Picture the scene. I’m sitting outside the Sala Grande cinema on the Lido in Venice – the site of all the red carpet premieres for the Venice Film Festival.
The sun is shining and I am tucking into my breakfast of coffee and a chocolate croissant before heading into a press screening of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. Then, out of the corner of your eye, I spot a familiar sight… a seagull.
A seagull that is trying to peck its way into a bag of rubbish to get at the food inside. It turns its head and we lock eyes. Instantly, I am transported back to Aberdeen, frantically stuffing the remains of my pastry into my tote bag as traumatic memories of stolen breakfasts flash before my eyes.
It is in that moment that it dawns on me how far I had travelled in pursuit of my dream of one day being the next Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Barry Norman or Mark Kermode.
One might think that the life of a film critic attending a film festival is all glitz and glamour. Hobnobbing with the stars and attending parties and premieres. In reality, it is long, 12-hour days watching four to five films back to back whilst trying to find time on no sleep to type up reviews that are hopefully well written but, at the very least, legible and coherent.
I have been lucky enough to be accredited for festivals such as Venice and Cannes, and you will never hear me complain about being able to visit those places. Closer to home, I have covered festivals in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. What do all these places have in common? Well, simply put, they are not Aberdeen.
Distance is a barrier for Scottish film writers and makers
The Granite City is home to a number of talented film reviewers, two of whom also made the trip over to Venice. Their writing entertains and inspires me, born out of a collective love of cinema that was in no small part cultivated by trips to the Belmont. They have worked incredibly hard to be successful, in spite of the barriers that exist in the industry – a major one for Scottish writers being that of distance.
The majority of press screenings take place in London, which is a non-starter, and occasionally in Glasgow, which still involves a five to six-hour return train journey. Attending festivals is time-consuming and expensive, but can yield positive results in terms of networking and commissions.
Whilst sat delayed in Heathrow on the way back from Venice, I began wondering. Instead of travelling the world in search of opportunities, why not bring the opportunities to us?
When I worked at the Belmont Picturehouse, it was one of the venues for a one-off Aberdeen City and Shire Film Festival in 2009, which shone a spotlight on filmmakers and films from and shot in the north-east.
I hosted my very first Q&A at that event for a screening of Cass, interviewing first-time feature director Jon S Baird about his biopic on the infamous West Ham football hooligan. Baird would, of course, go on to make award-winning films such as Filth and Stan & Ollie, before returning to Aberdeen in 2021 to shoot Tetris.
Silver City should host a silver screen festival
Sadly, however, when the Centre for the Moving Image operated the Belmont Filmhouse from 2014 to 2022, the notion of a film festival for Aberdeen was never explored. Blinkered tunnel vision didn’t allow CMI to see past its own backyard and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
If other Scottish places outside of the Central Belt, such as Dundee, Inverness and Shetland, can host film festivals, there is no reason why Aberdeen should not.
That is why there was even more reason to celebrate when the positive news on the future of the Belmont Cinema was announced last week. A truly independent cinema operated from Aberdeen, for Aberdeen has the opportunity to shape its own destiny.
The creation of a film festival that celebrates the silver screen in the Silver City should 100% be part of the long-term vision for the cinema.
Imagine the buzz that would be generated if we were able to roll out the red carpet on Belmont Street. To have the likes of Jessica Chastain swap the bright lights of Hollywood for the Northern Lights of old Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Beach might be a long way from the Venetian Lido, but the seagulls would be a familiar sight. We would just need to warn Jessica not to eat a buttery outside, as she might find herself in the middle of a remake of The Birds.
Dallas King is a film critic, writer and podcaster from Aberdeen, and part of Belmont Community Cinema