The final Hospital Club 100 has just been announced, highlighting established and up-and-coming people across the UK’s creative industries, and we appear to be second in the emerging film category. Sandwiched – as it were – between Emily Blunt and Carey Mulligan. Most surreal. Many thanks if you voted! There’s more info in The Independent.

Slomo tea from 7inch cinema on Vimeo.

Here’s a shot of some mountains which Chris took in New Zealand, recently selected for the Art of Photography show in San Diego:

We were alerted to this bizarre piece of cinema by Vanessa Toulmin when she visited the festival a couple of weeks ago to do a talk. I’ve a feeling she said it was her favourite film ever, and who are we to disagree? It can be found on volume 3 of Lobster Films’ brilliant Retour de Flamme series.

2008 is slipping through our fingers, and we’re in nostalgic mood. Well actually, I’m supposed to be writing copy for the Flatpack brochure and will hungrily grab at any distraction that comes along. This is unlikely to be in human form as it seems that I’m the only bugger in the Custard Factory today, so I thought I would shuffle through the last 12 months from a 7inch point-of-view…

>> Just over a year ago we were showing Christmas Ghost Stories at Highbury Hall. Not strictly 2008, but this unnerving event has been on our minds of late since Mark Gatiss’ excellent Crooked House screened on BBC4. (The whole caboodle is up on iPlayer until 3rd Jan – find yourself a computer in a darkened room.)

>> In January we spent a couple of days in Belfast on a film festival training course run by the ICO, a good opportunity to blether with other festival folk and gird our loins for the return of Flatpack Festival.

>> There was a nice run of Sunday-night gigs at the Hare and Hounds. Highlights included a straight8 special, Derrick Knight reminiscing about Travelling for a Living, and the surprisingly informative Housewives’ Choice. A big thank you to Adam and all at the pub, and everyone who submitted work or played records.

>> In April this website arrived, complete with a vastly improved archive for the stuff we’ve done over the years and of course a blog – always a welcome alternative to work.

>> Shortly afterwards the Film Council picked Flatpack as one of seven key UK events within their new festival strategy. Which was nice of them.

>> 7inch celebrated turning five with a raucous do at the Rainbow. Slightly later in the year Mr and Mrs 7inch marked ten years since they first met in the projection box at Odeon New St. Oh, heady days.

>> We did guest-spots for Supersonic and Green Man festivals (fleeing the latter just before the deluge), as well as participating in Vivid’s Flux-fest with an odd and enjoyable warehouse evening.

>> Our Knitflicks weekend at Compton Verney attracted enthusiastic knitters and all kinds of strange press interest (culminating in this).

>> Over the summer we finally moved into an office, and took a trip to the Ballerina Ballroom.

>> In the autumn we got to wallow in the work of two of our heroes, Len Lye and Delia Derbyshire, in the process discovering Derbyshire’s actual bloomin’ gasmask.

>> There was also lots of pootling around lovely venues in Worcestershire as part of a touring archive project, with Mrs 7inch appearing on local news and everything.

>> And we had a nice day out in Sheffield.

>> Then as Christmas approached we reacquainted ourselves with the spread-sheets, night-sweats and mounting drama that can only mean festival time.

Tomorrow it’ll be 2009 and Flatpack will feel a whole lot closer, but it’s nice to remember how much we fitted in this year. At a guess, well over 6,000 punters reached and hopefully most of them satisfied. If you were one of them thanks for coming along – and either way, a happy new year to you.

New address is on the contact page.

Though it’s a bit embarassing to be promoting this (honestly), you can if you choose blow an hour of your Wednesday evening this week hearing Ian Francis of 7 Inch Cinema talk about his favourite things at the Ikon gallery. I was pathetically chuffed to be invited to do this, being an inveterate list-maker and a big Desert Island Discs fan (especially now they’ve got rid of Sue Lawley). But once confronted with the long-awaited opportunity to bang on about stuff you like, it’s actually a bit of a headache whittling it down. I’ve gone for the slightly flippant/ random approach; and as always the David Shrigley postcard above my desk is a useful confidence-booster when preparing for public speaking…

Today the UK Film Council announced the recipients of their national Festival Fund award, and it gives us great pleasure to confirm (rustle of envelope) that Flatpack Festival is one of them. The fund was set up last year to support and enhance two UK film festivals of international significance (ie, Edinburgh, and probably London) and up to eight festivals of national (or potentially national) significance. They picked seven in the end, including Sheffield DocFest, Cinemagic in Belfast and Nottingham’s Silent Cinema Festival, and Flatpack has been awarded £70,000 over the next three years to build on the promise of the first two editions. (There’s more background on the festival in the projects section, or last year’s programme is at flatpackfestival.org)

So what does this mean for us, the producers of Flatpack? Well, the money will obviously come in handy, although there is still plenty of work to be done on the fundraising front. But it’s also a fantastic stamp of approval, a big frilly rosette from the national body responsible for film. To build something like this up on a really tight budget, to show that there’s an audience for this kind of programming, and then to secure the support which allows you to plan ahead and think a bit bigger; it’s a mighty good feeling. And without going all Oscar-night about it, it wouldn’t have been possible without all the filmmakers, volunteers, artists, promoters, technicians, funders, venues and enthusiastic punters who have chipped in to help us get this far. So thanks a lot, and here’s to Flatpack III in February 2009 and beyond…

(And congratulations to DeafFest at Wolverhampton Light House, who were also on the list)

As the snow started falling last weekend, I ran out into the garden with some old cinema letters to leave a pawprint. Here is the slightly melted result, to mark the official opening of our new virtual home. Welcome! Feel free to have a poke around. Truffles and flowers to Dave Gaskarth (design) and Jacob Masters (site building).