Hooray for Geordiewood

But one woman is determined to make the North-east of England a vibrant part of the international movie scene – with the Tyne Bridge as its emblem and the white sands of Northumbria as its backdrop.

Move over Cannes and make way for Whitley Bay.

Because entrepreneur Jacqui Miller-Charlton, a proud Geordie, is a woman on a mission to establish the fledgling Newcastle International Film and Television Festival (NiFT) as such a powerful force in the international movie business that it will re-energise the entire region.

The first festival in the spring was a remarkable success with more than 1.5 million social media impressions, a media reach of just under 11 million and more than 2,000 entries from independent film-makers from 87 countries.

“The team now have a fantastic platform to build on,” says Jacqui, who spent 35 years travelling the globe helping to develop her family business which produces specialised digging equipment.

Now as co-director of NiFT she is fully engaged in something equally ground-breaking: bringing movie gold to Newcastle.

“We want NiFT to be recognised as something that’s making a difference in an area of the country that has been long forgotten and yet which has given the world a great number of stars in music, film and television.

“We want the festival to be a spotlight to refocus and re-energise the region in an area at which it excels, the arts. Our aim is to create an independent fi lm and TV studio in the North-east.

“Over the years Northumbria has attracted film-makers because of its beautiful coastline, striking cityscapes and expansive landscapes.”

FROM the Michael Caine thriller Get Carter in 1971, which was filmed in the North-east, to Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone shot at Alnwick Castle in 2000, the area has a provided a striking backdrop.

“We have every single landscape you can imagine,” says Jacqui. “Over the years they’ve all been used in major films and we want that to grow.

“You only have to look at the backdrops in the TV series Vera or Robson Green’s My Northumberland to realise that what we have to offer is incredible.

“The festival is trying to create something that has the whole world looking at the Northeast… We want to use it to increase tourism and then look at ways to engage educational institutions in the creative arts and get lots more inter national students coming on board.

“The wider vision is that some of these film-makers will discover the warmth of the people and outstanding scenery in the region and will go on to shoot their future projects here.

“The area offers every single kind of location a film-maker could ever want to shoot and all within easy reach of each other.

“Imagine no costly traffic jams and hotel accommodation a fraction of the price of other parts of the country.

“It really is time for the North-east to claim its rightful place on the global stage.

“The over-arching thing for us is to deliver a festival that resonates with film-makers and places them at the centre of the opportunity that’s on offer.

“The world of entertainment is changing and I think we need to get back to stories about life that people can identify with.

“It’s all about empathy and recognising that we live in turbulent times and need to have something that allows us to feel at one as a race – and the medium of fi lm is how we do that.

“So it’s becoming ever more important to recognise the talents of our great independent fi lm-makers and place them centre stage.

“The big difference between the independents and the major studios is that the independents are in it because they have a passion and the studios are in it because they want to make money – of course independents want to make money too but what drives them is a passion to tell a story they feel needs to be told.

“Studios are more about the process, the business. For our first festival this year Abel Ferrara, a legend in independent film-making, came along and was blown away.

“We also had Newcastle-born Neil Marshall, who is now one of the hottest properties in Hollywood as a director of Game Of Thrones and Westworld.

“Willem Defoe, who has made more than 100 films and been nominated three times for Oscars, sent us a message of support, as did director Ken Loach.

“And we had workshops that featured Jools Holland in conversation with Geoff Wonfor, director of the awardwinning The Beatles Anthology, NiFT co-founder Craig Conway, a talented South Shields-born actor, in conversation with Sean Pertwee [whose father Jon played Dr Who].

“We also had local talents such as Jill Halfpenny and Denise Welch who came back to support their region because they love what we’re doing and want to give back by becoming ambassadors for us.

“Although none of them lives here any more because they’re not able to fulfil their art in the Northeast they are all dedicated to the movement that’s going on and want to help put us on the map.”

So look out Hollywood, the Geordies are coming!

The 2019 Newcastle International Film Festival will be held on October 24-27.

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FOR next year’s festival in October 2019 school and youth organisations will be encouraged to make their own film trailers and write their own scripts and submit them for judging.

“We want children to feel inspired about what’s around them and what better way to do that than giving them the opportunity to write a script in which they can tell a story?” says Jacqui.

One initiative, called Utrail, is aimed at the 16-plus group, encouraging them to script and film a trailer no longer than a minute.

The winner will receive professional mentoring and a £1,500 prize.

Primary school children can either write a script for a production they’d like to appear in or make a trailer – they can even shoot the trailer on a smartphone.

“We’re looking for creativity, flair, edge, that wow factor!” says Jacqui.