50 new UK films at London Film Focus
by Annika Pham
Market – UK 50 new UK films at London Film Focus 138 international film distributors and key festival programmers are flocking to the UK capital today for the three-day UK film export event London UK Film Focus (June 26-29), which is taking place for the first time at the Cineworld multiplex in London’s Docklands.
"The National Film Theatre wasn’t available this year so we booked another great screening venue: the 10-screen Cineworld Multiplex in West India Quay, close to the new Marriott Hotel. So distributors will be able to go directly from their hotel to the screenings", explained Helena Mackenzie, who runs the show. "The same buyers as last year will attend, but we have a higher number of festival programmers, such as Giorgio Gosetti, head of the Rome Film Festival, and two representatives of the Dinard Film Festival".
Strictly dedicated to UK productions or co-productions, the London event will launch a new initiative to further support UK exports: ‘Breakthrough’, the screening of new UK films looking for a sales agent.
The 12 world premieres on this year’s programme include Jim Hickey’s UK reality comedy Dirty Sanchez: The Movie; Penny Woolcock’s White Mischief, sold by Pathe International; Niall Heery’s Irish comedy drama Small Engine Repair [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Ian Glen and produced by Subotica Entertainment and UK teen comedy Popcorn by Darren Paul Fisher, both on Moviehouse Entertainment’s line-up.
Another Irish film, The Front Line [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by David Gleeson (Cowboys & Angels), produced by Nathalie Lichtenhaeler for Wide Eye Films, will be premiered by Highpoint Films.
Other UK films include Jeremy Brock’s Driving Lessons, sold by Content Films, Ed Blum’s Scenes From a Sexual Nature and Norwegian animated film by Christopher Nielsen, Free Jimmy [+see also:
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film profile], sold by The Works .
The new footage screening programme will give The Work’s the opportunity to show 10 minutes of Shane Meadows’ This is England [+see also:
trailer
film profile] before its Toronto launch, and Celluloid Dreams – a first-timer at the London market – will show images of Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
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