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Scottish producer and executive Paddy Higson, who worked with Bill Forsyth and led filmmaking charity Gmac, has died aged 83, of cancer.

Higson died on Sunday, April 13. “She passed gently away surrounded by her family and so much love,” read a Facebook post from her children Michael, Chris and Frances.

Higson was a production supervisor on Forsyth’s 1980 Scottish classic Gregory’s Girl and an associate producer and production manager on 1979’s That Sinking Feeling.

She also produced films including Charles Gormley’s 1982 romance Living Apart Together; and Cary Parker’s 1985 The Girl In The Picture starring Gregory’s Girl lead John Gordon Sinclair and Irina Brook.

Exclusive: Sam Riley (Maleficent) and Eddie Marsan (Ray Donovan) will portray noble-born brothers Thomas and Edward Seymour in the historical thriller Firebrand, joining already announced Alicia Vikander and Jude Law who are portraying Katharine Parr and Henry VIII in the first English-language film from Brazilian director Karim Ainouz (The Invisible Life of Eurydice Gusmao).

The movie, shooting up in the Derbyshire region of the UK’s Peak District, is based on Elizabeth Fremantle’s bestselling historical novel Queen’s Gambit.

Film follows the marriage of Katherine (the filmmakers have chosen to spell Katherine with a K; some historians use a C) to Henry, his sixth and final wife, and how she fell foul of her husband’s courtiers — namely his key adviser Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, a role taken by Simon Russell Beale.

Gardener’s duties included uncovering high-profile heretics. He set his sights on Protestant martyr Anne Askew,...

Veteran Australian producer Al Clark will receive the Aacta Raymond Longford Award in recognition of his three-decade career which has included iconic films such as Chopper and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Clark, who emigrated from the UK in the 1980s after representing music acts such as the Sex Pistols and Phil Collins, has produced or executive produced 19 feature films. He has also served on the board of the Australian Film Commission (1989-1992) and participated in official juries of several international film festivals, including the San Sebastian and Valladolid Film Festivals.

..With a love of films that always transcends the frustrations of getting them made, I.ve tried to choose distinctive projects, to navigate them soundly, to find gifted people to work with, and to bring out the best in their considerable talents," Clark said after being told of the award. "I.m grateful to Aacta for...