From New York to York. At the age of 22 Cherie Federico set up the Aestehtica Magazine that is now distributed in 525 stores nationwide. However, Cherie recounts how she Initially faced issues finding distributers for her magazine, she recounts how an ambitious phone call to Borders book shop resulted in a breakthrough and thus set the foundations for her magazine. Due to the seismic and unexpected growth of her magazine nine years after moving continent Cherie made the decision in 2011 to use the magazines eminence to start the Aesthetica Short Film Festival that would showcase, over a series of five days in November the best short film entries from across the globe. In 2014 the festival became recognized not only on a national level but was granted the much coveted recognition from BAFTA highlighting its fast progression from only three years in the making.
Cherie explains how she first devised her idea to take Aesthetica to the next level. She decided on a train journey back home that she wanted to use her unexpected success from the magazine to create a film festival that would be hosted in York that would put on show some of the most exiting new filmmaking talents from across the world. From this lightbulb moment Cherie started what is now one of the most sort after film festivals in the U.K.
Cherie’s idea to start the festival was inspired by her love of independent film making, that she describes as “cinema of the heart and of the mind” her love of filmmaking however did not come from nowhere. In her monthly magazine, of the same name, she dedicated a segment purely to independent cinema. Her love for film can be seen in the array of categories available for entrants and the success film makers have following the festival. Arguably the biggest success story to come out of the festival is Stutterer (2015), a twelve minute short on the struggles of a young typographer who suffers with a severe stutter who eventually musters the courage to finally meet his girlfriend that he had only previously communicated with online. The film directed by Benjamin Cleary went on to win the Best Drama at Aesthetica and later claim an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, underpinning the fast growing success of Cherie’s idea only four years previous.
The 2017 instalment of the festival is due to due to commence on the 8th November lasting until the 12th in eighteen venues across York City Centre with 300 short films set to be aired with categories ranging from animation to fashion, giving the festival a real breadth of diversity.