04/03/2014 - British films selected at festival to aim for US distribution

The British Film Institute (BFI) has extended its pilot scheme to help eligible UK films premiering at the 2014 SXSW Festival, Austin (March 7-16) attract US theatrical distribution. The scheme was initially limited to British films without US distribution receiving their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival 2014 and with a production budget less than £2 million. Three films, Hong Khaou’s Lilting [+see also:
film review
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film profile], Stuart Murdoch’s God Help the Girl [+see also:
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film profile] and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth [+see also:
trailer
film profile], applied to the scheme and now all three have secured US theatrical distribution deals.

British films at SXSW include The Legend Of Shorty co-directed by Angus Macquee and Guillermo Galdos, Beyond Clueless [+see also:
trailer
film profile] directed by Charlie Lyne, The Possibilities Are Endless [+see also:
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interview: Edward Lovelace and James H…
film profile] co-directed by Edward Lovelace and James Hall, Pulp [+see also:
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film profile], directed by Florian Habicht, and Soul Boys of the Western World [+see also:
film review
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film profile] directed by George Hencken. 

The BFI will make awards of up to £25,000 per eligible film available to US distributors, to enable them to strengthen the marketing campaigns for the US theatrical release and, in particular, support the promotion of UK film talent to US audiences. 

BFI Film Fund Director, Ben Roberts, says, “With each of the eligible films at Sundance quickly securing US distribution deals, we were very keen to extend the pilot to see if it has legs at SXSW, and explore further if it can help increase the visibility of a range of cultural British film in the all-important US market.”