Movie Mogul.co.uk For the Love of Film Blog

Last evening saw the top three winners of our short film competition celebrate their achievement.

It has always been been known that part of the prize for being voted in the top three films by our panel of professional judges was to be an opportunity to see your work screened at the headquarters of BAFTA at 195 Piccadilly, followed by a celebratory dinner at the famous Groucho Club at 45 Dean St in Soho.  What wasn't known before last night is just how well we were going to be looked after.

As a film maker just walking into BAFTA is following in the footsteps of so many admirable practitioners of the arts we aspire to ourselves, one cannot help feeling a little pride just being allowed in. The enthusiastic reception we received, from the point of booking with Sophie, to when we said goodnight, demonstrated a wonderful respect for our humble competition that was genuinely uplifting. Following an impeccable screening of our three films in the Run Run Shaw Theatre and a very short presentation, we dived downstairs to the bar to get to know everyone and have a quick drink. Having originally planned for the group of us going on to dinner to leave our friends and supporters at 8:15 we actually had to be pried from the bar just before 9:00! A great welcome at a great venue with great screening facilities, so a GREAT Start.

The short walk to The Groucho Club in Dean St takes you through Piccadilly Circus, up Shaftesbury Avenue for a bit, down Wardour St and Old Compton St to reach the right end of Dean St to find the club. On the warmest night of the year so far, everywhere was heaving. The holiday atmosphere helping to build the excitement about what 'The Groucho' had to offer.

We were cetainly not disappointed in any way at all! They had organised a superb table, upstairs in the dining room, which was waiting for us loaded with complimentary Canapes and fizz donated by Groucho in support of our event. The menu for our three course dinner which was comprehensive and delicious, was printed with the event title on top which made the attention seem very personal; the 'Club' wines were excellent. As a venue while being a busy place the acoustics were perfect for dinner conversation and it was most enjoyable to have this opportunity to talk at length with our winners Nic, Kipper & Alex. After dinner we joined the happy throng enjoying the music night in the upstars bar and, well....the rest is history! All in all we were made to  feel very special and a huge thank you goes out from us to June, Miriam, Bernie and all the staff at Groucho who helped to make that happen.

Overall our first Annual Awards celebration screening and dinner was a great success which I hope everyone enjoyed as much as I clearly did!? I am looking forward to the next one very much and I don't think I would change a thing. MM.

 http://www.bafta.org/

www.grouchoclub.com

p.s. During the evening one or two people asked how the voting for our winners took place. Just to clarify this, unlike the monthly votes which are placed by our registered members on the Competition page where the films are screened using the Star Voting system, our Annual Winners are adjudicated on by a panel of industry professionals, which includes film makers from many sides of the business, they can all be seen by following this link http://moviemogul.co.uk/about/judges