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Another good year for British films in the international spotlight at Cannes

British film is celebrating the announcement that six Lottery-funded British films and a further nine made with British involvement, have been selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May 2010).

London, Thursday 15 April 2010

Chatroom British film is celebrating the announcement that six Lottery-funded British films and a further nine made with British involvement, have been selected for the official line-up at the Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May 2010).

The six British films in selection which have been supported with UK Film Council funding, are:

  • Mike Leigh's Another Year – screening In Competition;
  • Hideo Nakata's Chatroom – screening in Un Certain Regard;
  • Stephen Frears's Tamara Drewe – screening Out of Competition
  • Craig McCall's CAMERAMAN: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff - screening in Cannes Classics
  • Alicia Duffy's All Good Children – screening in Directors' Fortnight; and
  • Scott Graham's short film Native Son – screening in Critics Week

Other films screening which have British involvement are:

  • Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives co-produced by UK company Illuminations Films – screening In Competition;
  • Doug Liman's Fair Game, co-produced by British writer/producer Jez Butterworth (author of the current hit play Jerusalem) and co-written by Jez and his brother John Henry Butterworth - screening In Competition;
  • Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, which shot entirely in the UK on location in London - screening Out of Competition;
  • British director Sophie Fiennes's Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow – selected for Special Screenings;
  • British documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker's Countdown to Zero - screening In Competition;
  • Alois Di Leo's hand drawn animation short The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion - screening in Critics Week;
  • Jens Blank's animated short Cooked - screening in the Cinefondation;
  • Stephen Kijak's Stones In Exile, produced by the British Oscar®-winning documentary company Passion Pictures - screening in Directors' Fortnight; and
  • The opening night film Robin Hood, directed by Ridley Scott andfilmed at Shepperton Studios and on location around the UK for Universal Pictures.

Responding to the announcement, John Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film Council, said:

"This year's Cannes Film Festival is opening with a British film and the selected line-up includes six British Lottery-funded films and another eight films that were made in the UK or with British involvement. This is a sign that right now British films, filmmakers and talent are delivering great work that the rest of the world wants to see."

Background

Another Year is the latest film from double Academy Award ® nominated director Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky), featuring Michele Austin, David Bradley, Jim Broadbent, Phil Davis, Karina Fernandez, Oliver Maltman, Lesley Manville, Stuart McQuarrie, Martin Savage, Ruth Sheen, Imelda Staunton and Peter Wight. Produced by Georgina Lowe, and executive produced by Gail Egan. The UK Film Council awarded £1.2m for production.

Chatroom is a thriller by acclaimed writer Enda Walsh (Hunger) and directed by Hideo Nakata (The Ring, Dark Water). When five teenagers meet online in a chatroom they form innocent friendships, but soon one dysfunctional member of the group singles out the most vulnerable, seizing the chance to erase his own past. Cast includes Aaron Johnson, Imogen Poots and Daniel Kaluuya. Produced by Alison Owen and Paul Trijbits at Ruby Films and Laura Hastings-Smith. The UK Film Council awarded £39,860 (development) and £700,000 (production).

Tamara Drewe, directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen) and adapted by Moira Buffini from Posy Simmonds's graphic novel and Saturday Guardian strip, Tamara Drewe is a modern-day take on the Hardy classic Far From The Madding Crowd and stars Gemma Arterton. It's a story of love and lust in a rural idyll and the cast also includes Dominic Cooper, Roger Allam, Luke Evans, Bill Camp and Tamsin Greig. A Ruby Films production produced by Alison Owen, Paul Trijbits and Tracey Seaward. The UK Film Council awarded £102,625 (development) and £780,000 (production).

A feature documentary illuminating the incomparable life and work of cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Craig McCall's CAMERAMAN: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff reveals a unique figure in British and international cinema whose career was inextricably interwoven with the history of cinema itself - incredibly spanning nine of moving picture's first ten decades. His story is told by Jack himself and twenty leading actors, directors and producers, including Martin Scorsese, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Charlton Heston, Sir Alan Parker and Sir John Mills, and includes unique behind the scenes footage from Jack's own personal archive. The film is produced by Craig McCall, Richard McGill, and executive produced by Mason Cardiff, Chris Roff and Julie Williams.  It is a Modus Operandi Films and UK Film Council presentation in association with Smoke & Mirrors. The UK Film Council awarded £150,000 for production.

Alicia Duffy's debut feature All Good Children tells the story of Dara, a young Irish boy who is moved to rural France with his brother Eoin after the death of their mother. There, the boys befriend a local English family and the vulnerable Dara falls under the spell of their young daughter Bella, but when she begins to pull away, Dara's feelings for her start to get out of hand.  All Good Children is the first production for Caveman Films, set up by producer Jonathan Cavendish and actor/director Andy Serkis. It is an Irish/Belgian/French co-production made with the support of the Irish Film Board, CRRAV Nord-pas de Calais, Communauté Français de Belgique, Région Wallonie and Eurimages, and developed with the support of the UK Film Council.

