Category Archives: Film Festival

Andrew Steggall chats UK Premiere of DEPARTURE

Friday marked the UK Premiere of Andrew Steggall’s DEPARTURE at the BFI London Film Festival, our first film of the festival. Featuring two incredible central performances from Juliet Stevenson (The Village, The Hour, Bend It Like Beckham) and Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game), DEPARTURE is Andrew’s elegantly crafted debut feature film. We caught up with Andrew this week for an exclusive interview for our blog.

Elliot (Lawther) is a dreamer who, with his mother Beatrice (Stevenson), is packing up their French country house in preparation to sell it. Elliot takes breaks to wander into the local village bar, where he writes romantic poetry, wearing a vintage French army coat and eyeing up the rough beauty of local boy Clément, who works on his motorbike.

1. Where did DEPARTURE come from – what was the genesis for the film?

Friends of mine have a house in France and I was lucky enough to spend some time there one autumn. I was walking up the lane with two friends when the idea for the film emerged very strongly in my head. The narrative revolves around a kind condensing of a number of my own adolescent memories and around the atmosphere of the house and the landscape. Needless to say the story moved on and evolved from this starting point in all sorts of ways – through the invaluable script development work of both my producer, Pietro Greppi, and brilliant BFI script development executive, Jamie Wolpert; through the necessities of budget and logistics and through the powerful presence of the actors. One of the friends I was walking up the lane that day with was the cinematographer of my short films, Brian Fawcett. He went on to shoot Departure – beautifully I think. And the house of my friends turned out to be the house we shot in and around.

2. How did you cast the film and how did you get Juliet Stevenson and Alex Lawther involved?

Alex Lawther was the first actor on board the film. I had seen him in South Downs by David Hare at the Comedy Theatre (now the Harold Pinter) in 2012 when he was just sixteen and had spoken to him and his mother at stage door after the performance. We then went on to see many young actors but in the end I came back to Alex, thank goodness. He was about to go to Thailand to film X+Y and we thought we might film rather sooner than we did, so in 2013 I dashed down to Petersfield and we met at the train station where I found him reading Camus on a bench. We then walked to a nearby park and read some scenes there. It was obvious that he was Elliot. When casting Beatrice we had explored a number of options and it wasn’t until quite late in the day that someone suggested Juliet Stevenson. It’s funny, in hindsight I can’t imagine anyone else playing the part so it was odd that I took a little while to come to her. She received the screenplay and it was difficult to find a time to meet as she is so busy. Eventually we met at her house late on a Sunday night as she unloaded her family from their car after a weekend in the country. We chatted for just over an hour and at about midnight I left her house knowing that so long as her family agreed to her going away for a month to shoot, she was onboard. The next morning I flew to France to start the design work for the 2014 shoot.

The cast and crew of DEPARTURE speak at its Mayfair premiere.

3. Where did you film DEPARTURE and how did you find the house?

We shot the film almost entirely on location in the South West of France. The house belongs to the friends I mentioned above and who were unbelievably generous in lending it to me. It sits in the forest by a river in the Montagne Noire, which runs parallel to, and north of, Carcassonne and Castelnaudary. The mayor of the village and all the locals were incredibly supportive so we were able to house the entire crew in the very small village (Cenne Monesties). A few of them even make an appearance in the film.

4. DEPARTURE touches on some incredibly powerful themes including sexuality, aging and the bond between mother and son – did you actively want to explore these during the film?

Very much so. The initial idea of the film and the dominant theme in my head was the idea of knowing something before you know it, as it were. The sense of imminent change, or electricity in the air, of inevitability. It has always struck me that the transition from a kind of almost non-existent Blakean innocence to an all-to-real experience is one that we crave for during our adolescence. But it is a one-way journey and one we rush towards with a strange mixture of dread and excitement. This is the change in the film that Elliot has a sense of knowing will occur. For the character of Beatrice, played by Juliet, the change is one that she also intuits long before it happens but it is one that she fights agains whilst inadvertently hastening. Her marriage to Philip is full of unhappiness and she causes its demise as much as he does. The film conjectures that she chose a marriage that was destined to be unhappy out of a kind of punitive guilt and then drives it to its end by resenting Philip for not loving her. His reasons for marrying are equally perverse. Which is not to say that there wasn’t love there but that it was flawed from the beginning and that it is hard to uncover where the fault lies. Probably with neither of them. Throughout the film there is a feeling that all the characters are longing, if not for sex, then for tenderness and physical contact. Elliot is just beginning his physical and sexual life and Beatrice is discovering that it is perhaps not too late to have one.

