Calling all Hackney filmmakers!

Bafta winner Michael Please in his Hackney studio. Photograph: Tim Sullivan

The second annual Hackney Film Festival is now calling for submissions.

The inaugural festival last September was a resounding success, with one of the entries – Michael Please’s The Eagleman Stag – going on to win a BAFTA.

This year’s four-day event, coming to screens near you between 15 and 18 September, promises to be even bigger and better. There will be more venues, more live events and – most importantly – more films. This is where local filmmakers come in.

Entries can be of any length and any genre. The only requirement is that they are from Hackney based film-makers, defined as someone living or working in Hackney.

The organisation behind the festival is a not-for-profit collective of local filmmakers and artists, driven by the desire to create a platform for local cinéastes to show off their work in a convivial atmosphere.

Festival Director Steve McInerney is keen to emphasise that this makes the Hackney Film Festival different from its peers in other parts: “Hackney Film Festival strives to achieve a new kind of film festival: a festival that does not over-popularise itself with the glitz and glamour of awards ceremonies and VIP parties, but instead simply celebrates the concentration of filmmaking talent from the borough.

“For decades, artists from around the world have been settling in Hackney and have stayed here to establish what we see in today’s borough: a vibrant and ever growing culturally diverse area, which in turn is a great source for creative inspiration. Hackney Film Festival strives to celebrate this creativity.

“We aim to give the community a festival of cinema and live audio-visual entertainment for a fair price. We see the festival as a tool for education and inspiration and should be available to all, not only to film lovers but to those who may never have even entered a cinema before”.

The deadline for submissions is 12 August 2011. Full details of the festival and entry forms can be downloaded from the Hackney Film Festival website or for more details phone: 07726 550 496.