Set in a border town in rural Scotland, Native Son is about a troubled farm labourer struggling with loneliness and the need for human contact. Native Son is written and directed by Scott Graham and produced by David Smith, and is a Cinema Extreme film financed by the UK Film Council and Film4. Scott's previous short film Shell, won the UK Film Council Award for Best Film at the London Short Film Festival 2008.  The UK Film Council awarded £25,000 for production.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (UK/Thailand/France/Germany/Spain) is produced by British producers Simon Field and Keith Griffiths, Illuminations Films. Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave - the birthplace of his first life. Support for the film (amongst others) came from FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool and Animate Projects, London.

Doug Liman's Fair Game is a thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. A suspense-filled glimpse into the dark corridors of political power, the film is based on the autobiography of real-life undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. It is co-written by British brothers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, and produced by Bill Pohlad, Janet Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Akiva Goldsman, Doug Liman and Jez Butterworth.

Sophie Fiennes's Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (UK/Netherlands/France) bears witness to German artist Anselm Kiefer's alchemical creative processes and renders as a film journey the personal universe he has built at his hill studio estate in the South of France. Kiefer's monumental body of work occupies a fascinating place in the canon of late 20th Century art and is now held in museums and private collections internationally. The film is an Amoeba/Kasander/Sciapode production. The UK Film Council previously funded Sophie's 2002 documentary Hoover Street Revival and is currently working with her to develop her future project The Perverts Guide to Ideology.

Countdown to Zero is British director Lucy Walker's documentary exploring the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present day threats and featuring insights from international experts and world leaders who advocate total global disarmament. The US film is produced by Lawrence Bender and executive produced by Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Bruce Blair and Matt Brown.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is written and directed by Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and is about the lives of a group of people, whose passions, ambitions and anxieties force them all into assorted troubles that run the gamut from ludicrous to dangerous. Starring Naomi Watts, British actor Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin and Antonia Banderas, is a Sony Pictures Classics film with US and Spanish financing. Production was based at Ealing Studios and shot entirely on location in London, with a British production team that included co-producer Nicky Kentish Barnes, production designer Jim Clay, 1st assistant director Ben Howarth and hair and make-up designer Sharon Martin.

The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion is a hand drawn animation short directed by Alois Di Leo, written by Jérémie Dubois and produced by Polly Stokes. Max is a seven-year-old deaf boy growing up in the 1960s. One day he goes on a school trip to the zoo, where he sees a lion for the first time. A feeling begins to grow inside him that will change his life forever. The short is director Alois Di Leo's National Film and Television School graduation film.

Cooked tells the story of an unlikely love triangle that springs between a walrus, a seal and a lobster in an arctic sauna. The short animation is directed by Jens Blank, written by Jens Blank and Caroline Bruckner and produced by Tom Leggett. Jens is studying an MA in animation direction at the National Film and Television School.

Stones In Exile is a documentary about the making of 1972 iconic Rolling Stones album 'Exile on Main Street', directed by Stephen Kijak and produced by John Battsek (of British production company Passion Pictures) and Victoria Pearman.

Robin Hood is the latest epic from three times Oscar®-nominated British director Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator), Robin Hood stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and the British actor Mark Strong. The Universal Pictures film shot on location at Shepperton Studios and in Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, London and Wales, with British production team including director of photography John Mathieson, art director David Allday and costume designer Janty Yates.

For more information:

Tara Milne, Press and Public Affairs Officer
T: 020 7861 7901
E: tara.milne@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

Notes to Editors

UK FILM COUNCIL (www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk)

  • The UK Film Council is the Government and Lottery-backed lead agency for film in the UK, supporting the UK film industry, celebrating UK film culture and nurturing UK film talent at home and abroad. 
  • Since its creation in 2000 the UK Film Council has backed more than 900 films, shorts and features, which have won over 300 awards and entertained more than 200 million people around the world. The UK Film Council generates £5 for every £1 of Lottery money it invests.
  • Its support develops new filmmakers, funds exciting new British films and gets a wider choice of films to audiences throughout the UK. It also invests in training British talent, promoting Britain as an international filmmaking location and raising the profile of British films abroad. In addition, it funds the British Film Institute.
  • Films backed by the UK Film Council include Bend it like Beckham, Bright Star, The Constant Gardener, Fish Tank, Gosford Park, Happy-Go-Lucky, In the Loop, The Last King of Scotland, Man on Wire, Nowhere Boy, Red Road, St Trinian's, This is England, Touching the Void, Vera Drake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
  • Current UK Film Council funding initiatives include:
    • the world's first Digital Screen Network, which has invested in 240 digital screens in cinemas across the country, increasing film choice, bringing the 3D experience to a wider audience, and ensuring the UK has more digital screens than any other European country;
    • over 200 film societies and independent regional film venues;
    • UK film festivals, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival;
    • working with Skillset, the UK skills and training industry body for the creative industries, to enable almost 7000 people to further their filmmaking careers;
    • giving over 20,000 young people the opportunity to get involved in filmmaking through First Light and Mediabox;
    • sponsoring the pilot and now the current rollout of FILMCLUB to thousands of schools, introducing new generations of children to the best of British and international cinema.