THE LITTLE-PUBLICISED Zero Film Festival of New York comes to London tomorrow, aiming to promote shorts by self-financed filmmakers.

You may wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of making the kind of film that used to find a slot as the support to a main feature (many readers will have little idea of either) but they are useful as calling cards for new directors. A film might even pick up a few awards as it does the circuit of fests around the world.

It really is possible that you might see a work by a director who will become a household name. The editor of Loving Dalston claims to have pleasant memories of a 10-minute film he saw at a festival years ago that was made by a director who now works only in Hollywood.

The ZFF will be presented at the stylish Hoxton Hotel for a modest two nights  at a modest ticket price.

Hamish Scott 100814

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.

* ZFF, Hoxton Hotel, 81 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch EC2A 3HU (020 7550 1000),  Mon 11  2014 and Tues 12 Aug 2014, 7.30pm. £5. Good disabled facilities 

* Top:  the confusingly named Hoxton station in Shoreditch E2 8DY , a longish walk from the Hoxton Hotel

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.