British films make strong showing at Toronto
British films make a strong showing at this year's Toronto festival with nine of the 25 films British films co-funded by the UK Film Council.
LONDON – Wednesday 20 August 2008. British films make a strong showing at this year's Toronto festival with nine of the 25 films British films co-funded by the UK Film Council.
The films, some of which are new and some of which have already scored success through being previously selected for Berlin and Cannes, are raising the profile of UK film in the international marketplace.
Lenny Crooks, Head of the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund says: "The range of British films screening at Toronto this year, from documentary to contemporary realism, fantasy, comedy and period drama, highlights the incredible breadth of filmmaking talent and being chosen for Toronto signals a significant level of international interest in new British filmmaking."
Nine of the features are backed directly by the UK Film Council including the new documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit: a Popumentary by Jamie Jay Johnson (New Cinema and Development Funds); Duane Hopkins' Better Things and Michael Winterbottom's Genova (New Cinema Fund); Gabor Csupo's The Secret of Moonacre and Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky (Premiere Fund); and Saul Dibb's The Duchess, Stephan Elliott's Easy Virtue and Anthony Fabian's Skin (Development Fund). Terence Davies' Of Time and City, shown to great acclaim in Cannes and supported by a UK Film Council initiative with North West Vision and Media and the BBC, is also being shown at Toronto.
Sounds Like Teen Spirit: a Popumentary delves behind the scenes of the world's premiere youth music spectacle, The Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Following contestants from four very different parts of the continent, the film celebrates this next generation of Europeans, and the quirks, aspirations and foibles that make each child and each country different from its neighbour. It is a celebration of the spirit of Eurovision and the power of music to unite people even in the face of historical and political acrimony, competition and personal heartache.
The Duchess being premiered at Toronto, is a very contemporary tale of fame, notoriety and the search for love set at the end of the eighteenth century. It is the story of the beautiful and glamorous Georgiana Spencer, the most fascinating woman of the age, played by Keira Knightley.
The Secret of Moonacre, to be premiered at Toronto, is an enchanting tale of magic and adventure.
Genova, set in the eponymous Italian town, follows a father and his two young daughters seeking new lives after the sudden death of their mother.
Happy-Go-Lucky, an award winner in Berlin for actress Sally Hawkins, is a laugh-out-loud comedy about having fun, looking for love and getting on with life.
Of Time and City, selected for the Critics' Week in Cannes, is a love song and eulogy to the director's birthplace of Liverpool.
Better Things, selected for the Critics' Week in Cannes, is a lyrical and honest look at intersecting lives, losses and loves in the heart of rural England from a new voice in British cinema, Duane Hopkins.
Easy Virtue is the story of a young Englishman, John Whittaker, who falls madly in love with and marries a sexy and glamorous American woman, Larita, who then struggles to tiptoe through the minefield laid by her mother-in-law.
Skin is the first official UK/South African co-production, and is a compelling and moving story about love, betrayal and reconciliation set in apartheid South Africa.
The full British film line-up includes:
- Weijun Chen's Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World
- Richard Parry's Blood Trail
- Toa Fraser's Dean Spanley, a UK/New Zealand co-production
- John Latham's Encyclopedia Britannica
- Kari Skogland's Fifty Dead Men Walking
- Rosalind Nashishibi and Lucy Skaer's Flash in the Metropolitan
- Vicente Amorim's Good
- Steve McQueen's Hunger screened in Cannes
- John Crowley's Is There Anybody There?
- Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles
- Richard Eyre's The Other Man
- Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla
- Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire
- Charles Martin Smith's Stone of Destiny
- Paul Cronin's A Time to Stir
- Fabrice du Welz's Vinyan
For press enquiries please contact:
Tara Milne/Rachel Grant
UK Film Council press office
T: +44 (0)20 7861 7901/7505
E: tara.milne@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk / rachel.grant@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk
Notes to Editors
The UK Film Council is the Government-backed strategic agency for film in the UK. We aim to stimulate a successful, vibrant film industry and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the UK.
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.
