pleasure of welcoming Lisa Ashton to talk about her forthcoming production, The Last Crone, as well as production updates for Vilebites (Chris Millward), Final Truth (Jonathan Brooker), and Ryan Lackenby talking about his forthcoming projects, Across The Quiet, and, Never Forget, as well as introducing a new concept project, Promotion. We also heard from the audience, about a number of new projects in the pipeline (exciting !!!). We also proudly screened the brand new short film, Worn Edges, by Tobey Gannon, which has been long anticipated, but well worth the wait, together with aspiring film maker Sam Cooke presenting his first school film, Solstice. More details and content can be found here
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Chichester FilmMakers was very kindly invited to attend the official opening of the new TV & FIlm Production Building at Chichester College recently. The event was formally opened by Jess Brown-Fuller MP and College Principle, Helen Loftus, and attended by students & staff and a number of representatives from the film & TV industry from across Sussex.
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We have started planning for our next Annual Event (January 2026), and plan to include exhibitors from local and well known studios, Sussex Film Office, local education, Production Guild of Great Britain, and more, as well as industry guest speakers, screening of more locally produced short films, trailers, and hoping to include breakout workshops to talk about a number of key aspects of film making. More details can be found in the January 2026 News & Events page.
November 2025
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Representing Chichester FilmMakers, Jonathan Brooker joined film & TV location managers for a tour of Farnborough Film Studios, sound stages, production facilities, the Wind Tunnel, Centrifuge Test Facility, and much more. A bit of a last minute opportunity, but we plan to do more of these in 2026 for our community.
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Winter Event, will take place on Saturday 31st January, at The Assembly Rooms, Council House, North Street, Chichester. Featuring our new format of 45 minutes of networking at the start and the end of the event, as well as guest speakers, screening of your short films, production launches, news and updates, cast & crew calls. Additional details and final agenda will be published 2 to 3 weeks prior to the event. Click here for tickets and more information.
December 2025
January 2026
Chichester FilmMakers Annual Event
January 2026
We have started planning for our next Annual Event (January 2026), and plan to include exhibitors from local and well known studios, Susex Film Office, local education, Production Guild of Great Britain, and more, as well as industry guest speakers, screening of more locally produced short films, trailers, and hoping to include breakout workshops to talk about a number of key aspects of film making. More details can be found in the January 2026 News & Events page.
