Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 – Now Booking!

RADIANT CIRCUS is proud to be a judge & awards sponsor for Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 (29 JUN to 05 JUL). In the first of a new series of posts about this year’s virtual festival, we bring you a quick overview of the event & dip into our archive from previous editions. Stay tuned for everything you need to know!

This is a film still from ALL MONSTERS ARE HUMAN by Helen Spooner & Hugh Davies, screening at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.
ALL MONSTERS ARE HUMAN by Helen Spooner & Hugh Davies.

RADIANT CIRCUS is delighted to be joining Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020 as a judge and award sponsor for the Unconventional Storytelling strand. The UK’s only festival dedicated to short form documentary filmmaking, this year’s event will take place online from 29 JUN to 05 JUL. With many films available to watch internationally, this looks set to be a truly global event.

Festival directors Vera Hems Anderson and Natalia Garay Ceron are committed to promoting equality within film and every year more than 50% of the event programme has been formed of short docs directed by women. The programme always features a variety of filmmaking styles for the curious, including experimental, animation and observational films, often pushing the boundaries of what we think of as ‘documentary’.

One of our favourite features of the festival is that the organisers are dedicated to exploring content over form. That means you’ll find a wide range of stories made on a variety of budgets with varying degrees of filmmaking experience, all nestled into the same programme. No ‘student’ or ’emerging filmmaker’ strands, just fascinating stories from around the world. Match that with this year’s “Pay What You Can” Festival Pass and you have a beautifully egalitarian event that we can’t wait to get stuck into.

We’ll explore the full programme, including a look at our sponsored award category Unconventional Storytelling, in another post very soon! Until then, we encourage you to get booking…

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

GETTING THERE

This is a film still from THE DAYDREAMERS by Thomas Renckens at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.
THE DAYDREAMERS by Thomas Renckens.

A Cheap Cuts 2020 online Festival Pass gives you access to 11 strands of short films from 29 JUN until 05 JUL. A series of live events (all scheduled at BST) will include further film screenings and discussions with the filmmakers. With more than 60 films and more events to be announced soon, a members’ only Facebook Group will be the best way to keep abreast of the latest buzz throughout the event. And don’t miss your chance to vote for your favourite film after every screening, leading to the coveted Audience Award at the end of the festival.

“Pay What You Can” pricing means that every donation – however small or BIG! – helps Cheap Cuts cover their costs and prepare for future years. The basic recommended contribution is an accessible £5. Stellar supporters (£40 or more!) will be recognised as event patrons for 2020–21 with grateful recognition in next year’s printed programme. Which is as good a way to pay it forward as we can imagine…

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Film still from LEMBRI UUDU, ESTONIA by Eeva Magi - Winner, Cheap Cuts Unconventional Storytelling Award 2018
LEMBRI UUDU, ESTONIA by Eeva Magi – Winner, Unconventional Storytelling Award at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2018.

If you can’t wait for this year’s edition, how about taking a step back in time with our RADIANT CIRCUS festival coverage from 2018?

If you really can’t get enough (and we LOVE that you can’t…), have a search on our site for articles about Last Frame Club and the Smartphone Film Festival. RADIANT CIRCUS had the distinct pleasure of screening a selection of films from all of the above events at our own popup cinema project, the LUNCHTIME FILM SOCIETY, last year – find out about that HERE.

> Book your #CheapCuts2020 Festival Pass HERE <

Main featured image: YOUNG MAN WITH A CAMERA by Rodrigo Andrés Durán at Cheap Cuts Doc Fest 2020.

This is an image of the poster for the Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival 2020 Edition.

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*THE SMALL PRINT: As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version. Event dates/times are subject to change by the venue/organiser. We try to only list events you can book for at the time of posting: however, some events may already be sold out. Please click quickly! We don’t filter by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should be 18+.