Red Rock Entertainment review at Marbella Film Festival — Celebrating Independent Films
Beautiful Sea is what Marbella means in Spanish. This small town is located on the Sunshine Coast, and due to its exceptional standing 12 years ago it has become the home for Marbella International Film Festival (MIFF). Since 2006, the Festival has become a popular destination for independent filmmakers and a dwelling for promising young artists from all corners of the world.
This year MIFF is held throughout July, August, and September offering summer screenings for fringe films and holding the final event on October 10th-14th. This year the Festival, as usual, has chosen young talents from all over the planet making a particular accent on the Arabic Cinema world. While the nominees are still kept in secret, the outstanding fringe activities for the summer period have already been announced.
There are five main films from Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Lebanon, UAE, and France that are presented to the public. All of them differ in their genre and filming style, but the common feature for all is their length — less than 30 minutes. For comedy lovers, a Moroccan film The Snake will offer a story of an impersonator and a police officer who fall in love during the muddle and chasings throughout the film. Morino by a Lebanese director Tony Farjallah will tell the story of a crime in 620 A.D. when a young, stubborn girl pretended to be a man and had to face the consequences for her actions. Kiss Me Not by Ahmed Amer is a story of an actress whose fans and current lifestyle prevent her from getting closer to religion. The chosen films are not just any pictures, each of them is already a winner of some festival or competition, so their screening is a sheer gift to the audience and attendees of the Festival.
Among these special pictures, an unusual screen version of Edgar Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart will be presented by Steven Berkoff. Traditionally, this short story was seen as a plot for a short film by the filmmakers, but with the financial help of Red Rock Entertainment and directing talent of Stephen Cookson, the story was turned into a full-length thriller that will be presented to the audience at MIFF.
On May 4th, Red Rock Entertainment announced that the company would serve as a sponsor for this exclusive event. Besides offering a hand of help to the growing and developing the event, Gary Collins, the CEO of Red Rock Entertainment, will also present a lecture on film financing which will focus on the tax relief programs for filmmakers in the UK as a way of de-risking a film.
Aside from the lecture on financing in the film, MIFF is also happy to offer the audience a lecture by Steven Berkoff, one of the prominent actors of today. Berkoff, as an actor and a director, will focus more on the film production. He will get into the secrets of acting and the ways to make an actor live the role. Steven Berkoff has become the next speaker for the Festival for a reason. In his Tell-Tale Heart, he not only wrote the script but also has played the main part. His efforts and talent were appreciated, and he is nominated for the Best Actor prize at the Festival. Among other acknowledgements, Steven Berkoff has already won Best Actor prizes in 2017 for the role in the Tell-Tale Heart.
Marbella International Film Festival in 2018 promises to be an exciting, intriguing, and educational event for all independent filmmakers. Its program is full of interviews and useful lectures that are aimed at helping young artists getting a start of their career. In addition to the official part, traditional black-tie dinners can become a perfect opportunity for the new talents to mingle and find new connections in the industry for the upcoming projects. All in all, there is no better place to discuss a business opportunity with Red Rocks Entertainment than a relaxed ambience of a Spanish dinner with the festive notes.