5. What inspires you?

I guess you don’t want as long an answer as this could be? All sorts of things really: silence, forests, water, film, theatre, art, the people around me. I listen to music when I write and so it has to be non-intrusive (essentially not sung in English or not sung at all) so I listen to Bach and Dvorak and Schubert amongst others. Dvorak plays a dominant theme in the film through his opera Rusalka and particularly the Song to the Moon aria. I have just checked and I have played one of the versions I have 120 times, beaten only by Bach’s Cantatas sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and at the top apparently Do What You Do by Noah in the Whale which was the song I used in The Red Bike, a short film I made in 2010. At other times I am just as likely to be singing (in the wrong key) pretty much anything by Sondheim. A few years ago, I shared my diary with my partner, and he was particularly amused by an entry I had made when I was about fourteen which read something like: “I am listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber and feeling inspired.” So perhaps that is the answer to your question. Or it would have been that day! I think I was feeling heart broken and was listening to Aspects of Love. The first film I remember seeing was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and I was taken out of the cinema in Swindon about twenty minutes in, weeping with fear and terror. I’ve always loved Spielberg! And recently I really loved Amour by Haneke and Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazier But the stand out film of the last twelve months has to be Mad Max, Fury Road by George Miller, which just completely blew me away. Oh and I have watched The Hours by Stephen Daldry more times than is decent. The first gay themed film I saw was Maurice which I watched at the age of about thirteen when it was on television. It was on late enough for my parents to have gone to bed but I was terrified I would wake them so I crouched next to the television with the volume down to almost nothing.

Keep an eye out for more news on DEPARTURE as it comes. We are due to release early 2016.

Pictured above – lead actor in the film Alex Lawther, director Andrew Steggall and lead actress Juliet Stevenson.

Don’t you want me baby? Soap’s best gay and lesbian couples.

Soft Lad brings together two of soapland’s primetime gay characters, EastEnders’ charmer Jonny Labey and Corrie’s conflicted vicar Daniel Brocklebank. With a hot new boyfriend and having just been accepted into the dance school of his dreams, David’s life is going pretty great. However, when his sister invites the couple over for dinner, David’s brother in law, Jules (Brocklebank), has a secret that could shatter this illusion. To commemorate the theatrical release of Soft Lad on October 1^st we thought we’d take a look at our standout gay and lesbian soap couples.

From Brookside to Emmerdale, to EastEnders and Coronation Street, has your favourite made an appearance below? Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook.

John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean

Probably the most shipped and well-known couple on the list, John Paul and Craig’s love was based on a foundation of unrequited feelings, longing looks and secrecy, i.e. the best kind. When Craig arrived in Chester, the pair quickly became best friends, with Jean Paul, having already come to the realisation that he was gay, soon developing feelings for his new companion. After drunkenly kissing Jean Paul at the school dance, Craig set the wheels in motion for what would be a turbulent, yet steamy, relationship, filled with buckets of denial and jealousy.

Sophie Webster and Sian Powers

Like all great LGBT relationships that came in soaps before, Sophie and Sian started out as school friends but soon came to be more. Joining the church choir to see more of one another, the pair really did go through their fair share of drama, from a wild night at a lesbian bar with ‘friend’ Amber, pre-watershed kissing, near death experiences (remember when Sophie fell off that roof – yeah, that happened), countless cheating accusations and a runaway bride, we welcomed the drama of it all. Since the disaster of her wedding to Sian, we’re holding our breaths for Sophie and her new beau Maddie.

Christian Clarke and Syed Masood

Within soap land, EastEnders has had one of the largest gay casts. Some may argue that Colin and Barry, the original ‘Enders gay couple, is the definitive relationship, being one of the pioneers in representing gay issues on primetime TV. However, this is the 21^st century and with it new relationships that brought to light new struggles that the LGBT community are experiencing today. No other couple has had as much of an impact in recent years as the gripping, engaging and, at times, infuriating love story of Syed and Christian. The undeniable attraction between the two, seen in their heated conversations and longing glances from the start, had us jumping for joy when they finally (F-I-N-A-L-L-Y) kissed. As we watched Syed come to terms with his sexuality and what it meant for him as a Muslim, our love and compassion, like Christian’s, grew and grew, making them one of our favourite couples on the show. Having left Albert Square back in 2012, we’re expecting to see their faces back in the Queen Vic soon; it is a soap opera after all!

