News

Bafta and Rocliffe have selected three winning scripts for the 2024 New Writing Competition and Showcase.

The three winners are: Spellbound by Charlie Dinkin and Chris Anastasi; The Fat Mermaid Club by Hannah Kennedy; and Silence by Alex Salam.

Scroll down for details on the winning scripts

The scripts were selected from over 600 entries, through a three-tier blind selection process by a jury of industry professionals.

Jurors included the BFI’s head of UK Global Screen Fund Denitsa Yordanova; Lionsgate’s head of development & acquisitions Emma Berkofsky; BBC Film commissioning executive Kristin Irving; Gfm Films director Michael Ryan; casting director Sherry Thomas; filmmakers Frank Berry,...

Exclusive: Charithra Chandran, who broke out playing Edwina Sharma in Netflix’s smash regal series Bridgerton, has spoken out against an entertainment industry mentality that she feels pits people of color against each other.

Chandran, who was speaking to Deadline in the days before her debut West End play wraps, said she has “never pictured myself as a role model” but “a lot of young girls follow me on social media, so I do feel a sense of responsibility.”

Actors including Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero and Aubrey Plaza have spoken out in the past about there being limited spaces for people of color in TV and movies.

To Chandran, this mentality is intentionally propagated by industry gatekeepers to pit people of color against each other. “It’s not a zero-sum game,” she said. “You’re so focused on fighting your own that you become...

Charithra Chandran is not in Season 3 of “Bridgerton,” the British star has confirmed, but she has a range of other projects coming up.

Chandran, who is of Indian heritage, will produce a reality TV series based on ancient Sanskrit-language text the “Kama Sutra.” While the text was primarily designed as an art of living guide, many of the film and TV interpretations of it have focused on its sexual aspects.

“I’m working on a reality TV show, which is inspired by the ‘Kama Sutra,’ [for] which I would be just behind the scenes. I would just be producing obviously, not on the show,” Chandran told Variety. “The ‘Kama Sutra’ is actually an ancient Hindu text, but in the West it has this not-so-pleasant, or positive, reputation and connotation. And it’s about taking ownership back of things that belong to us and our culture, and actually showing the beauty and...

UK sales outfit HanWay Films has taken worldwide rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s A French Pursuit, a re-imagining of France’s box office hit Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes, and starring Toni Colette.

The comedy is due to start shooting late spring, and marks the third creative alliance between Collette, Hardwicke and producer Christopher Simon. Simon will produce via New Sparta Productions alongside Collette with her outfit Vocab Films.

The trio previously worked together on Miss You Already and most recently on Mafia Mamma, while Hardwicke’s further directorial credits include Twilight and Thirteen.

The film is about a British art...

HanWay Films has boarded sales on Catherine Hardwicke’s upcoming comedy drama A French Pursuit starring Toni Collette, ahead of the EFM.

The movie, which is due to start shooting later this spring, is described as “a reimagining” of Caroline Vignal’s 2020 French hit My Donkey, My Lover & I (Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes), starring Laura Calamy.

A French Pursuit marks the third creative collaboration between Oscar nominee and Emmy Award winning actress Toni Collette, Hardwicke and producer Christopher Simon.

In the new version, Collette plays unconventional and lively British art teacher Zoe who falls head over heels for fellow rebel spirit, Jean-Louis.

Their plans for a romantic getaway are dashed when he has to join his family on a donkey trek in the remote and picturesque region of the Cévennes in the south of France, leaving Zoe heartbroken.

Zoe is encouraged by her mother to seize the opportunity for...

Toni Collette is set to star in “A French Pursuit,” a comedy based on the French box office hit “Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes,” from “Twilight” filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke. HanWay Films is selling worldwide distribution rights and will be taking the project to the European Film Market in Berlin.

The film, due to start shooting in late spring, will mark the third creative alliance between Collette, Hardwicke and Christopher Simon, who produces via New Sparta Productions alongside Collette with her Vocab Films production shingle. The three previously worked together on “Miss You Already” and, most recently, “Mafia Mamma.”

“A French Pursuit” is described as a heartwarming and whimsical tale about a free-spirited woman pursuing love, only to go on a surprising journey of self-discovery. Collette will play Zoe Turner, an unconventional and lively British art teacher who is head over heels for fellow rebel spirit Jean-Louis. But when their plans for a romantic getaway are dashed,...

Exclusive: Bridgerton season two star Charithra Chandran has landed the lead in Olivia Hetreed drama Song of the Sun God, Deadline can reveal.

