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Cinema Extreme

Cinema Extreme was created in 2002 by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and Film4 to seek out and develop filmmakers with a distinctive directorial voice and cinematic flair.

Wasp

Twenty-three films have been commissioned to date. They have been shown at festivals around the world and won numerous awards including the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Best Short Award for Duane Hopkins' Love Me or Leave Me Alone and the Oscar® for Best Short Film for Andrea Arnold's Wasp.

Cinema Extreme is the only scheme of its kind in the UK, a place where serious filmmakers can explore their vision in partnership with major financiers who have the potential to finance their first feature. The scheme has catapulted many of the commissioned filmmakers to their first feature:

  • Wasp director Andrea Arnold went on to direct Red Road which won the Cannes jury prize in 2006 and is currently directing her second feature Fish Tank;
  • A Changed Man director Jens Jonsson went on to direct King of Ping Pong which won the Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema at Sundance Film Festival in 2008;
  • Love Me or Leave Me Alone director Duane Hopkins and producer Samm Haillay went on to make Better Things which was selected for Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival 2008;
  • The Bypass producer Trevor Ingman went on to produce the feature documentary The Meerkats;
  • Get the Picture director Rupert Wyatt and producer Adrian Sturges presented their first feature, The Escapist, at Sundance Film Festival 2008;

In 2008/09, the UK Film Council's Development Fund and Film4 will offer one of the filmmakers commissioned by Cinema Extreme the opportunity to develop their feature to first draft. Film4 and the UK Film Council will select and fully finance up to 4 short films. The maximum budget per short film will be £50,000. This year we will be considering scripts and one page ideas.

There will be one call for applications.

  • Call opens: 21 July 2008
  • Call closes: 12 September 2008
  • Applicants notified whether or not they are on the shortlist: December 2008
  • Films commissioned: June 2009

To apply you will need to visit Cinema Extreme - FAQs, guidelines and application form .

The UK Film Council and Film4 appointed The Bureauto manage the scheme.