10 - 25 October 2014

We are pleased to announce that the 2013 Festival was able to support 3 charities.  This was made possible when distributors allowed us to screen films free of charge, in this instance, Prayers for Bobby at the Winchester Bar, Bournemouth and Yellow Submarine at the Rex Cinema in Wareham.  The charities which benefitted were, the Marie Curie Foundation, Dorset Action on Abuse and the Terrence Higgins Trust.

We should like to thank the audience members who made these donations possible.

Thanks also go to the Co-operative Membership for sponsoring the screening of Chasing Ice at Durlston Castle in Swanage and to PEAT for supporting this very successful evening on an environmental theme.

A big thank you to all who supported the festival this year and helped to make it such a success.  After a short breather we shall be starting to plan for our eighteenth festival in October 2014 and selecting films for our open air film shows in August. 

Remember that our exhibition at Durlston Castle is on for a few more days until Friday 1 November.

In the meantime happy movie going.

On Friday 18 October Purbeck Short films played to a packed house in The Rex Cinema Wareham.  The winner of the Audience Choice Best Animation went to The Royal Oak by Sandra Salter and Benedict Newbery, a beautifully observed, watercolour, animated poem.  The other Audience award for Best Short Feature went to Driftwood, a tense film about overcoming domestic and external bullying through a single-minded commitment to a sporting goal.  This well-acted film by James Webber displayed excellent editing and a convincing narrative and was rewarded with the Judges’ Prize for Best Film.  A new prize, made possible by a generous anonymous donor went to Liam Harris for Boxcart, for best student film.  Congratulations go to all entrants since only 20 films were programmed from over 170 entries.

If you missed this event be sure to join us next year!