20/04/2005

Martha Fiennes’ Chromophobia, the only feature film representing the UK in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival this year, is one of the dozen feature films that were supported by the Isle of Man Film Commission in 2004.
The second feature film directed by the sister of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes following Onegin (1999), stars Penelope Cruz, Rhys Ifans, Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas. It is a dark comedy drama dealing with the dilemmas of modern life in London. The film was produced by Tarak Ben Ammar’s French group Quinta Communications and Ron Rotholz Pictures, with support from the Isle Man who put 25% of the budget as equity investment.
UK producers Marc and Peter Samuelson who acted as executive producers on Chromophobia, had already produced three other films on the Isle of Man, including Brian Gilbert’s The Gathering in 2001.

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“We’re really thrilled about Chromophobia being selected in Cannes”, said Hilary Dugdale Head of production at the Isle of Man Film Commission. “We’ve been very fortunate with our films recently as another one which we supported: On a Clear Day starring Peter Mullan and Brendan Blethyn was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
The Isle of Man Film Commission has around £23M each year to support feature film production and TV drama, and feature film representing nearly 70% of its total investments last year. 12 feature films were supported in 2004, and so far two feature films for this year: Niall Johnson’s Keeping Mum starring Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott-Thomas, and Patrick Swayze, and Gurinder Chadra and Paul Berger’s Mistress of Spice starring the Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott.