13/09/2005

FilmFour, Channel 4 Television’s feature film division supporting innovative new and established talents in the UK, has three first feature films screening this week at the Toronto International Film Festival ending on September 17.
Festival which has its US premiere in Toronto as part of its Midnight Madness section, is a comedy about the Edinburgh Festival during which, for some people, the Scottish capital becomes the centre of the universe. The film produced by Scotland-based Christopher Young (Young Pirate Films) for Film Four, is the directorial debut of theatre writer and performer Annie Griffith. Pathe released the film in the UK on July 15 and Pathe International handles world sales.
Festival will also screen in competition at the upcoming Dinard Film Festival (October 6-9, 2005) and as part of the Scottish Cinema Week in Brussels in November.

The second Film Four film screening in Toronto as part of its Visions Programme is Brothers Of The Head, the first feature film by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe, who directed the acclaimed documentary Lost In La Mancha. Produced by Simon Channing-Williams, the film is based on the true story of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe who were discovered on a remote Nordfolk coast and groomed for fame by a music promoter who launched them as the rock sensation ‘The Bang Bang’. Written by Tony Grisoni (Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas) and photographed by Lars von Trier’s usual Dop Amthoy Dod Mantle, the film is sold internationally by Hanway Films.

Isolation, a UK/Irish co-production supported by Film Four, is also having its world premiere in Toronto in the festival’s Midnight Madness section. The horror film written/directed by Billy O’Brien and starring John Lynch and Marcel Lures is sold internationally by Lions Gates.

Film Four which invests around £10m (€ 14.8m) a year into a large development slate and the production of six to eight feature films, has three other films in production: Mischief Night, a dark comedy by the director of Principles of Lust Penny Woolcock, and Jerry Rothwell’s Deep Water both sold internationally by Pathe, as well as Last King of Scotland, the first feature film by Kevin Macdonald who won an Oscar for the documentary film Touching The Void. Last King Of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker and Gillian Anderson is co-produced by Slate Films, Cowboy Films, DNA Films, Film Four in the UK with Fox Searchlight in the US and 20th Century Fox will release it in the UK.