Manchester based festival and event organisers Grimmfest have been commissioned by the British Film Institute (BFI) to host a major cinematic event on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November at the Odeon Great Northern.
Presented as part of In Dreams are Monsters, a major nationwide film season from the BFI, supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network, Monsters and Movies will showcase a weekend of screenings, in-depth discussions and autograph signings with well-known faces from the world of film and TV, all of whom have a passion for horror movies!
Reece Shearsmith will headline the event. As one of the creators, writers and stars of Inside No 9, Psychoville and The League of Gentlemen, Reece needs no introduction to horror and comedy fans alike. Reece will be hosting a screening of his favourite monster movie, John Carpenter’s The Thing, with a specially recorded introduction by Carpenter himself. Reece will also talk about his work and the movies that inspired him.
Dominic Brunt is known to the nation as Paddy in ITV’s Emmerdale, but not everyone knows that Dominic is also a prolific director or horror movies. Dominic will be presenting his latest, horror-comedy Wolf Manor and talking about the film and his work in front and behind the camera.
He will also be joined by the film’s special makeup effects artist Shaune Harrison, whose work has been featured on big budget movies like Harry Potter, Star Wars and World War Z). Shaune will reveal some of his secrets on how he creates creatures and monsters for the movies.
If you are a Startrek fan, then you’ll know all about one of the major adversaries in the film franchise, The Borg! We are excited to welcome actress Alice Krige who, amongst many big screen roles, played the Borg Queen in Startrek: First contact. Alice will be talking about her work and discussing the representation of women as monsters in genre cinema.
Neil Marshall is a prolific UK film director who has worked on some of the most popular TV shows of all time, think Game of Thrones and Westworld.
The second season of SKY TV’s Gangs of London is continuing to make headlines after the huge success of the first season. We are excited to welcome season 2 showrunner and director Corin HardyY to talk about his work on the show, his cinema box office smash hit The Nun and his brilliant debut feature film The Hallow, an Irish set horror movie. Corin will be presenting the film and some of his ‘never before’ seen, behind the scenes concept and design work.
Enjoying Hocus Pocus 2 on Disney+? We welcome the writer of the original film, Hollywood writer and director, Mick Garris to talk about his work and close collaborations with everyone from Stephen Spielberg to Stephen King. Mick will also be presenting a 30th Anniversary screening of his Stephen King movie Sleepwalkers.
And if all that isn’t enough, we will be screening some classic monster movies including, The Thing and American Wwerewolf in London, and also giving attendees the opportunity to get an autograph from all our guests. With over eight movie screenings and in depth talks with all our guests, this is an event any dedicated movie fan cannot afford to miss.
The event will be presented in association with the Manchester Centre for GothicStudies and all the details can be found here: https://grimmfest.com/events/
