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Mirren won best actress at Cannes in 1984 for her role as Marcella, who forms a relationship with John Lynch’s Cal – a man complicit in her husband’s murder

Pat O’Connor’s Northern Irish movie from 1984, adapted by author Bernard MacLaverty from his own novel, holds up very well for its rerelease; better in fact than most of the movies and TV drama made about and during the Troubles. It has an unhurried, thoughtful and very human quality; Helen Mirren won the best actress award at Cannes for her performance here and in fact it is very well acted across the board by a blue-chip cast.

Mirren plays Marcella, a woman from a Catholic background, married across the sectarian divide to a reserve police officer murdered at his parents’ farmhouse by an Ira man who had bullied a bewildered local guy into being his getaway driver; this is Cal, played...

McCance died aged 53 on December 19 last year, shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.

Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to “free spirit” and “brilliant role model”, Northern Ireland-born, Sweden-based film and TV writer and executive producer Ruth McCance, who has died aged 53 from cancer.

McCance was diagnosed in November of last year with stomach cancer, and died just five weeks later.

During her career she worked on films including Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher, Thomas Vinterberg’s It’s All About Love, Soren-Kragh Jakobson’s Skagerrak and Garth Jennings’s Son Of Rambow.

McCance grew up in Belfast. Her mother was a...

Oscar nominees Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) and Ciarán Hinds (Belfast, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy) are teaming up for Midwinter Break, the debut feature of Olivier-winning British theater director Polly Findlay.

The prestige project is heading to the Marche du Film in Cannes, with Protagonist Pictures handling worldwide sales.

Adapted from the novel by BAFTA nominee Bernard MacLaverty (Lamb) and written by Nick Payne (The Last Letter from Your Lover, We Live in Time) Midwinter Break follows Stella and Gerry, a long-time married couple who reach a crossroads in their relationship when they take a trip to Amsterdam.

The film is produced by BAFTA Award-winner Guy Heeley, whose previous credits include the Steven Knight’s Tom Hardy-starring Locke; Joe Wright’s Cyrano, starring Peter Dinklage; and Stephen Daldry’s lockdown comedy-drama Together, starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan. The project was developed with Film4, who will executive produce and co-finance.

Gff headquarters - the Gft Photo: Stuart Crawford

The Glasgow Film Festival has announced a return to normal today following two days of severe diruption caused by snow.

Most Q&As scheduled to take place today have been cancelled, but writer Bernard MacLaverty will still attend to talk about his 1984 film, Cal.

The Frightfest team, who were stranded in Preston yesterday when their train from London was unable to get any further, managed to obtain a vehicle and drove into Glasgow today, less than an hour before their first film was due to screen. There are still expected to be some guests present at Frightfest events but Q&As there have officially been cancelled..

The amber warning from the Met Office applied to the Glasgow area was today downgraded to a yellow alert for snow. Traffic is returning to normal but drivers are advised to take extra care. Limited bus...

Exclusive: Film4 has acquired rights to Bernard MacLaverty’s just-published novel Midwinter Break with Brooklyn helmer John Crowley set to direct. MacLaverty will handle the adaptation of the story about a couple out of their element which is also a hopeful portrait of love's complexity. Guy Heeley is producing under his Shoebox Films banner. The project is on Crowley’s dance card after he finishes work on The Goldfinch, the Peter Straughan adaptation of Donna Tartt’s…...

The meaning of cinema and the nature of community are the themes of a new art project centered on the Glasgow Film Theatre (Gft). Over the next few weeks, feature film audiences will also get to see short animations and will be invited to discover pieces of poetry and prose from ten specially commissioned writers exploring these ideas. The project opens with Tawona Sithole's Pamwepo (At Together), which begins by looking at the shared experiences of a cinema audience.

With contributions from Janice Galloway and Bernard MacLaverty, the writing is designed to spark conversation. Audiences are encouraged to respond at the Gft or online and will be invited to join group conversations led by author Alison Irvine.

"Our purpose at Glasgow Film is to share a diverse film culture with the broadest range of people possible," said Gft Head of Learning Emily Munro. "At the moment, cinema culture is experiencing rapid change.

Ben Affleck's thriller brings a familiar plot line to life with fresh direction and sparkling writing

Based on a novel by Chuck Hogan called Prince of Thieves, Ben Affleck's The Town is a violent crime story set in the Charlestown area of north-east Boston, which boasts more bank and armoured car robbers than any other square mile in America. Forty years ago one might have been surprised by this, as to outsiders Boston was thought of as a sedate city, rich in revolutionary history and the setting for respectable novels of upper-class manners.

But in the early 1970s the city became the stamping ground for the tough private eye Spenser, an east coast version of Philip Marlowe created by the prolific Robert B Parker, and the location for The Friends of Eddie Coyle, the first of 25 novels about crime and law enforcement by George V Higgins, assistant Us...