Chandran, who broke out as Edwina Sharma in the second season of Shonda Rhimes smash Netflix regency drama and starred in Prime Video’s Alex Rider, will also associate produce the six-parter, which is based on Shankari Chandran’s novel and is being produced by The Cry indie Synchronicity Films and Australia’s Photoplay Films. Cineflix Rights has boarded as creative and financing partner, with first option on exclusive worldwide distribution.

Girl With the Pearl Earring writer Hetreed’s adaptation follows the love, lies and misdemeanours of a Sri Lankan family across three generations in the UK, Australia and Sri Lanka. Chandran will play Leela, a young Australian woman living her life in London, largely disconnected from her own culture and unaware of long-held family secrets. But...

Buoyed by a delightful performance from Lesley Manville as the titular character, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris manages to outshine even its effervescent lead to produce a heart-warming and emotionally rewarding drama.

The film relates the tale of recently widowed Ada Harris, who, after becoming entranced by a couture Dior dress, embarks on a quest to purchase one of her own. Suddenly, through a series of fortunate events, Mrs. Harris finds herself on an adventure in Paris that will resonate throughout both her own life and the House of Dior itself.

The heart and soul of the film rests on the capable shoulders of Lesley Manville, who delivers a tour de force performance as the title character. She is easily the aspect that draws the viewer into the film and thereafter keeps him/her enthralled by the events swirling and unfolding around this extremely likable cleaning lady. Similarly, Isabelle Huppert also shines as Claudine Colbert,...

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Review — Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Anthony Fabian, written by Anthony Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson and Olivia Hetreed and starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Ellen Thomas, Jason Isaacs, Anna Chancellor, Rose Williams, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo, Freddie Fox, Lambert Wilson, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (2022): Lesley Manville Lights Up the Screen in Elegant, Old-Fashioned Movie About Fashion...

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, a kind Cinderella story for older women with a Dior twist, arrives in 978 theaters this weekend with strong reviews and great word of mouth. The film is a known property among that demo given its prime trailer treatment before Focus Features’ fan favorite Downtown Abbey: A New Era — not a bad setup.

Deadline review here. The film by Anthony Fabian with Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert and Jason Isaacs has a 92/critics, 94/audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It shares the pond with a handful of strong studio holdovers and new wide releases Paw Patrol: The Movie and drama Where The Crawdads Sing. Like Crawdads, Mrs. Harris is based on a popular book – the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico – and book clubs are prominent in a large marketing push.

Manville plays Ada Harris, a British housekeeper and widow who dreams of buying her own couture Christian Dior gown.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on July 14th, reviewing “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” the adventures of a British cleaning lady when she decides to wish upon a dream, in theaters on July 15th.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Lesley Manville is Ada Harris, a British cleaning woman in London who believes in the power of fate, despite having not heard from her missing-in-action husband 13 years after World War II has ended. When a package arrives confirming her hubby’s death, she is inspired by one of her client’s dresses to go to 1958 Paris and buy a dress from the House of Christian Dior. When she actually gets to the City of Lights, it opens up to her magic wish, and she becomes involved in everything Dior, including his Office Manager Claudine (Isabelle Huppert), Model Natasha (Alba Baptiste) and accountant Andre (Lucas Bravo...

Lesley Manville stars as Mrs. Harris in director Tony Fabian’s Mrs.Harris Goes To Paris, a Focus Features release. Credit: Dávid Lukács / © 2021 Ada Films Ltd – Harris Squared Kft. Courtesy of Focus Features

Mid-century high fashion and an irresistibly charming Lesley Manville add sparkle to the sweet, light-as-air Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, an uplifting tale in which an older British house cleaner falls in love with a Dior dress and decides she must have one of her own. It is a grown-up fairy-tale that fits neatly into a familiar genre of British films dealing with the divide between the working class and the aristocratic one. Set in 1957, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris also showcases mid-century couture fashion, with recreations of actual Christian Dior period dress designs, with other visual delights by costume designer Jenny Beavan, the creative force behind the fashions in last year’s Cruella.

An outstanding and nuanced...

A housekeeper waltzing into Christian Dior and choosing a couture gown may sound like the height of fantasy, but the biggest stretch in Anthony Fabian’s “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” may be all the nice French people she meets along the way. Starring the inimitable Lesley Manville, in a role that effectively transitions the frequent Mike Leigh collaborator into the Helen Mirren phase of her career, “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is a charming confection of a middle-aged, middle-class fantasy.