Ali Spencer and Ruby Haswell

Looking back on Ali and Ruby’s relationship, the one thing that stands out is how normal they seemed, not that they were two women but how relatable a couple they were, considering the fates handed to other soap couples. Having had two kids, Ali was surprised to fall in love with Ruby but not afraid. Ruby took on two children and an ex-husband but didn’t seem to be over-whelmed by it all. Granted they had their ups and downs, Ali’s pregnancy scare after a one-night stand, Ruby’s infertility and financial troubles, but they always came back together. The couple moved away earlier this year to support Ali’s son Sean recover from an accident in Liverpool, but Ruby returned soon after to support her family financially. The biggest shocker of the year came when Ruby was injured in the helicopter crash during Pete Barton and Debbie Dingle’s wedding and later died. With Ali’s return to Emmerdale, it’ll be intriguing, and no doubt heart-breaking, to see how this devastating loss will affect her.

Special Mention: Ben Mitchell and Paul Coker

We’re excited to see where this couple will go, having already caused a hurricane of drama with their secret affair, and that’s not to mention that funeral parlour scene. This isn’t Ben first secret relationship, having struggled with accepting his sexuality over the past two years. But tensions will come to a head next week when resident tough-man Phil Mitchell catches Ben and Paul in the act. What will Ben do? How will his father react? Where do Ben and Paul go from here? We can’t wait to find out.

Soft Lad is currently playing around the country as part of our POUTFest tour. You can see your nearest screening and book tickets here.

Slip of the Tongue: A Glossary

Here at Peccadillo we like to think we live in an incredibly accepting society; this year the UK was named as the leader in LGBT equality in Europe. With this rise in diversity and open-mindedness we have numerous terms, old and new, being used more and more in everyday life.

Out on DVD now, 52 Tuesdays is the unique debut feature from director Sophie Hyde and one of our favourite releases this year. It explores an important aspect of our lives – the ironic constant – change. Set and filmed over the course of a year, the film tells the compelling story of James and Billie, mother and daughter, and their weekly meeting every Tuesday as James undergoes his transition from female to male and Billie from adolescence to adulthood.

Considering the power of words to help define, but also hurt when used incorrectly, we’ve put together a list to guide even the hippest of Queens:

Trans: can be used as an umbrella term to include many experiences of sex and gender: trans, transsexual, transgender, genderqueer etc.

Transgender: an umbrella term and identity used to describe all kinds of people who sit outside the gender binary or whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to them at birth. May or may not feel the need to access hormone therapy and/or surgery.

Transition: transitioning often consists of a change in style of dress, selection of a new name and a request that people use the correct pronoun. This may or may not include medical care like hormone therapy, counselling and/or surgery. This can also be called ‘affirmation’. Not all trans people choose to use the word ‘transition’ to describe their experiences.

Gender: can refer to biological sex, social roles or gender identity. There are many genders, however the most commonly recognised are male and female.

Gender identity: refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, something other, or in between. Everyone has a gender identity regardless of whether they are trans or not.

Gender binary: is the classification of sex and gender into two separate categories of masculine and feminine. Most societies divide people into these two distinct categories which excludes many people who don’t fit neatly into either category.

Gender non-conforming: refers to people who do not identify as, or who do not express themselves as, completely male or female and/or who feel that they don’t fit into/ or prescribe to / or agree with, the gender binary of male or female.

Sexuality/Sexual orientation: the nature of a person’s basic sexual attraction to other people. i.e. straight/lesbian/bi/queer/pansexual/homosexual /heterosexual.

Cross dresser: a person who has the need to express an alternative gender identity through the way they dress and to be accepted in that role on a less permanent basis.

Drag: refers to theatrical/stage performances of gender. Includes drag kings and drag queens.

Gender affirmation (often known as gender reassignment or gender transition): the physical, legal and social process of transitioning gender. May include surgery/hormone treatment, changing name, using a different pronoun and changing your birth certificate gender.

Gender expression: is how someone presents their gender to the world. This can mean through the way a person physically presents as well as the way they act. This can be through appearance, dress, mannerisms, speech patterns and social interactions.

Gender neutral pronouns: any pronoun other than he/his/him or she/her such as it/its, they/their/them, one, heart/hearts, droid/droids or anything else that someone may choose to use.

Genderqueer: refers to people who do not identify as, or who do not express themselves as, completely male or female. Genderqueer people may or may not identify as trans.

