Who We Are
TAKE ONE is an independently run film website, focusing on the best in independent and festival cinema year-round. Our writers also review general releases globally, with our focus being to give established writers an outlet for thoughtful coverage of lower-profile but valuable work, and to offer newer writers the chance to develop their voice with the support of an experienced editorial team.
What We Do
Film festivals we have covered include Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Venice, Edinburgh, London, Glasgow, Film Africa, Sundance, London Korean, San Sebastian, Africa In Motion, Belfast, Raindance, and many others. We have covered select festivals such as the British Silent Film Festival, Edinburgh Shorts, and Cambridge in print, produced magazines for festivals such as Scottish Queer International in e-editions and we continue to expand our reporting from events and film festivals around the world.
We have also produced audio work, first covering a festival in podcast form at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019 in partnership with Cinetopia. In 2023, we launched TAKE ONE Presents…, where the first runs of limited series have focused on analysing and contextualising different mainstream cinema franchises. We have worked closely with radio partners such as Cinetopia and EH-FM in Edinburgh, and The Cambridge Film Show and Cambridge 105FM since our founding in 2011.
What You’ll Find
Our archive includes coverage from every festival to which we’ve sent our writing team, including interviews with John Hurt, Céline Sciamma, Gary Oldman, Paddy Considine, Charlotte Wells, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, and Nic Winding Refn – not to mention film makers and actors you maybe haven’t met yet such as Jos Stelling and Marc Senter.
TAKE ONE is a volunteer-led, non-commercial project, funded primarily by the founding editors. Any modest advertising revenue would be reinvested directly into expanding our coverage and keeping the site running. While we don’t currently pay for contributions, this model allows us editorial freedom to focus on smaller or overlooked films and filmmakers, as well as supporting new writers (many of our writers have gone on to paid work in film criticism and other areas of the industry).
Where We Came From
TAKE ONE evolved in 2011 from the original Cambridge Film Festival Daily as the official source of news, reviews and interviews on all films screened during the festival. The first hard copy issue of TAKE ONE was distributed around Cambridge on September 8th 2011, and the independent website launched in November 2011. Since then, we have expanded to cover films and festivals all over the world, with writers in dozens of countries.
What We Promise
We promise that we will do our best to do our duty to film makers, film lovers, and film writers, to entertain, encourage and inform, and never to carp at or crap on good, honest film.
Jim RossEditor-in-Chief/Co-Founder |
Rosy HuntEditor-at-Large/Co-Founder |
