Apparently, thirteen is a lucky number for some. It’s perhaps auspicious, then, that the East End Film Festival comes of age this year with its 13th birthday, which it’s celebrating by starting on June 13 and running for 13 days. The leading-edge independent film festival is set to showcase emerging talent from around the world, with a special focus on the new wave of Mexican cinema and, reflecting its steps into teenhood, youth-based pictures from Slovenia, Iceland and France, to name but a few destinations. Rather than competing with its biggest summer rival i.e. the World Cup, the silver screen gala will play the FA at their own game, scoring with the likes of surreal, Eric Cantona-featuring flick, You And The Night and poetic, Romanian father-and-son feature The Second Game.
And with the festival’s newly found youthfulness comes greater freedom for all involved. We are told that 2014 marks EEFF’s first year as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, which means the festival can remain, "accessible, non-hierarchical, and responsive… able to take the reins to champion the films EEFF really believe in, to continue this annual collective celebration of culture through cinema." The EEFF runs between June 13 and June 25 and you can glean more info about it here.