Jarl Russnes, one of the regular Norwegian visitors to the convention, has written about his time at the 2025 event. Jarl runs his own film club (the Oslo FilmrullKlubb), and his review was published on the website of NFK – the Norwegian Film Club Association, of which Jarl’s club is a member. We present a translated version here. Many thanks to Jarl for permission to reproduce his text and pictures.
Oslo FilmrullKlubb was part of the Scandinavian delegation at this year’s film collectors’ meeting in Blackpool. There was a strong feeling that “Film is the new Vinyl” and that a renaissance for analogue film is on the way.
A show with three presenters
November came around again, and the big highlight was, as always, the trip to The Blackpool Film Collectors’ Convention, the largest of its kind in the UK. There are a group of four of us who have now been to the convention many times, while others come and go. This time there were no fewer than nine of us from Scandinavia, which is a new record. After much deliberation, we all arrived at the world’s finest fallen glory, the town that gave the masses from Manchester and Liverpool the opportunity to holiday, but later lost the battle to Benidorm.
Friday night started with a 35mm feature film with all the trimmings, and on Saturday there was a film show with various short films on 8mm, 16mm and 35mm. No less than three projectors were set up and three operators took turns screening with their respective projectors. The show lasted six hours without any hitches, although we had a short lunch break.
Saturday night was the big dinner, which has been very popular in recent years and is approaching the old heights from the time when there was money in film collections. The organisers did a great job creating a great evening’s entertainment with a 3-course dinner, speeches, an award ceremony (this year’s recipient was our own Eivind Mork), quiz, raffle, and finally the film show, which is presented by a new guest every year.
What you didn’t know you were looking for
Then the grand finale. Sunday is market day, the real deal. The place where dreams can come true and you can find your rare treasure, something you didn’t know you were looking for, or nothing at all. Everyone was excited as we stood outside the door waiting for it to be 10am and we could storm in. What would we find this time? Rumour had it that there were more than ever in recent times, and Film is Fabulous (an organisation that works to preserve vulnerable film collections) were there with a bang.
Then the doors opened, and yes, here were the goodies. A quick circuit to find the best. Can I afford it? I didn’t see that one in the middle! It took a few rounds with both myself and the tables, before everyone could say they had gotten something really nice. Afterwards it was a pint and dinner at the legendary Michael Wan’s Great Mandarin (established 1961) with bragging about what we had gotten and of course a little lying. Then all you have to do is start looking forward to next time, and if you’re thinking about coming next year, the dates are already set.
Finally, we can boast that we have previously been allowed to send travel letters to three film collectors’ meetings, and with this the list is complete, perhaps. It is the greatest honour and a big thank you to NFK for this.
Greetings, Jarl Russnes, Oslo FilmrullKlubb.
PS: Film purchased on this trip will definitely appear at Oslo Filmrullklubb’s upcoming screenings, so stay tuned!
Link to the original article: https://filmklubb.no/wp/filmrulltreff-i-blackpool/
Blackpool Film Collectors' Convention 