16/05/2006

The British film industry will enjoy high visibility at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: three feature films and one short film have been selected for official competition: Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
interview: Rebecca O’Brien
film profile], Andrea Arnold’s feature debut film Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Fast Food Nation by US filmmaker Richard Linklater, produced by the UK’s Recorded Picture Company's (all three were back by the National Lottery through the UK Film Council), along with the animated short Film Noir by Osbert Parker.

Another 98 films will be sold at the market and the UK Film Centre, located at the international village, will be hosting a series of seminars in addition to offering various services to anyone seeking information on British films and industry professionals at Cannes.

The many daily events and discussions organised from Thursday May 18 include:
- Ken Loach on the making of his latest film (May 20)

- Tony Curran and Katie Dickie, two of the stars of Red Road, on their experiences working on the film (May 21)

- Richard Linklater and UK producer Jeremy Thomas on the making of Fast Food Nation (May 22)

- How Warp X, the new UK low-budget digital film studio is going to ‘re-tox’ British cinema with a spirit of adventure (May 23)

- “Understanding and working with the UK’s new tax system”, with UK tax expert John Graydon of Tenon Media (May 19 and 21)

- The current filmmaking landscape in the UK, with Andrew Eaton (Deputy Chair, UK Film Council), David Thompson (Head of BBC Films), Tessa Ross (Head of FilmFour) and Andrea Calderwood (Slate Films and Chair of Pact’s Film Policy Group), a seminar organised by PACT, the leading UK film producers association (May 22).

For more information, please see the UK Film Centre website