FCUK Boosts Cinema P&A Spend
The UK Film Council has awarded an extra £700,000 to boost P&A to promote access to arthouse cinema for film goers. The Prints and Advertising Fund aims to bring a broader range of films to audiences across the UK.
The P&A Fund, which distributes £2 million each year, is made available in order to widen the release of specialised arthouse and foreign language films. Assistance is offered to distributors to produce extra prints and increase advertising for these specialised films, which otherwise would only have a very limited release in the UK. The fund also helps to enhance media exposure and publicity ensuring audiences are aware of the opportunities to see the film.
Oscar winning Tsotsi (Best Foreign Language Film) opened with excellent box office results, grossing £200,000 in its first three days of release. The tale of a young South African carjacker who gets a chance to redeem himself was awarded £150,000 which enabled Momentum Pictures to double the number of prints available, allowing more UK cinema-goers to see the film on more screens.
John Hillcoat’s The Proposition, written by Nick Cave and starring Ray Winstone, Guy Pierce, John Hurt and Emily Watson, is distinguished from mainstream filmmaking by its themes and cinematic storytelling style. Tartan Films has been awarded £174,196 to break out to a wider audience by doubling the amount of prints and digital copies, increasing national advertising and a regional Q & A Tour. To date the film has taken £620,173.
Revolver Entertainment, distributor for Kidulthood, received £76,200 which supported the production of an additional 20 prints as well as advertising specific to the teenage target audience. The film follows a day in the life of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London.
The Road To Guantanamo, directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross and produced by Andrew Eaton, received an award of £17,740 enabling Revolution Films to expand the release of the film and set up a speaker tour for those involved. Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, this feature-length factual drama is based on first hand interviews with the Tipton Three, the three male British prisoners released in spring of last year from Guantanamo Bay.
Michael Haneke’s Hidden (Caché), one of the most successful foreign language films in the UK, was the first film in the history of the P&A Fund to receive an award after it had been released. Artificial Eye was awarded £25,000 which allowed an additional 10 cinemas to screen the film on an expanded 3rd week of release. Hidden was nominated for 25 international awards and won 13, including four European Film Awards and three at Cannes.
Transamerica, Oscar- nominated for Felicity Huffman's Performance in a Leading Role and winner of a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, has had £100,000 awarded to Pathé to significantly increase the amount of prints and increase the advertising spend to support the release.
Shooting Dogs, released by Metrodome, has been awarded £17,750 to enable the film to be readied for digital distribution which will allow it to open on more screens. The award will also fund a comprehensive education package which will include an interactive CD ROM to be sent to 400 school teachers as well as screenings for schools at ten venues across the UK.
Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution and Exhibition, commented: “The aim of the Print & Advertising Fund is to give audiences more choice by creating access to a broad range of films that wouldn’t normally be seen. We are delighted to have supported such a strong range of specialised films which appeal to a wide range of audiences across the UK.”
A further 12 films also received awards and are detailed below:
Cockles & Muscles (Peccadillo Pictures) £22,070
Crossing The Bridge - The Sound Of Istanbul (Soda Pictures) £11,340
Grizzly Man (Revolver Entertainment) £9,676
Iqbal (Tip Top Entertainment) £50,000
Junebug (Eureka) £44,800
Love + Hate (Verve Pictures) £14,500
Quo Vadis, Baby? (Yume Pictures) £13,500
The Magician (Trinity Filmed Entertainment) £43,260
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Tartan Film Distribution) £10,700
Unknown White Male (Shooting People) £31,863
Rollin’ with the Nines (Maiden Voyage Pictures) £100,000
C.R.A.Z.Y. (Soda Pictures) £66,735
The BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival has been awarded £1,200, from the UK Film Council’s Cinema Access Programme, to increase the number of screenings available for audiences with sensory impairments. Show Me, 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous and Interviews with my Next Girlfriend will be made available in both soft subtitled and audio described formats.