UK Film Targets Cannes

The UK film industry will take to the international stage at the Cannes Film Festival this week with a host of British features and shorts selected for screening in the official sections of the festival, and 190 British films being sold in the market.

Six films backed by the UK Film Council have been selected for screening in the official sections of the festival, including Mike Leigh's Another Year (In Competition), Hideo Nakata's Chatroom (Un Certain Regard), Stephen Frears’s Tamara Drewe (Out of Competition), Craig McCall's Camerman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Cannes Classics), Alicia Duffy's All Good Children (Directors’ Fortnight), and Scott Graham’s short film Native Son (Critics' Week).

A further nine films made with British involvement will screen, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (In Competition) co-produced by UK company Illuminations Films, Doug Liman's Fair Game (In Competition), co-produced by British writer/producer Jez Butterworth (author of the hit play Jerusalem) and co-written by Jez and his brother John Henry Butterworth.

Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Out of Competition) which shot entirely on location in London is also to be shown and British director Sophie Fiennes's Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (Special Screenings); British documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker's Countdown to Zero (Special Screenings); Stephen Kijak's Stones In Exile (Directors' Fortnight), produced by UK Oscar-winning documentary company Passion Pictures; Alois Di Leo's hand drawn short The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Lion (Critics' Week) will be on screen.

Jens Blank's animated short Cooked (Cinefondation); and Ridley Scott's opening night film Robin Hood, filmed at Shepperton Studios and on location around the UK will also be seen at the prestigious festival.

(BMcC/GK)