Bath Film Festival

Now FilmBath,[1] Bath Film Festival was established in 1991, in Bath, England, by members of the Bath Film Society. The organisation has expanded in duration, venues, and titles. In 1997, it was registered as a non profit-distributing company and, in 2000, as a charitable organisation. The festival has also expanded its programme over the years[2] to include workshops for festival-goers, live music accompaniments to silent cinema, and more recently, open-air cinema, starting in 2003 with a screening of E.T. in partnership with the Holburne Museum of Art. Since its foundation, the festival has screened over 1000 films.

IMDb is a co-sponsor of the festival and of several festival awards.[3]

Nicolas Roeg's 2007 film Puffball had its UK premiere at the festival.[4] In January 2014, a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ at Wells Cathedral (along with a companion screening of The Passion of Joan of Arc at Bath Abbey) provoked some controversy; the church defended its decision to allow the screening.[5][6]

In 2014 Bath Film Festival's Executive Director Holly Tarquini founded the F-Rating which is awarded to films directed and/or written by women. In 2015 the F-Rating was adopted by dozens of independent film festivals and cinemas[7] including The Barbican. In 2016 Holly Tarquini delivered a TEDx talk about the rating.[8] In 2017, the keyword 'f-rated' was added to over 22,000 titles on IMDb.[9]