For those Cambridge faithfuls, next week sees some film activity from “the other place”.

The Oxford Film Festival opens on Monday 20th, a collaboration of Oxford University and Oxford Brookes. With almost all universities now running a film society, student film festivals are a growing trend. Pascoe Foxell, student organiser of the Oxford University comments: “Last year I was really expecting the films to be rubbish. Rushed, student films – not the greatest script or writing – but then they were brilliant, beautifully produced.”

“The guy who won, it was a stop-motion animation. He spent six months on it. It was very surprising and wonderful.” With the London Student Film Festival earlier this month and the Watersprite Cambridge International Student Film Festival hot on Oxford’s heels, quantity as well as quality are on the up for student projects. Hands-on film-making courses are thriving, and as student societies are increasingly enthused by greater training in techniques and greater outlets through social networking, communities are beginning to burst out. Youtube hits like TomSka have quickly shown the opportunities now available to student projects. Cheap cameras and cheap production have opened the door to invention. “We have a fairly big network of people in Oxford who want to be involved with film; with the new DSLR stuff, you don’t need a lot of equipment.”

Cheap cameras and cheap production have opened the door to invention

One of the stand-out features of the Oxford Film Festival is the intense 24 hour film making challenge. In a similar vein to the bigger Sci-Fi 48 Hour Film Challenge, teams have a day to create and shoot their three minute short for it to be screened the next evening. “There’s no hanging around. It’s nice going in and not knowing what you’re going to do … and at the end it’s shown in a cinema.” says Foxell. It may be some time before we see Cannes rolling out time trial projects but, in smaller festivals at least, participation events open up whole new avenues for prospective film-makers. “Three years ago, this guy won [the Sci-Fi Film challenge] and he just had a fairly cheap camera and a lens or two … and that guy was Gareth Edwards, who went on to direct MONSTERS.

Opening on Monday and running all week, the Oxford Film Festival will feature a variety of events from student projects to question and answer sessions. Julian Fellowes, writer and producer of DOWNTON ABBEY, and Kelvin Pike, camera operator for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY make up a few of the diverse group of guests, and the film competition will be judged on the final night. After last year’s complete sell-out, similar success is hoped for this year. However, commenting on the aims for the festival Foxell stated he wanted “a discussion – people getting excited about it and about film.”

Read more about Oxford University Film Foundation