New talent breaks into film with Lottery funding from the UK Film Council's Development Fund
Turner Prize winners, novelists, acclaimed playwrights and comedy performers receive First Feature Film Development awards to develop new films.
LONDON – 2 December 2008: Artists, authors and playwrights are being funded to develop new films by the UK Film Council's Development Fund programme for new and emerging filmmakers.
These most recent First Feature Film Development awards support new films being developed by talent from across the UK with a rich and diverse range of perspectives on storytelling as part of the Development Fund's strategy to broaden the quality, range and ambition of film projects being developed in the UK.
Filmmakers of all experience levels can be funded to develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films. These awards are for emerging filmmakers who may not yet had a feature film released theatrically or broadcast on UK television.
Tanya Seghatchian, Head of the Development Fund says: "It's always exciting to be involved in the conception of a film, but to be on board from the very start of a new filmmaker's career is a true privilege. The breadth of talent that we are supporting through this programme is genuinely exciting and we hope that nurturing these great new voices will be key for the enrichment of our industry."
Filmmakers and projects awarded funding include:
Bola Agbaje won the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement for her debut play Gone Too Far! and was runner up for this year's Evening Standard's Most Promising Young Playwright of the Year Award. Bola is adapting her coming-of-age comedy drama about two brothers, Yemi and Ikudayisi, who have grown up in different worlds – Yemi on a South London estate, and Ikudayisi in Nigeria. When Ikudayisi comes to London to join Yemi, both brothers are forced to examine their different ethnic and national identities when confronted by black-on-black prejudice and the threat of violence. The producer is Christopher Granier-Deferre (The Hide) of Poisson Rouge Pictures.
Like a Virgin is a first feature from Catherine Shepherd, comedy performer and a prolific writer for TV, theatre and radio. This is a bold female-centred comedy about Mary who, with her wedding looming, is visited by a possibly drug-induced angel who brings good and bad news about her future. Mary then hits the road to find Mr Right.
Comedy writer/actor Natasha Wood is developing her Edinburgh fringe hit, Rolling with Laughter, for the screen. This is a poignant and infectiously funny true story, based on a remarkable woman's extraordinary life. Born with a muscular disorder, Wood has spent her entire life from a wheelchair, but what a life it's been. From the bosom of her Midlands market trading family peddling bras and knickers through love, loss, challenge and dreams of performing on a big stage, Natasha's journey has made audiences cry a little and laugh a lot.
Richard Milward made an impression at the age of 22 with his highly acclaimed debut novel Apples. He is now adapting this tragic-comic twisted teenage love story, following the surreal, cider-soaked highs and lows of Adam and Eve against the backdrop of Middlesbrough. To be directed by Robin Sheppard and produced by Nikki Parrott of Tigerlily Films (The Market).
Writer/director Daniel Elliott's acclaimed poetic and visceral filmmaking will be supported in the development of his first feature film, Untitled. Samm Haillay and Duane Hopkins, the filmmaking partnership behind Better Things, will produce. Daniel's shorts, The Making of Parts and Fender Bender both won the Prix UIP Award for Best European Short Film among others.
Deborah Haywood made an impressive debut with her first short Lady Margaret and was named in Screen International's UK stars of tomorrow. She is presenting a strong female take on a traditionally male domain with her first feature film Bite, a controversial investigation into the world of illegal dog fighting. Bite will be produced by Sally Hibbin, who most recently produced Justin Kerrigan's I Know You Know, which screened at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival.
Novelist and journalist Richard T Kelly, author of the powerful novel Crusaders, is developing Lucie Gunn, an intense and seductive drama exploring the power games that men and women play in and out of the bedroom. Kelly has created a rich female role for an actress to portray one woman's response to a terrible betrayal.
Actor Ariyon Bakare (The Dark Knight, Spooks) and producer James Saynor are developing Kodak Cowboy, a vibrant multicultural comedy set in Lagos and London focusing on a thwarted filmmaker's quest to win the love and respect of his estranged Anglo-Nigerian daughter by making a Nollywood epic. To be produced by Gail Egan and Simon Channing Williams of Potboiler Productions.
Artist Clio Barnard is developing Buttershaw, a feature documentary about the Buttershaw Estate, the setting for Andrea Dunbar's autobiographical stage plays and Alan Clark's film adaptation Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987), as well as A State Affair (2000) by Robin Soans. Exec-produced by Michael Morris for Artangel, a pioneer in working with artists and broadcast media, and produced by Tracy O'Riordan for the Jerwood Artangel OPEN in association with Arts Council England and Channel 4, the film (due for completion in 2010) will seek to explore the changes on the Buttershaw Estate in the last 30 years to examine the effects of poverty and deprivation and reflect on the history and impact of previous representations of the estate in the media.
