10/02/2006

BBC Films, the feature filmmaking arm of the BBC, has been given the honour of opening two prestigious sections of the Berlin Film Festival. Last night it was Marc Evans’ star-studded Snow Cake [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which opened the competition programme of the 56th Berlinale, and today it is Peter Cattaneo’s turn: he will with inaugurate the 29th Kinderfilmfest with Opal Dream.

Set in the beautiful snowy landscape of Canada’s Lake Superior, Snow Cake is the story of an unorthodox relationship between a man escaping his past (Alan Rickman), an autistic mother coping with the loss of her daughter (Sigourney Weaver) and a passionate woman who keeps love at arm’s length (Carrie-Anne Moss). Produced by the UK’s Revolution Films and Canada’s Rhombus Media, the film was co-financed by BBC Films, 2 Entertain, TVA Films, Baby Cow Films, the UK Film Council, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund. Fortissimo Film Sales is handling international sales.

After the small snowbound town of Wawa in Northern Ontario, where Snow Cake’s drama unfolds, Opal Dream by Peter Cattaneo, the director of The Full Monty, takes the audience to another small town, this time in sunny Coober Pedy, Western Australia where people dig for opals. In the film, co-written by Cattaneo with Phil Trail and Ben Rice, based on the latter’s own novella, nine-year-old Kellyanne loses her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan, and it falls to her 11 year-old brother to persuade the town to go and look for her invisible friends. The film is an Australian/UK co-production between Sherman Pictures and Academy Features, with co-financing from BBC Films, the UK Film Council and with support from the Australian Film Corporation. International sales are being handled by Australian Becker Films International.

A third BBC Films co-production, Julien Temple’s music documentary Glastonbury, will screen in the Panorama Special before its UK release through Pathe on April 14. The film is being sold by Hanway Films .