Iqpc Wasting Away
Three films already familiarto UK audiences - In My Father s Den,Festi
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val, and Ladies in Lavender- were the winners at the 16th Dinard British Film Festival Oct 6-9 . Brad McGann s In My Father s Den, which UK distributorOptimum released in theatres in June and on DVD last week, was something of asurprise winner, sweeping the awards with the jury s Golden Hitchcock with a4,600 Euro prize , the audience s Silver Hitchcock prize, and the Prix Kodak forStuart Dryburgh s cinematography. The UK-New Zealand co-production stars Matthew Macfadyen as a warcorrespondent who returns to his tiny New Zealand hometown and becomes embroiled in a scandal.Annie Griffin s Festival won Dinard s new award for bestscreenplay, and she accepted the priz
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e by thanking her cast, who helped createthe script. Actor Charles Dance, this year s honorary festival president, wonthe Prix Coup de Coeur for his directorial debut Ladies In Lavender. That award comes with the promise ofdistribution for his film in 40 localFrench cinemas. The festival also includedthe second year of a short-film competition between student films from France s la FEMIS and England s National Film Television School. Scott Flockhart from the NFTS won the 1,500 Europrize for his short X-Mass. This year s jury, led byFrench director Regis Wargnier, included Tom Novembre, Isabelle Carre, Aure Atika,Samu
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el Le Bihan, Berenice Bejo, Abdelkrim Ouchikhe, Simon Beaufoy, TimothySpall, and John Lynch. The other films in competition were Idhc Immortals storms to $38m international debut
UK film produc
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tion soared in 1999 with 114 films shot by local outfits or with a British partner in the UK or abroad, compared to just 78 the previous year.The number of wholly-UK funded films rose to 58 from 42 in 1998 and includes Sundance competitors New Year s Day Imagine Films and Flashpoint Films and Saving Grace Portman Entertainment and Sky Pictures , as well as There s Only One Jimmy Grimble, a footballing comedy produced by Sarah Radclyffe Production and Impact Pictures, with backing from the Arts Council of England ACE and Pathe Distribution. However, the major increase came from films in the privately-backed micro-budget arena with 28 made, up from just 16 the year
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before. Micro-budget titles are produced for less than 拢1m, with no international sales agent atta
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ched, and have little chance of a theatrical release, in the UK or elsewhere.The average budget of a wholly-British film produced outside this sector rose slightly in 1999 to 拢3m, up from 拢2.5m in 1998. The only notable exceptions were Love s Labour s Lost and Whatever Happened To Harold Smith both backed by Intermedia Films and both of which still came in at under 拢10m. FilmFour and BBC Films continue to be the most prolific local film financiers with FilmFour investing in 11 films to the tune of approximately 拢33m, and the BBC in eight with about 拢10m. The number of UK/US collaborations rose in 1999 to 24 from 13 in 1998, led by Miramax s investment in such British films as Never Better, Birthday G