UK Film Council awards Lottery funding to bring a wide range of new films to wider audiences

16Oct09, London

A surreal fantasy set in the realms of imagination, a moving 19^th Century love story and an edgy Grime musical thriller with a twist, are just three of the latest films that will reach more audiences thanks to Lottery funding from the UK Film Council, aimed at giving UK film fans more choice and providing more exposure for films which might otherwise only have a limited distribution

Lions Gate UK Ltd received £120,000 for Terry Gilliam's modern-day fantasy adventure The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus about the leader of a travelling theatre troupe who, having made a deal with the Devil, takes audience members through a magical mirror to explore their imaginations. The film features the final performance of Heath Ledger, and, following Ledger's tragic death, the role was recast to include Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, each portraying physically transformed versions of his character.  The UK Film Council's funding will widen today's release of this fantastical and unconventional film from 80 to 265 sites.

Pathé Productions received £100,000 for Oscar®-winning director Jane Campion's Bright Star, a delicate and tender depiction of the tragic three-year love affair between the poet John Keats (Ben Wishaw) and his neighbour Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25. Bright Star was Lottery-funded by the UK Film Council, screened In Competition at Cannes this year and will screen at the Times BFI 53^rd London Film Festival on Monday 19 October.  The award will widen the film's release on 6 November from 80 to 120 sites, and go towards national publicity and advertising.

Vertigo Films received £65,000 for Penny Woolcock's 1 Day, a crime thriller with a twist. A local dealer has 24 hours to find £100k to pay a debt to a local crime boss. Set in Handsworth, Birmingham with a cast made up entirely of non professional actors and  local rappers, 1 Day is the first ever Grime/ hiphop  musical and a gritty depiction of drugs crime and street violence, with characters breaking out in exhilarating raps throughout the action. The UK Film Council's award will widen the film's release on 6 November to 20 screens, and will also support social networking and a viral campaign with additional music online PR activity and street marketing.

E1 Films received £125,000 for Lone Scherfig's An Education, based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber adapted by Nick Hornby.  A coming of age story starring Carey Mulligan set in 60's suburban London about a bright young girl who finds herself in a whirlwind romance with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard), who gives her a glimpse of a lifestyle that she never imagined could be her own. An Education won the Audience Choice award and the Cinematography award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and will screen at the Times BFI 53^rd London Film Festival on Tuesday 20 October. The UK Film Council's funding will widen the release on 30 October to 90 screens and enhance media advertising across TV online and print.

Revolver Entertainment received £32,000 for Fabrice Du Welz's Vinyanabout a grieving couple travelling through the backwaters of Thailand and Burma in search of their child who was lost in the South-East Asian tsunami. The P&A funding widened the film's innovative multiplatform release on 2 October to eight sites, enabled a innovative online preview with LOVEFiLM and a live Q&A event, and enhanced national print and online advertising.

A number of smaller Fast Track awards of £5,000 were also made to widen the distribution of the following films:

• Park Circus Ltd for the beautifully restored The Godfather, a reissue of Francis Ford Coppola's masterful and iconic Oscar®-winning 1972 film starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, which depicts an intimate family portrait amidst a network of mafia crime.
• Artificial Eye Film Company for Katalin Varga, Peter Strickland's film about a young woman from a tiny Romanian village who discovers that the dark secret from her past has come back to haunt her.
• Metrodome Distribution Ltd for Park Chan-wook's Thirst, winner of the Jury prize at Cannes this year. A devoted priest from a small town volunteers for a medical experiment which fails and turns him into a vampire, plunging him into a dark world of sin and sensual pleasure. Metrodome Distribution also received £5,000 for Rémi Bezançon's First Day of the Rest of Your Life, a drama centered around five days in a family's life, looking at issues of bereavement, sibling favouritism and nicotine patches.
• Dogwoof Ltdfor Maryam Henein and George Langworthy's Vanishing Of The Bees, a documentary investigating the economic, political and spiritual implications of the worldwide disappearance of the honey bee, an ecological catastrophe that threatens to topple the food chain and change the future irrevocably. Dogwoof also received £5,000 for We Live In Public, Ondi Timoner's documentary about the original dot-com entrepreneur Josh Harris who made his fortune in the internet boom and went on to create experimental digital projects, including having his life filmed 24/7 and streamed online.
• Trinity for Tales From The Golden Age, a film made up of five segments, each by a different director; Hanno Hofer, Razvan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu and Ioana Uricaru. The film tells five urban myths from the Ceausescu era, reflecting on how the Romanian people relied upon a dark sense of humour to help them survive life in a communist dictatorship.
• Vertigo Films for The Cove, a documentary directed by Louie Psihoyos following a team's attempt to expose a shocking fishing practise in a small Japanese coastal town where dolphins are regularly slaughtered.
• DFT Enterprises Ltd for Tristan Loraine's 31 North 62 East, a psychological political thriller that tells the story of a British Prime Minister who gives up the position of an elite SAS unit in Afghanistan to ensure a UK £80 billion arms deal goes through – thus assuring his re-election.
• Warp Films received £4,475 for Shane Meadows's Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, an improvised mockumentary following the life of rock roadie Donk (Paddy Considine) who makes his living roadieing for rock bands, and dreams of becoming a fatcat music promoter. Setting out for his next gig with Arctic Monkeys, Donk takes along his East Midlands rapper sidekick Scor-zay-zee, who impresses so much that he's offered a support slot at the band's gig.
• Oopic Films received £2,500 for Andy Kemp's Hell's Pavement, a heartfelt drama directed by Andy Kemp that follows a ten year old girl as she goes through the social care system, going from abusive home to a willing foster couple.

For details of where to see any of these films, visit www.findanyfilm.com.  A list of the UK Film Council's National Lottery awards can be found on our website at www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

For more information contact:

Tara Milne
UK Film Council press office
020 7861 7901 / tara.milne@ukfilmcouncil.org.uk

Notes to Editors

1. Prints & Advertising Fund

The UK is one of the most expensive countries in the world in which to release films, and this can lead to limited choice for cinema-goers.  While blockbusters such as Harry Potter are often released in the UK with more than 1,000 film prints, the average number of prints for a foreign language specialist film is under ten.

The UK Film Council has created a single fund, the UK Film Council's Prints and Advertising Support Fund, also known as the P&A Fund, with an annual budget of £4 million. This fund   also offers support to more commercially focused 'British' films that nevertheless remain difficult to market.

This fund is not intended to substitute pre-existing investment but rather is seeking to add value to the investment already being made by distributors in each film.

The fund aims to benefit audiences by:

• widening access in terms of the range of films available;
• widening opportunities to view such films across the UK; and
• widening audience awareness of the range of films potentially available.