The cathedral city of St Albans is gearing up to host its second international film festival in association with London Luton Airport from May 1-4 and will be screening more than 100 films in 16 venues ranging from the city's 11th-century cathedral to its new, £25 million leisure centre, which has a pool that will be transformed into a 'swim-in' cinema for a screening of Jaws. 

All ages will be catered for in the festival's extensive programme with workshops such as Playing with Shakespeare for 3-5-year-olds, and Filming Extreme Sports Workshops, which will appeal to teenagers.

The theme of this year's festival is birds (of both the feathered and female kind) and flight, which complements the support from London Luton Airport.

As part of its support for the festival, London Luton Airport will be hosting an Immersive Experience at St Albans 15th-century Medieval Clock Tower, the only one of its kind in the country. At the event on Saturday 3 May, London Luton Airport will be taking festival-goers on a surprise trip up the Clock Tower on mini 30-minute adventure.

On Sunday 4 May, the Red Arrow Falcons – Parachute Display Team will be performing a free-fall display into the city's 100-acre park.

The festival, which is proud to have Christiane Kubrick (widow of the legendary filmmaker Stanley) as its patron, and London Luton Airport as its headline sponsor, is launching on the evening of Thursday 1 May with a screening of the Hitchcock classic The Birds in its 11th-century Cathedral, with a very special guest appearance from the birdy film-star Hedwig from the Harry Potter movies, who will be flying around the stunning Cathedral prior to the film screening.

As part of a packed programme of events across the weekend, Westminster Lodge swimming pool will also host a screening of the feature-length animation movie Ponyo, a story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Little Mermaid in which a young and overeager goldfish named Ponyo seeks to become human. This will take place on Saturday May 3 from 1.30pm-3.30pm followed by Jaws in the evening, which will be an over-18s screening.

Leoni Kibbey, director of the festival, says: "We are really excited about the great events we have planned for this year.  Our theme is Birds and Flight and so we are delighted that London Luton Airport is our headline sponsor this year.  St Albans doesn't actually have a cinema at the moment, although plans are afoot for one, but in the meantime, we are using some wonderful locations to screen films, such as the beautiful Cathedral and the new swimming pool, as well as local theatres, pubs, and even the medieval clock tower!  

"We will also have a special parachute display in Verulamium park from the Red Arrows Falcons, the UK's premier military parachute display team on the Sunday, which is free for everyone to enjoy.

"We've had a tremendous response from film makers this year, with more than 400 entries from across the globe already received in the short film competition. "

Where to stay? 

In the city: The 15th-century White Hart Hotel. Prices start at £89 per room per night for a double room.

www.whiteharthotelstalbans.co.uk 

On the outskirts: Sopwell House. Prices start at £109 per room per night for a double room.

http://www.sopwellhouse.co.uk/

For information and a full programme: www.stalbansfilmfestival.com

For more information about St Albans, www.enjoystalbans.com

This Film Festival would like to thank our very generous sponsors: 

London Luton Airport 

SA Law 

Warner Bros Studios Leavesden

University of Hertfordshire

Curzon Home Cinema 

About St Albans and filmmaking:

• The cathedral city of St Albans in Hertfordshire is just 20 minutes from St Pancras International and has a strong filmmaking heritage which inspired the festival director Leoni Kibbey, actress and casting director, to create the city's first film festival last year.
• Arthur Melbourne-Cooper who, in 1895, developed the first British 35mm moving picture camera and was a pioneer in making moving pictures, was born in the City.
• The much-celebrated Stanley Kubrick also came to settle in the area, in which he created and produced some of his most famous work, including The Shining
• The city's Roman aesthetic has been used as a backdrop to many films: St Albans Cathedral was a film location in Sean Connery's 1995 film First Knight, and in Johnny English starring Rowan Atkinson.
• The 2001 film Birthday Girl starring Nicole Kidman was also partly filmed in St Albans .
• More recently, several scenes from the film Incendiary, starring Williams, Ewan and Matthew Macfadyen, were filmed in St Albans, and Tom Cruise has recently filmed his new movie with Emily Blunt, All You Need is Kill, in the area.
• St Albans is in close proximity to some of the best and busiest film studios in the world - Leavesden, Pinewood and Elstree.

About London Luton Airport

• London Luton Airport is one of the UK 's largest airports and carried 9.7 million passengers in 2013. 
• The Airport directly and indirectly employs over 600 and 8,000 staff respectively, is a key economic driver for the region and a major base for 'low cost' air travel.  
• EasyJet, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Monarch, Thomson, EL AL, Atlasjet, Blue Air, TAROM and Carpatair operate from the Airport, departing to over 100 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa .
• Since 2009 London Luton Airport has invested £250,000 into an independently administered Community Trust Fund which has helped 101 groups with 13,300 direct beneficiaries. In addition the airport's owner, London Luton Airport Limited, supported by its shareholder, Luton Borough Council, operates a Community Funding Programme investing millions of pounds each year into the local community. In 2014/15 the amount is expected to exceed £17 million.
  

"The best thing that young filmmakers should do is to get hold of a camera and some film and make a movie of any kind at all."

STANLEY KUBRICK

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For further information please contact:

Angie Cronin

Tel: 07970810302

Email: angie@loudbird.co.uk