The East End Film Festival was started by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Arts and Events service in 2001 and continues to be run by them today. It would not have developed and flourished in the way it has without the support of the many partners and supporters we have had over the years and we are particularly grateful to the Lea Valley Park Authority who have stuck with us from the outset.  Equally EEFF would not be able to produce such a hugely ambitious programme of work without the dedicated staff and volunteers, some of whom have been associated with the festival over many years.

From the start the Festival was routed in its support for local filmmakers and providing a platform for their work, this remains a key objective.  In addition to the Festival LB Tower Hamlets has supported a large number of new short films through it’s Film Fund, part funded by Film London, and many of these films have gone on to win awards at Festivals around the world.

The fact that our audience grows year on year, and media interest with it, is testament to its quality and content. It is so much more than just a film festival. Yes we have countless screenings of great films but these are also many brilliant special events, workshops, outdoor screenings, music, art, poetry and top drawer guests. We have sourced some of the best films from around Europe, Asia and wider but fundamentally the East End Film Festival was started in the East End of London and its root remain firmly embedded there. In 2012 when the eyes of the world are focused on the Olympics in our back yard the East End Film Festival will be there to showcase all that is good about East London with its extraordinary diversity of citizens and cultural offer.

Big Name Premieres including:
- Mark Donne’s ‘The Rime of the Modern Mariner’
- Barney Platts-Mills’s ‘Bronco Bullfrog’
- Robert Glinski’s ‘Piggies’
- Dom Shaw’s ‘All The Years Of Trying’
- Bobby Paunescu’s ‘Francesca’
- Katarzyna Roslaniec’s ‘Mall Girls’
- Alexei Balabanov’s ‘Morphia’ and ‘Cargo 200’
- Jez Lewis’s ‘Shed Your Tears And Walk Away’
- Alexei Mizgirev’s ‘Buben, Baraban’
- Roberto Hernández’s ‘Presumed Guilty’
- Nicola & Teena Colins’ ‘The End’
- Jamie Jay Johnson’s ‘Sounds Like Teen Spirit’
- Steve Kelly’s ‘City Rats’
- Toni Schifer’s ‘On/Off Mark Stewart From The Pop Group To The Maffia’
- Hazuan Hashim’s / Phil Maxwell’s ‘East End Lives’
- George Dorobantu’s ‘Elevator’
- Jovan Arsenic’s ‘Homecoming’
- Rene Vilbre’s ‘I Was Here’
- Didem Erayda’s ‘Lodos’
- Zhang Chi’s ‘The Shaft’
- Olaf Lubaszenko’s ‘Zloty Srodek’
- Roger Goldby’s ‘The Waiting Room’
- ‘Sandra’ about the life of the Golden Hart’s eccentric and charismatic landlady, supported by a photographic exhibition by co-director Phil Maxwell
- Tomasz Konecki’s ‘Lejdis’ (top grossing film of all time in Poland)
- Danny Boyle’s ‘Millions’,
- Julian Cole’s ‘With Gilbert and George’,
- Julian Temple’s ‘Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten’
- The London Premiere of Richard E Grants ‘Wah Wah’
- The Oscar winning documentary ‘Born into Brothels’.

Industry Master Classes including:
- Lifesize Pictures, Film London, Doc/Fest, Left Films, Content Republic, UK Film Council, BAFTA and London Film Academy masterclasses
- 3D Workshops
- An Audience With Michael Nyman, film music composer, including ‘The Piano’ and the films of Peter Greenaway
- Warp X, Slinky Pictures, New Producers Alliance, FourDocs, & Shooting People masterclasses
- Shekar Kapor, director of ‘Elisabeth’,
- Ayub Khan Din, writer of ‘East is East’,
- Danny Boyle, director of ‘Trainspotting’,
- Stephen Woolley, producer of ‘The Crying Game’,
- Tony Grisoni, writer of ‘Fear and loathing in Las Vegas’,
- Nitin Sawnhey, film Composer and Musician for ‘The Namesake’ and ‘Roll of Dice’,
- Andrew Macdonald, producer of ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘The Last King of Scotland’.

Special events:
- Exhibition ‘A Riot of Our Own’
- Local(eyes) interactive cycling installation
- Visionare pop-up cinema at Village Underground
- live music to film events, including Minima and The Lodger
- screening of ‘The Rime of the Modern Mariner’ accompanied by Live Soundtrack at St Annes Church
- Grits’n’Gravy Sunday
- Give and Take
- Heritage Film Trail
- East End in 3D, Time-lapse Installation
- live music to film events, including Youthmovies and ‘The Tracy Fragments’
- live music from Kitty Daisy & Lewis in support of ‘We Dreamed America’ documentary- Philip Ilsons ‘Rockumentary Britannica’, a selection of rock shorts interspersed with live bands featured in the films,
- Nitin Sawhney’s film composition masterclass,
- ‘Lights Couture Action’ at the Hoxton Hall where local fashion designers including PPQ and Agonovich displayed their most theatrical garments with specially commissioned pieces of performance and film including ‘No-One’, ‘Beyond the Valley‘ and ’Maaike Mekking’.
- Offcuts-Cutting it!  Showcasing pop promos and live bands including ‘selfish C***’, and ‘Tetine’.
- Archive screening of ‘Broken Blossoms’, a silent Hollywood film set in Limehouse! Accompanied by one of the UK’s finest pianists.
- Parties with Dj’s such as Vivienne Westwood’s favourite Deany Seagulls, the East End’s very own pop starlets, The Broken Hearts and Eliete Mejorado.
And there would be no East End Film Festival without mentioning the Afterparties, from the George Tavern to Beach Blanket Babylon, from Vibe Live to Unda Da Bridge – If you weren’t there you missed out!