Arts / Talks ongoing over other film festivals potentially coming to Shetland
SHETLAND Arts chief executive Graeme Howell says conversations are ongoing with other film festivals about potentially coming to Shetland.
It comes in the absence of Shetland Arts’ Screenplay festival, which was last held in 2023.
The issue was raised at Shetland Arts’ latest AGM on Thursday evening.
Councillor Moraig Lyall, who was among those attending remotely, said there was still a lot of people in the community who miss Screenplay, as well as Wordplay, Shetland Arts’ literature festival which was last held in 2022.
Howell said Screenplay came to an end in 2023 because its curators – Mark Kermode and Linda Ruth Williams – decided to move on.
He said he felt it was wise to respect this and “leave space for other things to happen”.
“We’ve been in conversations with other film festivals about potentially coming to Shetland, and those conversations are ongoing,” Howell added.
But he pointed to Shetland Noir, the crime writing themed festival which has taken place in 2015 and 2023, and is due to return next year with headliners including Jack Reacher author Lee Child.
“I think just doing what we’ve done in the past because that’s what we’ve done, is not the right way to run an organisation,” Howell said.
“I think you need to review and move forwards and evolve and change with the needs of the community.”
Meanwhile artist Roxane Permar said she feels Shetland “misses” having a film festival.
She said while she understood the idea of not looking backwards, “Screenplay was absolutely fantastic”.
“I know a lot of people really miss it for all sorts of reasons,” Permar added.
“Both Wordplay and Screenplay were really important in terms of helping to feed and nourish our knowledge, refresh our knowledge and be inspirational.”
She said these types of festivals are also important in terms of development, both in terms of practice and professionalism.
Meanwhile minutes from a Shetland Arts meeting in June said the idea of a “book festival” in 2027/28 was put to Howell, who agreed to consider the proposal.
Speaking to Shetland News in the spring, Howell promoted a “flexible” approach to festivals and added: “When there are things that are very relevant for us to celebrate in Shetland we will do those things, as opposed to the metronomic ‘we will do this every year’.”
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