Heteronormativity: a view implying that all people fall into only one of two genders (i.e. male or female), that there are particular roles that men and women should follow, and that heterosexuality (i.e. attraction to the opposite gender) is the only ‘normal’ sexuality.

Intersex: a general term used for a variety of people born with anatomy or physiology which differs from current ideas of male and female. This is sometimes known as indeterminate gender.

Transphobia: prejudice against, and/or fear of trans people, or anyone thought to be trans. Transphobia can include violence, harassment and discrimination as well as the general idea that says everyone must fit into male or female. Homophobia works in the same way but is aimed at anyone seen as outside heterosexuality.

Transsexuality: the medical or psychiatric term for a person who transitions from one gender to the other. People can also use ‘transsexual’ to describe themselves. Some people think that transsexuality is biological, this issue is constantly debated and often divides the trans community rather than unites it.

Transvestite: someone who dresses in the clothes usually worn by the opposite sex for fetish or arousal purposes. Transvestites, like anyone else, may be gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, queer, or something else.

Source: Gender Questioning by Trans Melbourne Gender Project, Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria & Rainbow Network Victoria, http://www.glhv.org.au/files/GQv3.pdf

All good things come to those who wait…

A few weeks shooting here, a month or two editing there and voilà you have a film. If only it were that simple. Making a film, as you probably know, is a long and arduous process; from fine-tuning the script and getting financing, to getting the right cast and crew on board and eventually rolling that camera. Then, once you think you’ve had enough, along comes the unrelenting grind that is post production: picture locking, sound mixing, colour grading and, hopefully, distribution. If you’re considering making a film, you’re best accepting now that it’ll take a couple of years. But there are those films that take longer, much longer.

As the title suggests, 52 Tuesdays wasn’t your average shoot; shot over the course of a year, once a week on a Tuesday, the film challenges the typical narrative chronology, imbuing the film with a palpable sense of tension and unpredictability that time brings with it. The film tells the story of a mother and daughter, James and Billie, who are both faced with transitions in their lives; Billie from adolescence to adulthood, her mother James transitioning from female to male.

With the VOD release of 52 Tuesdays (out now), let’s take a look at some other films that demonstrate the sheer will and perseverance of their makers.

Samsara (2011) – 4 Years

Exploring everything from the everyday to the magnificent in our world, Samsara is a sumptuous feast for your eyes. Filmed across four years, in over 24 countries, Samsara went on to become the highest grossing documentary of 2012 in the US.

Eraserhead (1977) – 5 Years

What started out as David Lynch’s student film soon became more than just a school project. The story of Henry Spencer and his baby, Eraserhead is one of the most surrealist and disturbing American films of the last fifty years. A lack of funding, and a director with a keen eye for detail, meant Lynch and co. spent five years bringing Spencer to life, with the lead actor and his wife, Jack Fisk and Sissy Spacek, providing regular donations for the production. Regardless of how long it took to make, Eraserhead proves that some things are definitely worth waiting for.

Boyhood (2014) – 12 Years

On its release last year, you couldn’t read about Boyhood without mention of its lengthy and unique production process. Following a young boy, Mason, from the age of 6 to 18 years-old, production shot once a year for twelve years. However, Boyhood is more than just its premise; the film mediates on the importance of childhood, the uncertainty of time and what it is to be human. The extended production process gave the director, Linklater, the opportunity to reconsider and change creative decisions with the edit years later.

Lake of Fire (2006) – 16 Years

Taking sixteen years and $6 million dollars of his own money, Tony Kaye’s documentary takes an unbiased and unafraid look at both sides of the abortion debate in the United States. Self-financed and self-shot, Kaye’s 152 minute documentary is considered by some to be the definitive guide to the ever on-going abortion argument and more than justifies the decade and a half it took to make.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) – 8 Years

We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty, but did you know that it took eight years to make this Disney classic? Granted animated films take more time to make than their live action siblings, but eight years was a considerable amount of time for the Disney powerhouse back in the 1950s. The reason? Well, the film was essentially shot twice; first on a sound stage with stand in actors, which provided the animators with a reference for each shot. Surprisingly the film performed poorly at the box-office but audiences gradually came around and it’s now considered one of the greatest Disney films ever made.

Movie 43 (2012) – 4 Years

A collection of comedy shorts, Movie 43 was filmed over the course of four years due to the schedules of the ensemble cast, including Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Uma Thurman, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Julianne Moore and Chris Pratt. Sadly, Movie 43 proves that taking your time doesn’t necessarily guarantee a great, even mediocre, film, with the film panned by critics and cinemagoers alike.

