Over the years Simon Rumley has come to Ravenna several times, last one in 2017 when he presented Fashionista at Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest, winning the Critic's Award for Best Feature Film Directing. It's with this very noir of the British director that we are launching the new distribution label The Dark Side of Movies, that will bring on streaming platform CINEMAF the best films presented at Ravenna Nightmare. From May 20 Fashionista is for the first time available in VOD in Italy.
We are particularly proud of starting this distribution initiative with one of the best films ever selected by Ravenna Nightmare during its editions. Fashionista is an actual auteur production, a perfect film to penetrate into the dark side of cinema. Once again, Rumley proves to be one of the most interesting authors of the British scene, capable of exploring different genres, achieving a unique and unmistakeable style.
Ravenna Nightmare Film Fest has always reserved a peculiar attention to Rumley's cinematography, selecting and proposing his feature films, for 5 editions, within the International Competition. First one that was presented at the Nightmare was The Living and The Dead, then it was the time of Red, White & Blue, followed by Little Deaths. In 2016 he won the Golden Ring, our Audience Award for Best Film, with Johnny Frank Garrett's Last Word, just a year after being awarded by the Festival critics for Fashionista.
Simon Rumley was described as ‘one of the most important and intelligent British film-makers working today’ by Empire Magazine. Screen International described him as ‘One of the great British cinematic outsiders with the know-how to puncture conventions’. Hollywood Reporter called him a ‘psycho thriller maestro’. Having directed 9 feature films and 2 anthology films, he is one of the most successful and prolific UK directors of his generation. Mainly dealing in extreme drama and psychological horror, his films have played at festivals around the world including Toronto, Rotterdam, SXSW, Sarajevo, Tallin, Transilvania, Buenos Aires and Stockholm. His films have won almost 50 awards collectively including best films at Sitges, Fantastic Fest and Fantasia and companies such as Netflix, eOne, Magnolia, IFC and Image have distributed them. Between 2010-2016, Rumley, a native Londoner, lived and shot 3 features in USA but returned to the UK in 2015 to direct Crowhurst, executive produced by Nicolas Roeg. His last film Once Upon A Time In London just came out in the UK, a 1940s London based gangster movie who has already received excellent reviews.
