Making Waves Film Festival

29/03/2026

Creative Director opportunity for Making Waves Film Festival

Making Waves Film Festival is at an exciting point in its journey, and we’re looking for a Creative Director to help shape what comes next.Based in Portsmouth, Making Waves is the city’s annual film festival and short film competition. We’re known for supporting local talent, innovative film c...

31/10/2025

Tonight on Hallows Eve see the VIY rise!
Get down to spooky Treadgolds Building for this rare screening of the first Soviet Horror based on a Ukrainian folk tale. Complete with a live performance of a new score by Rusty Sheriff and chilling harmonies from the Two Colours Ukrainian Choir.
🌀 Step into the circle ...and face the spirits that gather in the dark.
This is folklore brought to life. Horror reimagined. Culture celebrated.
Screening at 7:30 PM
🎟️Grab the last few tickets NOW at https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

29/10/2025

Experience Horror with Heart this Halloween 💙💛

Join us at the historic Treadgolds Building in Portsea for a hauntingly beautiful screening of VIY (1967) , the first Soviet horror film, reimagined with live music and Ukrainian choral performances.
🕯️ Step into an 18th-century haunted chapel and immerse yourself in eerie folklore and supernatural suspense.
🎶 Featuring a live re-score by sonic artist Rusty Sheriff and haunting vocals from the Two Colours Ukrainian Choir.
🇺🇦 Proceeds go to support Ukraine.
📍 Friday 31 October | Screenings at 7:30 PM
🎟️ Tickets from £18 → https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

27/10/2025

"Portsmouth, you don't want to miss THIS! 🎬 🔥
Calling all scare seekers, join us at the historic Treadgolds Building on HALLOWEEN for an unforgettable cinematic experience! 🎞️ 🍻
With live score performed by Sheriff and Two Colours Ukrainian Choir.
Get your Tickets NOW! https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

22/10/2025

🔥 When war tries to silence culture, stories fight back. Viy returns — not as Soviet horror, but as Ukrainian resistance.
In 2022, as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, our Viy project came to a halt. How could we stage a “Russian” horror film while Ukrainian cities burned?
But Viy isn’t Russian. Its story, language, landscape, and creators are Ukrainian. To present it now — reimagined as Ukrainian folk horror — is more than art. It’s an act of recognition.
Every time Viy is performed, we reclaim a story stolen by empire. We honour the culture from which it came. And we remind ourselves that folklore, like freedom, survives — even when silenced.
🎃 Join us this Halloween — 31st October at The Treadgolds.
Experience Viy (1967) reimagined with a live rescore by Rusty Sheriff.
https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

21/10/2025

This Halloween screaming of Viy dares you to enter the circle ⭕️

🎃 Do you dare to watch a rare big screen event: VIY (1967) 🎃

The first Soviet horror film, filmed in Ukraine, brought chillingly to life with a brand-new live score by sonic artist with music by the Two Colours Ukrainian Choir

🕯️ Step into the 18th-century Treadgolds Building in Portsea, Portsmouth, and be transported into a world of ancient Eastern European folklore, where superstition and fear collide. Follow a young monk’s descent into terror as he faces witches, demons, and the terrifying Viĭ himself.

🎻 Rusty Sheriff’s immersive re-score reimagines this cult classic as a haunting live cinema experience.

🗓️ Friday 31 October – Hallows Eve
🕔 Performances: 5:45pm & 8:00pm
📍 Venue: Treadgolds Building PO1 3DA Tickets
https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/ or link in bio.

19/10/2025

Dare you enter the circle this Halloween?
VIY is a film that defies what you have seen before. You - the audience is at the centre of the action. It's full of supernatural encounters, grim humour and lots of varying pace and dynamics, which really suits multi instrumentalist's Rusty Sheriff's live score.
This live cinema experience takes you on a journey that is both joyous and unexplainable.
Book tickets here https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

17/10/2025

The real director of Viy was never credited. Born in Ukraine, erased by empire — his vision still haunts the screen.
Aleksandr Ptushko — the uncredited genius behind Viy (1967). Born in Luhansk (now eastern Ukraine), he was known as the “Soviet Walt Disney,” a pioneer of fantasy cinema.
Officially, the film was directed by Yershov and Kropachyov. In reality, Ptushko co-wrote it, designed its visual effects, and quietly directed many of its most haunting scenes.
By bringing Viy back to the screen — with live sound, performance, and immersive staging — we’re also honouring Ptushko: a Ukrainian-born artist whose legacy was long hidden in Soviet shadows.
🎃 Join us this Halloween — 31st October at The Treadgolds.
Experience Viy (1967) reimagined with a live rescore by Rusty Sheriff.
https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

12/10/2025

He wrote in Russian but dreamed in Ukrainian. It’s time to reclaim Gogol — and the monster VIY he made immortal.
Nikolai Gogol was born in Ukraine, in the Poltava region — a place of legends, laughter, and ghosts.
When he created Viy, he claimed to be recording an old folk tale. In truth, he was inventing one. His demon with dragging eyelids wasn’t folklore — it was folk memory, made flesh.
🎃 Join us to see the VIY rise this Halloween — 31st October at The Treadgolds.
Experience Viy (1967) reimagined with a live rescore by Rusty Sheriff.
https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/

11/10/2025

👁️ From the shadows of Ukrainian myth comes a creature whose gaze can kill. Dare to meet the Viy.
Deep in the mists of Ukrainian folklore, there are whispers of a creature whose eyelids hang heavy as lead. They say his gaze can kill — that when his minions lift his lids with pitchforks, no prayer or spell can save you.
Viy stands at the threshold between worlds — part demon, part symbol of the fears that haunt the folk imagination. In our retelling, he returns not as a monster of Soviet cinema, but as what he has always been: a vision born of Ukrainian soil, myth, and memory.
🎃 Join us this Halloween — 31st October at The Treadgolds.
Experience Viy (1967) reimagined with a live rescore by Rusty Sheriff.
https://makingwavesfilmfestival.com/viy-rusty-sheriff/