Students at Anglia Ruskin University now have the chance to become involved in a wide range of film-related projects thanks to a new partnership arrangement with the Cambridge Film Trust, sponsored by the Marketing Department.

The Cambridge Film Trust is a new umbrella organisation for the Cambridge Film Festival which has been running for over 25 years and which exists to promote as wide a range of cinema as possible. Each year in July, new Hollywood films are premiered in Cambridge, little-known but wonderful productions from around the world are screened, and directors and stars come to the city to talk to audiences about their work. Last year special events also included outdoor screenings throughout the Eastern region, and practical film workshops for aspiring film-makers of all ages. Special guests included acclaimed UK actors Susannah York and Damian Lewis, and controversial Albanian film-maker Kutjim Cashku.

Students from Anglia Ruskin have, for several years, been involved with the Film Festival in a number of ways, volunteering to help out with marketing, hospitality, education and administrative duties as well as working on the Festival's well-established review paper, the Daily (available as hard copy, online and as podcast), as reviewers and feature-writers, sometimes interviewing some of the famous guests.

From 2007, the opportunities have become much greater as the Festival extends its activities all year round. The first student intern for the Cambridge Film Trust, Cosima Finkbeiner (Communication Studies), has just been appointed to work mainly on setting up a major film event on the Cambridge campus. Her first 'task', however, is to attend the Berlin Film Festival and report back on new films that might then be chosen for Cambridge. Several other students have begun writing reviews of Film Trust events and these will be considered for the new Monthly publication. Other volunteers will be needed to work on web and poster design, administration and special projects as the Film Trust develops its profile.

For further details, please contact Sarah Barrow, Pathway Leader for Film Studies, in the first instance. Keep a lookout also for details of volunteering in the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse brochure (available online from the Arts Picturehouse website)