Everyday (2007) – 5 Years

Before Boyhood made it cool, Michael Winterbottom’s TV movie Everyday used time to its best ability. Set across five years of a prison sentence, the film follows the Kirk family as the father is in prison for an unspecified crime. Production happened twice a year for five years; the result is a visceral realism Ken Loach would be proud of.

52 Tuesdays is out now On-Demand and on DVD from 28th September

High Heels and High Kicks at Picturehouse Central

Picturehouse Central was host last Sunday to the most fabulous afternoon of glitter, sparkle and song. The Soho Premiere of Colin Rothbart’s DRESSED AS A GIRL was the final film to play the sparkly new West End venue in the current run of this year’s hugely successful POUTfest Tour (which also includes 52 TUESDAYS, A GIRL AT MY DOOR and SOFT LAD).

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So do I call you dad now? Check this clip from 52 TUESDAYS

Check out this clip from 52 TUESDAYS, where Billie has dinner with her father, James, who will always be Billie’s mother. It’s a lovely clip from a film we’re very proud of, and also very proud to say it’ll be playing up and down the country in VUE cinemas on September 10th 2015, as part of our POUTFest tour, along with short film SURPRISE.

Book tickets here: http://bit.ly/52TuesVUE

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The Musical Panorama of FUTURO BEACH

For those of you who haven’t seen it, the music in FUTURO BEACH is one of the film’s most unforgettable aspects. Much of director Karim Ainouz’s inspiration for the epic and vivid film came from David Bowie’s enduring masterpiece HEROES, which perfectly captures that mood of hope and ambition and danger that the film is all about. Take a look below to see what Karim said about the ‘musical panorama’ he tried to create in the soundtrack:

Music. It’s funny, when we started to write the movie, to picture it, Heros by Bowie always came to mind. I didn’t know then that it was an emblematic track in Cristiane F. – Wir Kinder von Bahnhof Zoo (1981). It was just one of my favorite songs of all time. I thought the movie should somehow have the tone of that song.

I love to use songs in my films and have a special relationship with pop songs, which transport me in time. I have done that with all my previous films. But here I felt we also needed something else, not just songs but
also an original score, written for the characters, for certain situations. I wanted to have a kind of personal theme for them.

And that’s when Hauschka came in. We had never worked together before and in the beginning we were figuring each other out. But it was a great process. I think his sensibility was very precise and very keen to the film’s tone. The first thing I told him was: don’t be afraid to be sentimental – as part of our flirtation with melodrama…

I didn’t want the music to be underlining anything but rather to create a lyrical soundspace for the characters. And that’s what he did.
So finally the film has a very diverse musical panorama – it has original stuff from Haushcka, Aline from Christophe, songs by Suicide, Khaled, Bowie, and Michael Meyer. Once again, it is impure, but somehow, close to my heart.

FUTURO BEACH is available On-Demand and on DVD from 24th August.

Time to Discover 52 TUESDAYS

Last week we were all systems go with our release of Sophie Hyde’s “groundbreaking” (Huffington Post) feature film: 52 TUESDAYS. Sophie won Best Director at Sundance Film Festival for the film, as well as the Crystal Bear at the prestigious Berlinale, and so we were a little nervous about meeting her. Especially after a stampede of fantastic reviews galloped in as she arrived, The Guardian writing that it’s “told with ingenuity, compassion and an impressive fearlessness.”

Thankfully, she was lovely. And amazing. For someone who made such an incredible, touching film she was incredibly grounded, funny and humble. Ollie (our Head of Press), had the job of taking her from Glasgow to Brighton, Cambridge to Cardiff, via Liverpool, Manchester and several London Q&As, and they were joined by the film’s lead actress – the beautiful and irresistible Tilda Cobham-Hervey.

Here’s Sophie and Ollie looking lovely in maroon (or is that cranberry?), standing by the theatrical poster for the film (and can you spot the POUTFest poster sneaking in at the back?) at Manchester’s stunning new HOME cinema.

Also check out this snap of Sophie in action, with PHD student Clara Bradbury-Rance offering up a stimulating, funny and insightful Q&A on the film’s considerable ambition and achievement.

After Tilda (Tilly as we now know her – she’s great by the way) it was straight on to Cambridge, where the Arts Picturehouse’s shining light – Jack Toye – treated the gang to punting, cider and dinner before another great Q&A (picture below. What’s not pictured is the moment Ollie accidentally rubbed pure chilli on his eye, and spent most of the evening with his face in a bowl of milk… Classy.)