Imbuing the lavish period delights of “Mrs. Maisel” with a lively post-menopausal heroine “Hacks” made trendy, “Mrs. Harris”

The movie begins in 1957 London, where Mrs. Ada Harris (Manville) has finally received word, after years of holding out hope, that her dear Eddie was killed in action some dozen years prior. As she goes about her usual routine, cleaning the flats of the entitled rich who regard her as nothing more than reliably good-natured help,...

Click here to read the full article.

There’s a wonderful symmetry to the lead casting of Lesley Manville in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, playing a woman who’s the flipside of Cyril, her role in Phantom Thread. That character glided around a mid-’50s London couture atelier with icy ownership, fiercely protective of her dress designer brother and his classical creations. As Mrs. Harris, Manville dreams of accessing a similarly privileged world of sartorial splendor, one in which her age and class make her seem an unlikely interloper. The beauty of her performance in this delightful fairy tale for grown-ups is the way in which her purity of heart and inherent goodness gently pry open those closed doors.

Manville has excelled at playing characters on the brittle, aloof, even villainous end of the spectrum; she was a viciously tyrannical matriarch in Let Him Go and the juiciest of schemers in Harlots.

His Dark Materials and Help writer Jack Thorne has been recognized for Outstanding Contribution to Writing at tonight’s 29th Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards (WGGBAs), with Russell T Davies, Emerald Fennell and Armando Iannucci also taking home gongs.

The prolific Thorne, who delivered this year’s Edinburgh Television Festival MacTaggart lecture, was presented with the prestigious trophy by His Dark Materials exec and Bad Wolf Co-Founder Jane Tranter, following a two-decades-long career in which he has penned some of the UK’s most critically-acclaimed hits including This is England, Shameless and The Virtues.

“I think all writers would say that being given something from other writers is the greatest honor,” said Thorne. “I don’t think I’ve really contributed anything much in this strange career, and writing is a really strange job, but I’m grateful, and slightly anxious, to now have this award to live up to.

Focus Features has pushed Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris from May 6 to July 15.

This is not on account of the pandemic, rather to provide the film with some breathing room against Focus’ Downton Abbey: A New Era which debuts on May 20.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris will be a moderate release and open on the same weekend as Sony’s Brad Pitt action title Bullet Train and STX horror movie Bed Rest.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris follows a seemingly ordinary British housekeeper whose dream to own a couture Christian Dior gown takes her on an extraordinary adventure to Paris. The film stars Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo and Rose Williams.

Pic is directed by Anthony Fabian, written by Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed, and based on the novella of the same name by Paul Gallico. Producers are Xavier Marchand,...

The expanding Antalya Film Forum dedicated to fostering a new generation of Turkish directors seems poised to really have the goods this year for buyers and festival programmers who would like to know what’s coming down the pike.

The Antalya Film Festival’s industry section – which will run online Oct. 6-8 — features a fresh batch of projects spanning a wide range of often innovative genres mostly germinated from rookie producer-director teams that provides a sharp snapshot “of what’s to come,” vows the Forum’s new co-chief Müge Özen.

Özen, who is a young but experienced producer of standout titles from Turkey such as recent Istanbul hip-hop scene drama “When I’m Done Dying,” which was a Forum project in 2017, has now taken the section’s reins with Pınar Evrenosoğlu.

She points out that “the selection is very different from previous years” since seven out of the eight feature projects...

Sales

Vmi Worldwide has closed several major territory sales for western “Old Henry” from Shout! Studios and Hideout Pictures. Sales buzz reached its fever pitch as the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday evening.

So far, Vmi has closed deals in Italy (Blue Swan), the U.K. and Australia (Signature), France (Ace Entertainment), Germany (Koch), Benelux (Three Lines), the Middle East and Turkey (Phoenicia Pictures International) and South Korea (Jaye Entertainment).

“Old Henry” was written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli (“Still the King”) and produced by Shannon Houchins and Michael Hagerty. Starring Tim Blake Nelson (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Scott Haze (“Children of God”), Gavin Lewis (“Little Fires Everywhere”), Trace Adkins (“The Lincoln Lawyer”) and Stephen Dorff (“Blade”), the film turns on Henry, a farmer who helps an injured man with a bag of cash. Eventually, a gang shows up claiming to be the money’s rightful owners.

Exclusive: Andreas Prochaska has signed on to direct the climbing film White Out for Chockstone Pictures.

The action-adventure pic is based on a story from climbing legend Reinhold Messner. It follows a young man who’s grown up in the shadow of a famous father, known as the world’s greatest mountaineer. In the end, it will take a perilous climb on a sacred Himalayan peak for the pair to finally face each other.

Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Sascha Arango (The Silent Guest) and Don Bohlinger (Elles) wrote the script for White Out. Chockstone partners Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz will produce, alongside Boris Schönfelder of Neue Schönhauser Filmproduktion. Reinhold Messner and Andreas Prochaska will exec produce; Simon Messner and Roger Schwartz are also on board as co-producers.

“White Out has every element for an immersive cinematic experience: Epic scale and personal drama,...

The feature take of Paul Gallico’s novella Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is set for a theatrical release March 4, 2022 via Focus Features in the U.S. and Canada, the distributor said Tuesday.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris stars Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo and Rose Williams.

Directed by Anthony Fabian and in partnership with the House of Dior, the film tells the story of a widowed cleaning lady (Manville) in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris that will change not only her own outlook, but the very future of the House of Dior.

Carroll Cartwright, Fabian, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed adapted. Producers are Xavier Marchand,...

eOne financed with support from National Film Institute of Hungary.

Universal Pictures International will release Mrs Harris Goes To Paris in the UK and internationally on February 25, 2022.

The drama starring Lesley Manville, Isabelle Huppert, and Jason Isaacs will open in North America via Focus Features on March 4, 2022.

Anthony Fabian is directing the film from a screenplay by Carroll Cartwright, Fabian, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed, based on the novella of the same name by Paul Gallico.

The story centres on a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who falls in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she...

Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” a period drama starring Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert that emerged at this year’s European Film Market.

Anthony Fabian is directing the film that is based on a novella by Paul Gallico. Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo and Rose Williams also star in the film, which Focus Features will release domestically while Universal Pictures International handles overseas distribution.

“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” was made in partnership with the fashion group the House of Dior, and it tells the story of a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris which will change not only her own outlook,...

Exclusive: Focus Features has struck an eight-figure deal (we hear in the mid-teens) for world rights to feature Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, starring Oscar nominees Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) and Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter), Lambert Wilson (The Matrix), Alba Baptista (Warrior Nun), Lucas Bravo (Emily In Paris) and Rose Williams (Reign).

Made in partnership with the House of Dior, the period drama tells the story of a widowed cleaning lady (Manville) in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own. After she works, starves and gambles to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris which will change not only her own outlook, but also the future of the iconic fashion house.

Based on the popular 1958 novella of the same name by Paul Gallico, the story...

Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s Gaza-set drama “The Oblivion Theory” has won the top prize at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Presented by Paris-based Incognito Films and Berlin’s One Two Films, the film is based on José Eduardo Agualusa’s novel “A General Theory of Oblivion,” although the book’s story has been moved from Angola to Palestine during the First Intifada, the sustained protests by Palestinians against Israel occupation that lasted from 1987 to 1993.

The film centers on an American woman who accidentally gets stuck in an apartment in Gaza at the outbreak of the protests, becoming an unlikely witness and survivor in a country in the midst of massive upheaval.

“Forever etched in my psyche, the First Intifada marked my life and changed me forever,” said Jacir, who last year served on the Berlinale Competition jury. “‘The Oblivion Theory’ describes a very different experience of that time in my country’s story.

Actress Freida Pinto will essay British spy Noor Inayat Khan in the upcoming limited series, Spy Princess.

Freida will also executive-produce the limited series based on Shrabani Basu's book, Spy Princess: The Life Of Noor Inayat Khan, reports deadline.com.

Anand Tucker will direct the project and Olivia Hetreed will pen the screen adaptation based on the book, with Basu attached as series consultant.

"She was a fierce and amazing woman, the most unlikely heroine of World War II. Sending women to the front line is controversial even now. Then it was unthinkable," Freida said about Noor, the first Allied Forces female wireless operator sent into Nazi occupied France in 1943.

"Sending a Sufi mystic, who won't use a gun, daughter of a long-haired Indian Guru who preaches love and peace -- ridiculous! But Noor thrives, not in spite of her differences, but because of them. Her struggle to reconcile...

Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto is set to star in and executive produce Spy Princess, a limited series based on Shrabani Basu’s Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan, the definitive biography of Noor’s life, from writer Olivia Hetreed (Girl With a Pearl Earring) and Red Room Films.

Hetreed will pen the adaptation based on the book, and Basu will serve as a consultant on the series.

Noor was the first female wireless operator sent into occupied France in 1943 – a role with a life expectancy of just six weeks.

