Film Following the Closure of the London International Mime Festival Will Premiere Next Week

This January, the award-winning documentary The Last Show will launch online as a free-to-view premiere. From renowned Open Sky Productions, The Last Show was produced during London International Mime Festival’s final edition in 2023 and follows its impact and legacy over the last 47 years.

There was a strong response from artists and audiences alike when it was announced the festival was to host its final iteration, as it was still successful and popular within the industry. Known as the UK’s longest running annual theatre festival, their multi-disciplinary programme of contemporary visual theatre has presented and nurtured renowned shows and artists since the 1970s.

Its absence detached audiences and meant that British artists creating groundbreaking new work from emerging UK companies and some of Europe’s most exciting theatrical artists no longer had the essential platform in which to jump into the industry.

With wins in Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Awards and London Film & Television Festival and a nomination at the New York International Film Awards and Toronto Art Film Spirit Awards The Last Show is made up of interviews and features ranging from the early vanguard of physical visual performance such as Nola Rae, Toby Sedgewick, Phelim McDermott and Paul Hunter to contemporary success stories from Gecko, Ockham’s Razor, Theatre Re and Basil Twist and point to the festival’s influence shaping shows ranging from Shockheaded Peter to War Horse. The film also includes spectacular slow-motion footage of the festival’s very last show Triptych by Peeping Tom.

Following the exclusive screening on 15th January 2025, there will be Q&A with the co-artistic directors of the London International Mime Festival, Joseph Seelig and Helen Lannaghan, and the film’s director Lisle Turner. 

Director of Open Sky Lisle Turner comments, As film-makers and theatre-makers it was a privilege to film some of the festivals final performances, to delve into five decades of archival footage, to interview some of theatre's greatest talents and to edit all of this into a love poem to the medium.