Andrew de Burgh, Festival Founder
Disillusioned by the importance that many film festivals place on films with known actors, directors etc which most filmmakers never have access to, acclaimed filmmaker Andrew de Burgh (“The Bestowal”, ZEE5’s “The Twisted Doll”) started a festival dedicated to finding indie cinematic voices from around the world who have put blood, sweat and tears into making their independent films by the skin of their teeth.
de Burgh started his career in 2015 with the psychological thriller short film “Just One Drink” which starred scream queen Barbara Nedeljakova (“Hostel”) and scored a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes
and was distributed as an Editor’s Pick by ShortsTV.
In 2018, he started the production company Sacred Ember Films and soon after wrote, produced and directed his first feature “The Bestowal” which premiered at MegaCon. It scored a 75% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and was distributed on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Google Play, YouTube Movies by Indie Rights. de Burgh also directed the psychological thriller mini-series “The Twisted Doll” streaming on ZEE5 as well as the horror features “The Seductress from Hell” and “The Demoness”.
Nicholas Sidley, Festival Director
Born to an Irish father and English mother, de Burgh Sidley's interest in movies would start at an early age, with a particular fascination in the James Bond franchise.
He started his career as an executive producer on the 2015 short psychological thriller film "Just One Drink", which starred Barbara Nedeljakova ("Hostel"). The film proved to be a tremendous success with film critics, garnering a perfect 100% critic score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It was also distributed as an editor's pick by Shorts International, the world's leading short film distributor.
In 2018, he was a co-producer on the sci-fi drama feature "The Bestowal", which tells the tale of a suicidal businessman who is visited by an inter-dimensional being. He was also Executive Producer and Production Designer on the horror dark comedy feature "The Demoness".