“She was a fierce and amazing woman, the most unlikely heroine of World War 2,” Pinto said. “Sending women to the front line is controversial even now. Then it was unthinkable. Sending a Sufi mystic, who won’t use a gun, daughter of a long-haired Indian Guru who preaches love and peace – ridiculous! But Noor thrives, not in spite of her differences,...

Maggie Betts (Novitiate) to direct from screenplay by Olivia Hetreed (Girl With The Pearl Earring).

UK-based Maven Screen Media, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and director Maggie Betts are developing a dramatic thriller about the pro-choice pioneer and activist Rebecca Gomperts.

Maven’s Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler will produce the timely feature alongside Thomas Benski of Pulse Films, Teddy Leifer of Rise Films, and James Ferrari.

Maven reunites with Betts, whose Novitiate premiered at Sundance 2017, and continues to forge ahead with the company’s mandate to increase representation of women behind and in front of the camera.

The film will tell the true story of Gomperts,...

Maggie Betts (Novitiate) to direct from screenplay by Olivia Hetreed (Girl With The Pearl Earring).

UK-based Maven Screen Media, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and director Maggie Betts are developing a dramatic thriller about the pro-choice pioneer and activist Rebecca Gomperts.

Maven’s Celine Rattray and Trudie will produce the timely feature alongside Thomas Benski of Pulse Films, Teddy Leifer of Rise Films, and James Ferrari.

Maven reunites with Betts, whose Novitiate premiered at Sundance 2017, and continues to forge ahead with the company’s mandate to increase representation of women behind and in front of the camera.

The film will tell the true story of Gomperts,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to Alistair Owen, author of The Art of Screen Adaptation: Top Writers Reveal Their Craft, about his picks for 5 Great Screen Adaptations – dipping into 5 case studies from the book:

Drive – Hossein Amini – how to write a great opening Atonement – Christopher Hampton – fidelity to the novel Pride & Prejudice – Deborah Moggach – importance of point of view / use of voiceover (compare and contrast with Andrew Davies’ TV version) Great Expectations – Sarah Phelps – how small changes can make a big difference (compare and contract with David Nicholls’ film version) Wild – Nick Hornby – the challenges of nonfiction

Hollywood. Netflix. Amazon. BBC. Producers and audiences are hungrier than ever for stories, and a lot of those stories begin life as a book – but how exactly do you transfer a story from the page to the screen? Do adaptations use the same creative gears as original screenplays?...

eOne is underway on Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, the period feature starring Oscar nominated pair Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert. Shoot is taking place in Budapest, Hungary, before transferring to London and Paris.

The project is based on Paul Gallico’s novella and is being directed by Anthony Fabian from a screenplay adapted by Carroll Cartwright, Anthony Fabian, and Keith Thompson with additional writing by Olivia Hetreed. It tells the story of a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own. The cast also features Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, and Lucas Bravo.

Xavier Marchand (Moonriver Content), Guillaume Benski (Superbe Films) and Anthony Fabian (Elysian Films), will produce the feature, with Daniel Kresmery and Jonathan Halperyn of Hungary-based Hero Squared co-producing. Philippe Carcassonne and Lesley Manville will executive produce.

eOne...

Jason Isaacs, Lambert Wilson, Alba Baptista, Lucas Bravo round out key cast.

Production has begun in Budapest on Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris starring Lesley Manville and Isabelle Huppert in their first appearance together.

Anthony Fabian directs from a screenplay adapted by Carroll Cartwright, Fabian, and Keith Thompson with additional writing by Olivia Hetreed.

The film will also shoot in London and Paris and is based on a novella by Paul Gallico about a widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London who works, starves and gambles to raise funds to travel to the Dior fashion house in France to buy the dress of her dreams.

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated Girl With A Pearl Earring writer Olivia Hetreed is to adapt Shankari Chandran’s debut novel Song Of The Sun God for Synchronicity Films, producer of Jenna Coleman-fronted BBC drama The Cry, and Australia’s Dragonet Films.

Hetreed is working on a six-part series based on the 2017 novel, which is a family saga that brings to light an untold story of the conflict in Sri Lanka during the country’s two-decade-long civil war.

The novel is set across three generations, beginning in 1948 when the country gained independence, and journeying to the present day. Hetreed’s adaptation will focus on the youngest generation through Leela, a young woman living in London, who is disconnected from her culture and long-held family secrets.

Set against the backdrop of the controversial Sri Lankan presidential election of Autumn 2019, Leela embarks on a quest to find her Aunt Dhara, a former frontline medic...

The scheme is open to writers, directors and producers who are Scottish residents.

