Margate Film Festival returns for its fourth year launching a five day programme on Wednesday 27th October at the festival’s pop-up cinema at Union Church

Margate Film Festival returns for its fourth year launching a five day programme on Wednesday 27th October at the festival’s pop-up cinema at Union Church, with over 50 films and other events taking place throughout the festival across Margate’s arts venues including Tom Thumb Theatre and The Margate School.

This year’s theme of ‘Borders/Boundaries’ explores ever-present social and global tensions, and in particular, looks at borders and boundaries of a more intangible nature, such as political borders, personal boundaries, relationships, identity and spirit.

Dive into fictional worlds with whimsical fairground romances, family drama in British seaside holiday resorts, revealing secrets found overseas, and coming of age tales against the backdrop of political upheaval, as well as the true stories of the activists fighting for human rights, workers on the front-lines of revolution and revolutionary artists who shaped the cultural climate of today.

Margate Film Festival is committed to showcasing independent, non-mainstream cinema, with 50% of this year’s films made by female directors, more than 20 local filmmakers platformed, and a special focus on amplifying PoC and under-represented voices.

The festival opens with ‘Sweetheart’; a quirky coming-of-age love story set against the backdrop of a British coastal holiday park. Other features include ‘Jumbo’; a surreal love story between a fairground employee and a mechanical ride and ‘Beans’, a coming of age story of a 12-year-old Mohawk girl as she balances her experiences of community, activism, and racism.

Women take centre stage with ‘Sisters With Transistors’, telling the untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, ‘World of Ursula K Le Guin’ documenting the life of one of the most prolific, pioneering sci-fi writers of all time, and ‘No Straight Lines’, a celebration of the pioneers of LGBTQI+ cartoons and graphic novels.

The festival will see a return of The Cabinet of Living Cinema, an ensemble of multi-instrumentalists performing a one-off halloween special live score performance, as well as the sell-out local short film strand, highlighting the creative talent of Kent-based filmmakers.

This year we’re also introducing a new artist moving image strand which will be open to the public who will be able to pop in throughout the weekend.You can also expect to see many familiar faces on screen, anniversary special screenings, Q&As, workshops and more.

Margate Film Festival offers accessible sliding-scale ticket pricing, with online films available to view across the week. Main venues are wheelchair accessible and many films will have closed captions or subtitles.

For those further afield and shielding, we’re opening up our festival to a wider audience with an online programme of shorts, features, moving image and interactive works will be available to view online from the 1st - 7th November.