If you missed 52 TUESDAYS last week, catch it tomorrow on the big screen as it plays as part of Picturehouse’s DISCOVER TUESDAYS series and our own POUTFest tour. That means it’s playing at 20 cinemas up and down the country, on the big screen, where it belongs.

To find a screen near you head to http://poutfest.co.uk/52tuesdays/

Peccadillo’s Favourite Sundance Hits

“Sundance was started as a mechanism for the discovery of new voices and new talents” – Robert Redford

Even if you’ve never been to Sundance, but have been immersed in the chilling, and thought-provoking films that have come out of it, then you know what it stands for. You can discern its tastes, its independent, rough-around-the-edges sensibilities, and the fact that it’s actually not sunny but usually freezing cold. There’s that great episode of The Simpsons, where Lisa walks from screen to screen looking for a film to enjoy, but can only find films of heroin-addicted clowns slowly scratching their faces with needles. That’s Sundance.

In an industry that year-on-year seems to become even more polluted with inane blockbuster sequel-prequels-part-three of massive, sugary, cartoonish franchises, Sundance remains a rare beacon of hope for intelligent, socially observant and progressive film-making, shining defiantly in shivering Utah.

Two of our releases this year – Desiree Akhavan’s APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR and Sophie Hyde’s 52 TUESDAYS – are Sundance films. Desiree actually filmed the moment she told her mum she’d been accepted – which is well worth a watch. Here’s some of the festival’s biggest success stories – all with that irreverent, unmissable Sundance edge.

1. Blood Simple (1984)

The Coen Brothers – regarded as the masters of Indie cinema – made their debut at the Sundance Film Festival with BLOOD SIMPLE. Their signature style of mixing comedic elements with a homage to the dark film noir genre surprised audiences and the Jury, which resulted in them winning the Grand Jury Prize and went on to gross around $4 million, not bad for a debut! Usually following a complex story which spirals into a cannon of lies, shock and laugh-out-loud moments, BLOOD SIMPLE looks at the story of a bar-owner out for revenge when he suspects his wife cheating on him. Like all Coen films, the film builds to an unforeseen and climatic ending! Be sure to also check out their cult classic FARGO (1996), and one of my favorites from the brothers: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007).

2. Run Lola Run (1998)

Breathless is the word to describe this film, literally! Watching Franke Potente run for her life in a race against time, she’s on a mission to obtain 100,000 Deutschmarks with an attempt to stop her boyfriend Manni from robbing a supermarket. The perfect fit for Sundance, with its edgy style of editing and pulsating rock soundtrack, the film is heavy in thematic explorations of free will and psychedelic trips into the unknown. With its unique mix of what ifs captured in a repetitious sequence of events, the film captures the very essence of an Independent Film Festival. You can imagine everyone running to see the film, hence the Audience Award won at the festival!

With a budget of DEM 3,500,000, the film went on to gross $8 million in the USA.

3. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT became “the film to watch” before it had even hit Sundance! Directors, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez conducted a viral campaign in which they presented the film as a real documentary. Not being the first film to use found footage, the film is still regarded as one of the best hand-held camera horror films to date. The film mixes styles of amateur acting against believable footage – it paved way for the many horror films which followed using these techniques. During Sundance, the filmmakers distributed flyers asking people to come forward with any information regarding the whereabouts of the “missing” students – talk about creating buzz!

The film became the success story of 1999, making $248 million worldwide. Not a bad return on a budget of an estimated $60,000!

4. Memento (2001)

Before he became an A-list director of thinking-person’s blockbusters like the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, director Christopher Nolan grabbed Hollywood’s attention with the ingenious thriller Memento – a story told in reverse about a man with a form of amnesia that prevented him from making any new memories.

It landed at Sundance 2001, where American distributors expressed admiration for the film but were reluctant to buy it, claiming it was too confusing. The film ended up being distributed by its studio, Newmarket Films, and went on to earn $40 million. It won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Awards, but ultimately lost the Grand Jury Prize to The Believer, – which introduced the world to Ryan Gosling.

5. Saw (2004)

A lot can be said about the SAW franchise (not always positive), but we cannot forget director James Wan’s first SAW, as an entry into the serial killer, slasher genre. Using the tired mechanism of a masked clown serial killer, the film still holds as an intense gore infested story of survival, which pleased horror fans after every screening was sold out. It didn’t take long for Lionsgate at Sundance to pick it up before the film had even premiered. A smart move, the film went on to generate a cult following over the years and has made over $100 million worldwide, and six sequels followed. Unfortunately most of them fall into the Hollywood horror slush of pop-corn entertainment!

6. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

In a huge bidding war, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE resulted in Fox purchasing the rights to the film in one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival of $10.5 million. After numerous standing ovations from the audience, the film went on to gross more than $100 million worldwide. A road movie based on a dysfunctional family, who are determined to take their youngest daughter to compete in a beauty contest on the other side of the country – all inside a Volkswagen T2 Micro Bus. Its not difficult to be sweetened by Abigail Breslin’s performance of Olive. We can’t help but relate to the dysfunctional family and the feelings one gets when positioned in a place of “not-belonging”. It is a fresh take on a family, which seems to get ignored due to the numerous fluffy “perfect family” types constantly being pumped out by Hollywood. For that year, Little Miss Sunshine brought out the sun in a usually cold and dark Utah! Even though it didn’t win an award at Sundance, the film continued to bag countless awards including a pair of Oscars for writer Michael Arndt and actor Alan Arkin.

7. Man On Wire (2008)

One man, one wire, one goal! This intense and nerve-shredding film, captures an eerily, yet beautiful portrait of Philippe Petit’s attempt to walk on a wire from one tower of the World Trade Center to the other in 1974. While one can see why the audience were impressed and shocked at the same time, festivalgoers awarded the film both the Jury and Audience awards in the World Cinema Documentary category. The film plays like an action film, yet poised with a surreal touch of artistic achievement, traversing sky high without safety, an astounding stunt that would put some of Hollywood’s big action stars to shame!

The awards kept coming, as the film won the prestigious double-header of both BAFTA and Oscar and made a worldwide gross of $5,617,067.

8. Beasts Of The Southern Wild (2012)

Carried forth by non-actors and a real Louisiana community, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD became a success when the film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Excellence in Cinematography Award. Hushpuppy, a six year old girl part of the Bayou community in Louisiana, finds herself on a journey of poetic discovery, in which she must accept nature’s path and the unraveling mysteries of the universe. As the ice caps melt, and the water rises, she and the small town are faced with an army of pre-historic creatures named Aurochs. Beautifully shot in surreal like landscapes and the town known as Bathtub; the film starts of as a documentation of the struggles of a young orphan girl in a town in danger of being wiped out due to global-warming. The film then switches to an almost post-apocalyptic struggle of storms, rising waters and terrifying creatures. The film received four Oscar-nominations, including one for child star Quvenzhané Wallis, the youngest ever nominee in the Best Actress category – at just nine years of age.

9. Appropriate Behaviour (2014)

Our own, proud little piece of Sundance history is Desiree Akhavan’s understated and unequivocally brilliant APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR. A sleeper festival hit, but a slam with the UK critics and audiences, this upbeat but devastatingly realistic indie comedy is Sundance through and through and demonstrates how the festival – although many bemoan its pandering to the studios – maintains and upholds its original mission of nurturing new talent.

10. 52 Tuesdays (2014)

Sophie Hyde’s film won Best Director at Sundance, and will be in UK cinemas from us later this summer. 52 TUESDAYS explores the intimate story of a mother-daughter relationship, as Billie’s mother reveals plans towards gender transition. Filmed over the course of a year, once a week, every week – only on Tuesdays, shows a unique style in filmmaking that brings a rare authenticity to this emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility and transformation.

As the world is slowly moving in the right direction towards equality, it is films like this that offer a beautiful insight into a topic many are unaware of and highlight the positive change that is happening in the world. Look out for 52 TUESDAYS coming to cinemas later this summer!

Masculinity, love and superheroes in FUTURO BEACH

Karim Ainouz is a director from Brazil, described by LITTLE WHITE LIES as “poised to become a major force in world cinema”. We sat down with Karim to talk about the themes and tensions in his new film – FUTURO BEACH.

FUTURO BEACH is at once a love story, a family story, a travel story…How did all of these elements evolve and come together in this film?

When we imagine the film, we thought of a story about courage and fear, about character that are brave and cowardly at the same time. We wanted to talk about the times we live in – when trepidation is everywhere. We have immersed ourselves in a conservative moment, a moment where religion, intolerance and a wish for stability are ever present. Adventure, risk-taking, and danger are no longer very welcome, so we pictured a story that could encompass all of that, a story that could be relevant – we imagined a film about passion, voyage and discovery. We envisioned a film in which the characters would love unconditionally, a story of men, but men who make mistakes and who are vulnerable and lack bravery at times.

