21/08/2007

Simon Ellis’ short film Soft has won the best Live Action Short award at the Toronto Short Film Festival and also the Audience Award and a Special Mention at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival.

This marks another successful venture under the Cinema Extreme programme, which enables new filmmakers to prepare for the rigours of feature films by making a professional short film.

The programme has brought forth a new generation of British filmmakers including Andrea Arnold, who won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for Wasp and went on to win the Cannes Jury Prize for her debut feature Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

In addition, Duane Hopkins has completed his feature Better Things, which will be seen at festivals later this year; Get the Picture director Rupert Wyatt is in post-production on his feature The Escapist; and The Bypass producer Trevor Ingman is producing the feature-length documentary The Meerkats.

The UK Film Council and Film4 are supporting several of these films.

Currently, Cinema Extreme is on the lookout for the next breakthrough name in British filmmaking. Four projects will be selected when the call for applications ends on September 7.

Lenny Crooks, head of the UK FC’s New Cinema Fund, said, “The Cinema Extreme scheme forms an integral part of our overall aim, to find distinctive new filmmaking talents and support them, building their work into the UK film industry. Cinema Extreme has a fantastic track record with major new talents producing stunning work and gaining deserved success. We look forward to welcoming applicants in 2007”.

So far Cinema Extreme has commissioned 19 films. Production company The Bureau runs the scheme for the UK FC and Film4.