LONDON – Friday 5 December 2008. Three new British films backed by the Lottery through the UK Film Council have been selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival (15-25 January 2009), the leading showcase in the US for independent films.
The three films co-funded by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund, selected by Sundance from a record number of films submitted from around the world are:
- Armando Iannucci's In the Loop – screening in the Premiere section;
- Alexis Dos Santos' Unmade Beds – screening in World Cinema Dramatic Competition; and
- Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin' – screening in Park City at Midnight.
The New Cinema Fund supports emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream and co-funded three of the five Lottery films at Sundance last year including the award-winning Man on Wire.
In the Loop is a razor sharp political comedy directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written with Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche and Ian Martin, the writing team behind the BAFTA award-winning BBC hit, The Thick of It. A fast-paced satirical story about Britain and America's special relationship in the lead-up to a war no one seems to be able to stop with a cast that includes Tom Hollander (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Chris Addison and Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It), Gina McKee (Atonement) and Steve Coogan (A Cock and Bull Story).
In the Loop is produced by Kevin Loader and Adam Tandy and is a BBC Films and UK Film Council production in association with Aramid Entertainment. Protagonist Pictures will handle worldwide sales and Optimum Releasing has UK theatrical rights. In the Loop was also supported by the UK Film Council's Development Fund.
Unmade Beds is the second feature from acclaimed writer/director Alexis Dos Santos (Glue). Dos Santos brings his Latin American New Wave sensibility to a cosmopolitan East London setting to tell the poignant but funny stories of two men from Spain who find each other in London's East End underground arts scene. The features a cast of exciting young international talent including Déborah François, star of the Palme d'Or winner L'Enfant, and Fernando Tielve, star of The Devil's Backbone, Michiel Huisman (Black Book, The Young Victoria), Iddo Goldberg (Secret Diary of a Call Girl) and Richard Lintern (Syriana), and cutting edge music by UK-based independent bands. Unmade Beds is produced by Soledad Gatti-Pascual and Peter Ettedgui and co-financed with Film4 and EM Media.
White Lightnin' is the feature film debut from multi award-winning British commercials director Dominic Murphy and tells the story of mountain dancer Jesco White played by rising star Ed Hogg and his uphill battle against poverty, drug abuse, petty crime and mental instability in his struggle to live up to his father's legacy as the finest mountain dancer on his home turf and beyond. The film is written by Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti and produced by Sam Taylor and Mike Downey and will be distributed in the UK by Momentum Pictures. Lumina Films is handling international sales.
Lenny Crooks, Head of the New Cinema Fund says, "For the second year running Sundance has recognised the enormous creativity at the heart of the new wave of British filmmaking. We're especially pleased to have supported the creative teams behind the three New Cinema Fund backed films. Sundance is the key entry point into the US for independent films and can boost international sales potential. A strong slate of British films sends out a very powerful message."
In announcing his selection, Geoff Gilmore, Sundance Festival Director, said, "This year's films are not narrowly defined. Instead we have a blurring of genres, a crossing of boundaries: geographic, generational, socio-economic and the like. The result is both an exhilarating and emotive festival in which traditional mythologies are suspended, discoveries are made, and creative storytelling is embraced. This is a festival about which people in the future will say, 'Wow, that was a year a lot of new talent came out of it'."
Other British films that have also been selected to screen at Sundance are:
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
- Bronson, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and written by Brock Norman Brock – traces the transformation of Mickey Peterson into Britain's most notorious, dangerous, and charismatic prisoner, Charles Bronson. Cast: Tom Hardy. North American Premiere
- An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby - in the early 60s, a sharp 16-year-old with sights set on Oxford meets a handsome older man whose sophistication enraptures and sidetracks both her and her parents. Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson. World Premiere
- Five Minutes of Heaven, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and written by Guy Hibbert - Two men from the same town but from different sides of the Irish political divide discover that the past is never dead - in fact it isn't even past. World Premiere
- Unmade Beds, written and directed by Alexis Dos Santos. Details above
Premieres
- Endgame, directed by Pete Travis and written by Paula Milne - A political thriller in which a businessman initiates covert discussions between the African National Congress and white intellectuals to try and find a peaceful solution to the Apartheid regime. Starring: William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong. World Premiere
- In the Loop, directed by Armando Ianucci and written by Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell. World Premiere. Details above
- Moon, directed by Duncan Jones and written by Nathan Parker - before returning to Earth after three years on the moon, things go horribly wrong for astronaut Sam Bell. Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey. World Premiere
Park City at Midnight
- White Lightnin', directed by Dominic Murphy and written by Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti. World Premiere. Details above
World Cinema Documentary Competition
- Afghan Star (Afghanistan/UK), directed by Havana Marking – after 30 years of war and Taliban rule, Pop Idol has come to Afghanistan: the dramatic stories of four contestants as they risk their lives to sing. North American Premiere.
- Rough Aunties, directed by Kim Longinotto – fearless, feisty and unwavering, the 'Rough Aunties' protect and care for the abused, neglected and forgotten children of Durban, South Africa. North American Premiere
- The End of the Line, directed by Rupert Murray – based on the Charles Clover book about the devastating effect of overfishing. World Premiere
- Thriller in Manila, directed by John Dower – chronicles the most intense and bitter sporting rivalry ever: the 1975 final match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. North American Premiere
In addition, British director David Mackenzie's Spread, a US film set in Los Angeles starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, is also being premiered at the festival.
Information on all awards made is available on the UK Film Council's website, www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/information/awards.
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 lead agency for film in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented at home and abroad. We invest Government grant-in-aid and Lottery money in film development and production; training; international development and export promotion; distribution and exhibition; and education. Our aim is 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 film-makers 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.
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film, held each January in and around Park City, Utah. Presenting approximately 120 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in seven distinct categories and between 60 and 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex lies and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Trouble the Water and Central Station. www.sundance.org/festival
Sundance Institute
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a not-for-profit organization that fosters the development of original storytelling in film and theatre, and presents the annual Sundance Film Festival. Internationally recognized for its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Angelsin America, Spring Awakening, Boys Don't Cry and Born into Brothels. www.sundance.org
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