Young Films Foundation’s second-annual residency on Scotland’s Isle of Skye welcomed mentors including producer Margaret Matheson, actor Joe Thomas, director Jonny Campbell, writers Olivia Hetreed (Girl With A Pearl Earring) and Francesca Gardiner and more to mentor six selected rising Scottish film and TV creatives.

Other top industry attendees included Dan MacRae (StudioCanal), Dionne Farrell (BBC Films), Celine Coulson (Film4), Isabel Davis and Sean Greenhorn from Screen Scotland, producers Beth Willis and Liz Lewin (Derry Girls).

The six participants, selected from more than 100 applicants, were:

Daisy Costello,...

The initiative is spearheaded by filmmakers Daphne Schmon, Emily Carlton and Elpida Stathatou.

Canadian director Shelley Thompson, Philippines filmmaker Maritte Go and UK-based documentarian Emily James were among the participants at the second edition of female-focused financing event Breaking Through The Lens in Cannes over the weekend.

The initiative - spearheaded by filmmakers Daphne Schmon, Emily Carlton and Elpida Stathatou - is aimed at connecting female directors and their producers with financiers and other partners on upcoming projects.

Carlton explains they launched the platform to address the challenges female directors face when looking to finance their projects.

“There’s clearly...

Scheme is sponsored by Disney.

The UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) has announced the six participants for the 2019 edition of its Diverse Directors Workshop, sponsored by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK.

The six participants are:

Abena Taylor-Smith Amelia Hashemi Chloe Pope John Ogunmuyiwa Nichola Wong Olivia Hetreed

The programme aims to increase the number of women, people from Bame backgrounds and people with disabilities working in screen directing.

All the participants are working professionally in screen directing. They will take part in a two-day introductory session on January 12 and 13, following by training in narrative filmmaking in...

Want to get your short film script made? Bath Film Festival makes this and an IMDb New Filmmaker Award available.

Bath Film Festival’s 28th film festival will be 1–11 November 2018.

Though it is closed for 2018 submissions, the idea behind the IMDb Script to Screen Award is simple: anyone can submit a script for a short film with a running time of 10 minutes or under. Entries are then read and discussed by a panel from the creative writing team at Bath Spa University.

Five scripts are shortlisted and performed in June by Bath Spa’s drama students in front of our industry judges and a live audience. Both the judges and the audience vote for the best script and the winner receives £5000 cash and £1000 worth of hire kit from Visual Impact (UK filmmakers only) to turn their script into a film. Plus, the winner receives a coveted IMDb Enamel Badge and prestigious glass-etched award.

Also providing additional support to three projects on their slate.

Welsh development agency Ffilm Cymru Wales has invested National Lottery funding in the development of three new features.

£13,688 has been awarded to Gone, an adaptation of musical prodigy Min Kym’s memoir, about the mystery that started when her expensive Stradivarius violin was stolen. Working on the film are producer Elwen Rowlands, director Aisling Walsh and writer Olivia Hetreed (Girl With A Pearl Earring).

The Killing Of Butterfly Joe, another literary adaptation, has received £24,999. Welsh writer Rhidian Brook will adapt his own novel for screen; it is a thriller about...

A report commissioned by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has found a wide gap between male and female writers working across film and TV — with no significant improvement over a period of 10 years. Among the findings, 16% of all working film screenwriters in the UK are female while 14% of primetime TV drama is predominantly written by women.

The report, titled “Gender Inequality and Screenwriters,” gathered data from over 30 sources and examined the decade from 2005-2015. Figures reveal “the serious lack of authentic female voices and their opportunity to tell their stories.” More than half of respondents to a survey of Wggb members conducted by the authors of the report suggested they had seen evidence of discrimination over the course of their careers.

The findings have spurred the Equality Writes campaign which calls on the industry to effect positive change. Short-term goals include program-level TV equality monitoring data to be released...

Little progress made in last ten years, according to Wggb study.

A new report has revealed the under-representation of female writers in the UK film and TV industry.

The study by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (Wggb) shows only 16% of the 3,310 writers with at least one credit on a UK feature film were female between 2005-2016.

Only 11% of films in the 10-year period were predominantly female-written, with the figure dropping to 7% for films with a budget of more than £10m.

The figures also reveal there has been little progress over the last decade. In 2006, 21% of UK feature films had at least one female writer.

Amid calls for equality in the film and TV business on both sides of the pond, a damning new report for the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain has laid bare the lack of female writers getting work in the U.K.

