MWFF 2021 FESTIVAL DIARY: PART 2

by Laura Mansted

Critics Lab Workshops

Saturday was an eventful day for everyone in the critics’ lab! For the past couple of weeks, us critics have been having a great time getting together and sharing our work with Cerise Howard and Laura La Rosa. At first, it was extremely daunting to share our work with the group but after some feedback and encouragement we were able to push through our anxieties and start looking forward to our feedback. Saturday had us all workshopping our latest film reviews from the festival for Kill Your Darlings magazine which has proven challenging but fulfilling. We got some super helpful feedback on our work (I have over a page of notes for mine!) and I’m now sure we’re going to smash our final drafts out of the park.

After our review workshop, it was time for us critics to deliberate on the film that would win Critic’s choice. Picking the winner went a lot quicker than expected. Initially I imagined we would be fighting for our favourites (and trust me, there were a lot of favourites) we always kept coming back to the same short as one of our top picks. So, congratulations (in advance) to the winner of the Critics’ Choice Award, and another massive congratulation to the other 67 films that were selected! You should all be incredibly proud of your work and we loved every second of watching them! Being a part of the MWFF Critics Lab has been an incredible experience that I am so grateful to have been a part of it.