Adventure Cinema Food and Film Fest comes to Leicester

midlandsmovies • July 3, 2021
 Adventure Cinema comes to Leicester

The Film and Food Fest came to Leicester this week for a 4-day extravaganza of movies and munchies all held in the city’s historical Abbey Park and we take a look at this exciting screening event as it arrives in Midlands Movies' hometown.

With the weather holding out, a large crowd came to enjoy the early evening sunshine and check out Day 1 of the event which showcased local filmmakers and their short films.

And it’s great to see such a prestigious well-respected event giving a platform to Midlands low-budget independent filmmakers. Their films will be showing to a new audience at each event Adventure Cinema are running across the UK before the more mainstream films are shown in the following days.

The event also “caters” for food lovers and a selection of stalls providing sweet treats, vegan and veggie options, international cuisine and , of course, some alcohol enable guests to have a great experience in a large socially distanced park.

And with over a dozen shorts, we are going to take a look at the films and hugely encourage you to check them all out on the links below.

One of the first films screened was our highly recommended Dead Air by Leicester director Jordan Dean. Starring ex-broom cupboard presenter Simon Parkin (ask your parents), this zombie flick has both jokes and jolts and you can read our review here.

Spoiled Milk by Billy Davies was up next before we got the lockdown-made Buzz from Glenn McAllen-Finney. Shot in 2 hours and edited the same day, this short film was made as part of the GM Finney Productions 72hr Film Challenge and you can watch it here.

Epoch by Market Harborough director Joe Burden was next (follow on Twitter here) and comedy animation Bigfoot by Coventry’s Lee Charlish and his Korky Film Productions raised monster laughs. Read our review of his film here.


Horrors Keep It in The Dark and The Dollhouse from Nicky De La Vega provided scares despite the evening sun whilst black and white comedy Influenza (suitable for the year we’ve all just had) helped lighten the mood with it’s 50s-tinged safety film vibe. Watch here.


An off-beat, short comedy about love, hate and spam callers was the theme of Unknown Number by Julie Mayhew with great performances from Anna-Marie Wayne and Richard Galloway.


Hidden by Jess O'Brien was followed by Double Word Score which starred Mbili Munthali who also works in the Midlands as a camera operator and was featured in our Midlands professional series here.


Lifelike featured local actor Michael Muyunda (follow on Twitter here) who’s starred in a plethora of Midlands shorts including Cry of the Magpie (our MIdlands Movies review)

A blast from the past was Pitiful Corpses by Tom Young who won our very own Midlands Movies 2017 best adapted screenplay award and Mike Yeoman of Flip You Comedy returned for Yogi Griddle: Survivor-Parts 1 & 2 – a fantastic funny spin on the survival shows of Bear Grills.


The screenings were rounded off by two films from Rajnish Sharma. Eve starred local actress Eve Harding and Death Toll looked at the immediate issues of the global pandemic.


And with that, the fantastic showcase ended but the festival was to continue with Grease, Onward, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Greatest Showman and Joker over the weekend. For the full line-ups of future dates please check out the official website and catch even more great indie filmmakers’ projects at events across the Midlands and the rest of the UK.


https://www.filmandfoodfest.com

By midlandsmovies September 12, 2026
Lights On is a new 2-minute micro short from Midlands director Georgie Cubin. Nominated for Best Director at the 2021 Midlands Movies Awards Tell Me Who We Are, the filmmaker returns with a story about a teenager who is home alone and starts to worry whether his home is haunted.
By midlandsmovies September 6, 2026
Reviews can provide validation, promo and industry approval but there's has a flip side to the critical coin. We explore how filmmakers can deal with varied film reviews
By midlandsmovies September 4, 2026
The Robin Hood legend has more than its fair share of adaptations and it’s definitely been a bit of of a Robin Hood year for me with a rewatch of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), a visit to Sherwood Forest to watch Prince of Thieves (1991) and now this new incarnation heading to cinemas
By midlandsmovies September 1, 2026
Having seen thousands of short films in my time doing Midlands Movies, I am still surprised how ingenious and inventive local filmmakers are even when resources are often limited for these often low (or no) budget productions
Show More