The report shows that only 28% of British TV drama is predominantly female-written, a proportion that drops even lower, to 14%, in primetime. The report’s authors point to “Victoria,” “Call the Midwife,” “Fleabag,” and “Catastrophe” (pictured) as examples that debunk the notion that female-led projects cannot achieve commercial, critical, and ratings success.

The feature film figures are even worse, with 11% of U.K. movies predominantly female-written, dipping to below 7% for those with a budget topping £10 million ($13.4 million). Yet budget data combined with U.K. and worldwide box office gross reveal “that films written predominantly by female writers tend to have higher revenues, both domestically and internationally, than those written predominantly by their male counterparts,...

The week-long residency will include hands-on directing experience at the Skye Space Studio.

Mentors including director Kevin Macdonald, producer Andrew Macdonald, and The Inbetweeners actor Joe Thomas will take part in The Young Films Foundation’s first Skye residency programme (May 19-25).

Other experts coming to Skye include producers Robyn Slovo, Margaret Matheson, David Moore and Georgina Lowe, director Vítor Gonçalves; writers Olivia Hetreed and Charlie Martin, and producer and drama commissioner John Yorke.

The week-long residency programme will include workshops, masterclasses, one-on-one mentoring sessions and hands-on directing experience at the Skye Space Studio. The participants will also pitch their project ideas to Yorke,...

Ellie Peers takes on permanent role.

Acting general secretary of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (Wggb) Ellie Peers has been permanently appointed to the position.

Peers has been acting in the role since May 2016, following Bernie Corbett’s decision to step down after 15 years.

Wggb’s former assistant general secretary, Peers spent 15 years working for unions including Unison and Unite.

She was responsible for negotiating with the BBC for the Script Agreement for Television and Online to boost the rights of screenwriters and also led negotiations for a 75% pay increase for writers working under Wggb’s Pact television agreement.

Under Peers, the Wggb has joined the cross-union boycott of Creative Diversity Network’s monitoring scheme Project Diamond until broadcasters agree to release programme-level data.

Peers will work as part of an all-female leadership team including chair Gail Renard and president Olivia Hetreed.

She said: “If we want the industries in which writers work to flourish we need...

A new UK survey proves what many people already know anecdotally, that it’s a challenge being a parent and working in the film and TV industries.

Parents working in the film industry have “no level playing field” including limited job opportunities, missed work, reduced hours or seniority, and periods of time when they have to leave the industry, according to the “Making It Possible” report by Raising Films that is being unveiled this morning at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

“The impact is not just about unfairness to individuals and to parents/carers as a constituency, but about wider repercussions for the industry as a whole,” the report reads. “Many respondents pointed to the adverse effects, such as the loss of talent within the industry and with a subsequent lack of diversity, and therefore lack of voices and stories for audiences.”

The survey included 636 film and TV professionals across the UK, with more than...

The Santa Monica-based sales, production and financing company will start talks with international buyers in Berlin on the historical drama starring Antonio Banderas.

Myriad holds sales rights to Altamira excluding Spain/Andorra, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Latin America – where Fox International will distribute – to the true story about an archaeologist and his daughter whose discovery of historic cave paintings sparks a firestorm.

Hugh Hudson (Chariots Of Fire) directed and Rupert Everett, Golshifteh Farahani, and Pierre Niney also star.

Olivia Hetreed and José Luis López-Linares wrote the screenplay about the father and daughter, whose achievement earns academic plaudits but scandalises their family for its empirical contradiction of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Myriad Pictures will be showing exclusive first-look footage from the English-language film that shot on location in Spain.

Lucrecia Botín and Alvaro Longoria from Spain’s Morena Films produced Altamira with Andy Paterson from the UK’s Sympathetic Ink.

Alexandra Lebret of France...

Paul King beat out Nick Hornby and Alex Garland.

Paul King was awarded Best Screenplay for Paddington at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards in London last night [18 Jan].

King’s script, which was BAFTA-nominated last year, beat out Wild by Nick Hornby and Ex Machina by Alex Garland.

Best First Screenplay went to James Graham for drama X+Y, ahead of ’71 by Gregory Burke and The Falling by Carol Morley.

Writer and producer Russell T Davies received the Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award while Armando Iannucci’s Veep won Best TV Situation Comedy.

A special tribute was also made to Writers’ Guild member David Nobbs.

Wggb president Olivia Hetreed said of the event: “As president of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, I am immensely proud of all our Award winners and nominees, a truly impressive display of talent, from the ancient art of playwriting to the youngest one of game writing. All our winners...

