Aesthetica Film Festival/ ASFF is the annual film festival in the city of York that takes place near to the beginning of November. ASFF is a hugely popular film festival showing films from all over the world, it is essentially a melting pot of artists from every corner of the world which means it is a great opportunity for networking if you are an artist/filmmaker yourself. The BAFTA recognised festival includes events within the festival such as panels, master classes and Film showings so if you don't fancy one thing, then there's always something else for you to visit.

This year (now last year/2015 as of rewriting this) I attended the Friday of ASFF with the Filmmaking course at mmu on November 5th. It was an amazing experience as it was my first film festival, The films were great, The venues were really interesting and the City is a lovely place (it was also my first time in York that I can remember) The festival was spread across the city with various genres of film being shown at different locations, me and the group of friends I went to the films with went to see a showing of Experimental films, animated films, Thriller, Comedy and Drama screenings. The main film that stuck with me was "A Stranger Kind" by Ollie Murray, A thriller about a magician who performs a trick in a seedy cabaret, a trick which by a chain of events, saves a young women from a grizzly fate.

The festival itself was an interesting experience due to the sheer amount of distinctive diversity of arts, be it from the festival itself or just the setting of the festival, the city of York which is a beautiful city full of age due to its Roman beginnings and wall, the 13th century gothic cathedral and other architecture of all ages. I especially enjoyed exploring the city and its earlier area known as "The Shambles" originally an open air meat market, the street is now home to an assortment of shops, cafes etc, definitely worth a visit. Another thing about the festival which impressed me was the low entry cost which has even tempted me to maybe enter one of my films in the coming years, it seems like it'd be a huge leap into the industry and definitely helpful to anyone who is, like myself, basically just starting out in the film industry and although my interests lie elsewhere with art film, I think it'd still be a great help, not only with getting myself known but also with confidence in my films.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this festival to anyone interested in pretty much any aspect of filmmaking because it covers all bases, The city it is set in is also a lovely place for a weekend stay so if you get bored of the films, you can go and explore. The selection of films is fantastic and will likely cater to near enough everyone.