Having the guts to leave everything behind and reinvent your life was the idea at the core of Praia do Futuro. It’s something that we all desire but are often afraid of. Maybe because we have to leave so much behind in order to actually take the leap. The film is a portrait of characters that have the courage to take this step, to take the plunge to somewhere completely unknown. The sensation of doing this is embedded in the title of the film itself – future, future, moving forward.

I come from a generation where taking risks was mandatory – we wanted to change the world. These days I have the sense that this kind of collective utopian thinking is not so present anymore. Praia do Futuro is in a sense fuelled by that wish to begin anew, to confront things, to engage in unexpected possibilities.

The challenge was to develop the main characters as facets of the same idea, we had to achieve a tone that was truthful to these ideals – ultimately to express it all through the characters and their actions, the perils they undertake, the journeys they embark on, and the mistakes they end up making along the way. Besides all the travel and adventure, there was also the wish to draft a male melodrama. A contemporary, intimate melodrama inhabited only by male characters but without villains.

Konrad is an Afghanistan war veteran, he is a motorbike racer, he loves speed and to explore the world. He has been through so much danger and loss. Donato is a lifeguard, a lifesaver, an almost immaculate hero. Ayrton is a rebel, a badass and an angry kid who has been forgotten by his beloved older brother, Donato. They each represent different facets of masculinity and they are propelled by a strong passion for one another. We see so many action films where the action revolves around fights and death and loss. Here I wanted to use “action” as trigger for life.

Your three main characters – Donato the lifeguard, Konrad the motorcycle racer, and Ayrton the rebellious youth – are all risk takers and dreamers. What inspires them seek out faraway adventure, speed, and excitement? Do you think of them as romantic characters, idealists, daredevils?

I had always wanted to make a film about super heroes, about romantic masculine super heroes that would cross the world and confront anything for love. My last films have portrayed mostly female characters and I was eager to dive into a journey of male characters. But I wanted these characters to be textured, daring, imperfect and contradictory.

The main characters in Praia chase after their dreams, no matter what the cost. So there is definitely something romantic and idealistic about them. I wanted them to pulsate with a physicality with bravery but also to be clearly made of flesh and blood, to make mistakes, to be frail. And it is so beautiful to see them fall apart and pull themselves back together throughout the movie.

I has this picture of a character that had a relevant, heroic profession. That’s when the idea of a lifeguard came to mind. The idea for the first character imposed itself on us very quickly, the beach, the lifeguard, the silence and the secrets of the lifeguard.
Next came the question of danger. There is a Fassbinder movie I like very much called Ali: Dear Eats the Soul (1974), and I always have its title in my mind. I wanted my characters to be fearless. But it is important that this boundless courage does not make them immune to fear. It is the contradiction between the fear they sometimes experience and their true heroism that ultimately makes them empathic and singular. This is the friction that interested me and made me fall in love with them. I think what inspires them to seek adventure, speed and excitement is this wild determination to go on – and the movie could almost be called “Courage Feeds the Soul.”
Each character is dealing with an absence or a longing. Are they each trying to save themselves in different ways? And are they also trying to save each other?

What ultimately drives them is desire, the desire to experiment, to explore, and to live life to its fullest. And when you do that you always end up leaving things behind, embracing certain things and abandoning others.

And in these journeys, the characters endure loss. Konrad’s loss of his best friend renders him weak and helpless. And that’s when he meets Donato, who helps him move ahead and cope with the loss and they fall in love. So Donato leaves his brother and family behind and flees with Konrad to a new life. Then it’s Konrad who saves Donato, who takes him out of his comfort zone and presents him with a whole new universe. And Donato vanishes into this new world. And later, Donato’s young brother, now a teenager, comes back to find him, to confront him, which ultimately saves Donato from the same and cowardice he feels for having vanished without explanation.
I think the matrix of the film is the figure of the man who risks his life to save the life of another.
The film is structured in a prologue, three chapters and an epilogue. Almost like a literary adventure, a travel novel where the three characters are the pillars of every chapter. Every movement is structured on the different route embarked upon by Konrad, Donato and Ayrton.

In the particular case of Donato, I wanted him to do something absolutely unexpected, I wanted him to disappear and to emerge on the other side as someone completely different. I have always been fascinated by people who fade away and start their life again somewhere else. We did a lot of research about the real life characters in order to imagine Donato. And in his case in particular the question of sexuality is an important triggering element for that move.

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