Self-Made is being co-written by Turner Prize winning artist Gillian Wearing and playwright Leo Butler. Based on an idea by Gillian, the film follows 12 participants discovering their invented selves through a method workshop. Self-Made will be directed by Gillian and produced by Lisa Marie Russo. This project was originally developed by Film and Video Umbrella as part of the Moving Image Initiative, a collaboration between Arts Council England and the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund to support artists working with feature-length film.
Writer Matthew Broughton is developing The Basildon Brawl, a British boxing movie with a difference. This is a rags to riches tale of one British boxer's extraordinary rise to the top as world champion, and his equally rapid descent after his manager is shot and he is arrested for attempted murder. To be produced by Philip Shelley, the film will focus on the close but ultimately destructive relationship between boxer and manager.
Rukhsana Ahmad is adapting Nadeem Aslam's novel Maps for Lost Lovers, a story of love and betrayal, violence and conflict within a Pakistani family settled in a northern town. To be produced by Geraldine Patten, the film will offer an original non-realist perspective on contemporary British culture.
Award-winning shorts filmmaker Alicia Duffy (The Most Beautiful Man in the World) is working on her first feature Games for Winter, a seductive thriller about a young British composer who finds himself drawn into a sinister erotic game of emotional manipulation with a pupil. To be produced by Willow Grylls and Robyn Slovo (Morvern Callar).
Acclaimed film editor Mick Audsley (Dirty Pretty Things) is working on his first screenplay, Natural Flights of the Human Mind, which investigates one man's guilt for his role in a major catastrophe twenty-five years earlier.
Acclaimed young playwright Laura Wade is working on One Last Time, the story of an extra-marital affair disintegrating in real-time, produced by Laurence Bowen and Feelgood Fiction.
Len and Maeve's Fools Emporium, an adventurous road trip sparked by identity fraud, is being co-written by sisters Hania and Gaia Elkington.
Film historian and screenwriter Ben Hervey is developing The Mysteries, a compelling supernatural period piece set against the turmoil and devastation of World War I.
Writer/director Johnny Barrington is working on Aberdeen Angus, a darkly romantic tale set in the Scottish Highlands encapsulating the best of his previous work, including his Cinema Extreme Short Terra Firma.
The Development Fund's First Feature Film Development Programme makes awards four times a year and receives on average 70 applications per month.
Information on all awards made is available on the UK Film Council's website, www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/information/awards.
First Feature Film Development Programme awards
Aberdeen Angus | £6,000 |
Apples | £22,600 |
Bite | £14,000 |
Buttershaw | £25,000 |
Games for Winter | £21,900 |
Gone Too Far | £25,000 |
Kodak Cowboy | £12,500 |
Len and Maeve's Fools Emporium | £10,000 |
Like a Virgin | £14,500 |
Lucie Gunn | £14,500 |
Maps for Lost Lovers | £12,500 |
Natural Flights of the Human Mind | £14,500 |
One Last Time | £22,500 |
Rolling with Laughter | £17,000 |
Self Made | £25,000 |
The Basildon Brawl | £12,500 |
The Mysteries | £10,150 |
Untitled: Daniel Elliott | £17,600 |
For press enquiries please contact:
Tara Milne / Tina McFarling
UK Film Council press office:
T: +44 (0)20 7861 7901/7900
E: tara.milne@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk /
tina.mcfarling@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk
Notes to editors
The UK Film Council is the Government backed lead agency for film in the UK Council. We aim to make sure that the UK has a dynamic film industry fit for the digital age and to help UK audiences enjoy the best of British and world cinema.
We invest Government grant-in-aid and Lottery money in developing new filmmakers, in funding exciting new British films and in getting a wider choice of films to audiences throughout the UK. We also invest in training, promoting Britain as an international filmmaking location and in raising the profile of British films abroad. We aim to deliver lasting benefits to the industry and the public through:
· creativity - encouraging the development of new talent, skills, and creative and technological innovation in UK film and assisting new and established filmmakers to produce successful and distinctive British films;
· enterprise – supporting the creation and growth of sustainable businesses in the film sector, providing access to finance and helping the UK film industry compete successfully in the domestic and global marketplace;
· imagination - promoting education and an appreciation and enjoyment of cinema by giving UK audiences access to the widest range of UK and international cinema, and by supporting film culture and heritage.