Altamira

Director: Hugh Hudson // Writers: Olivia Hetreed, José Luis López-Linares

Hudson, notably the director of 1981 Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, hasn’t helmed a feature since the lambasted 2000 Kim Basinger film I Dreamed of Africa, a noted passion project for the actress. His latest, Altamira, looks to be a historical reenactment, and will hopefully prove to be Hudson’s welcome return to feature films, which is why it makes our list. Banderas will play Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, a Spanish jurist and amateur archeologist who made the discovery of the Altamira Cave with his nine-year-old daughter Maria. Featuring painting of bison, horses, a doe and human hands, made with charcoal and ochre, these were the first Paleolithic cave paintings of their type to be discovered.

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Golshifteh Farahani, Rupert Everett.

Producers: Morena Films’ Lucrecia Botín and Alvaro Longoria (7 Days in Havana), Sympathetic Ink’s Andy Paterson (The Railway Man...

First image released of period drama from Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson.

Principal photography has begun on period drama Altamira, directed by Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire, Greystoke) and starring Antonio Banderas.

Production will take place on location in Northern Spain.

The English-language production also stars Golshifteh Farahani, Nicholas Farrell, Henry Goodman, Pierre Niney, Clément Sibony, Tristan Ulloa, Irene Escolar and Rupert Everett. British actress Allegra Allen makes her film debut.

The screenplay is by Olivia Hetreed (Girl with a Pearl Earring; Wuthering Heights) and Jose Luis Lopez-Linares. José Luis Alcaine (The Skin I Live In) is the cinematographer.

Producers are Lucrecia Botín, Alvaro Longoria from Spain’s Morena Films and Andy Paterson from the UK’s Sympathetic Ink. Alexandra Lebret, of France’s Mare Nostrum co-produces with Laura Bickford as executive producer.

The film tells the true story of nine-year old Maria (Allen) and her father Marcelino (Banderas) who, in 1879, found...

Criminal

Antje Traue ("Man of Steel") is the latest to join Ariel Vroman's thriller "Criminal" at Millennium Films, playing a terrorist henchwoman. Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones also star.

Douglas Cook and David Weisberg's script follows a dangerous prison inmate (Costner) implanted with the memories and skills of a dead CIA operative in hopes of stopping a diabolical plot. [Source: Heat Vision]

Altamira

Antonio Banderas is set to star in Hugh Hudson's English-language period drama "Altamira" which begins shooting in Cantabria, Spain this week. Olivia Hetreed ("Girl With a Pearl Earring") penned the script.

The story is set in 1879 and charts the story of an amateur archaeologist (Banderas) and his daughter who discover early cave art. At first celebrated, the family is thrown into crisis following a backlash against them led by the Catholic Church, scientists and other powerful forces. [Source: Screen]

Geostorm

Katheryn Winnick has joined the cast of...

Exclusive: Spain shoot for period drama from Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson.

Antonio Banderas is to star in English-language period drama Altamira, which begins shooting in Cantabria, Spain, on Monday (Sept 29).

The Desperado star confirmed his casting at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 5), where he is promoting sci-fi film Automata.

The previously announced project has now found its director in Hugh Hudson, the British film-maker best known for 1981 Oscar-winner Chariots of Fire.

The film, based on a script from Girl With a Pearl Earring writer Olivia Hetreed, is being produced by Lucretia Botin and Alvaro Longoria (Che) for Morena Films and Andy Paterson (The Railway Man) for Sympathetic Ink. Laura Bickford is exec producer.

Set in 1879, Altamira charts the story of an amateur archaeologist (Banderas) and his daughter who discover early cave art.

At first celebrated, the family is thrown into crisis following a backlash against them and the prehistoric art, led by the...

Chicago – First Joe Wright sucked the life out of “Anna Karenina” with his meticulously choreographed, self-conscious pageantry. Then Baz Luhrmann proved that while heavy-handed spectacle may have appealed to Jay Gatsby himself, it was a recipe for disaster when applied to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s prose. Nothing kills off the power of a metaphor more than a large neon sign erected to underline its significance.

After seeing Andrea Arnold’s quietly mesmerizing adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 classic “Wuthering Heights,” I’m now hungering to see her take on other literary landmarks, particularly “The Great Gatsby.” Luhrmann’s film hammers home the meaning of Fitzgerald’s writing with such aggravating pomp and circumstance, complete with entire sections of text materializing onscreen, I was half-expecting to see a bouncing Gatsby head spring off each word as it was dutifully recited. Though Wright and Luhrmann pride themselves on their filmic exuberance, Arnold...