A Prayer For The Dying from UK-France outfit The Bureau and Good Boy, produced by Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company, are among the seven international co-productions to receive backing from the UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF).
In addition, 23 UK screen content businesses have been awarded funds to boost their international activities.
UKGSF is financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and administered by the British Film Institute (BFI). The UK’s A Prayer for the Dying
, a co-production The UK producer is Tristan Goligher and Bertrand Faivre’s The Bureau, which will co-produce with Norwegian Eye Eye Pictures and Swedish Garagefilm International.It is written and directed by US filmmaker Dara Van Dusen, and based on Stewart O’Nan’s novel of the same name, set in a small Wisconsin town still suffering from the repercussions of the recent Civil War.
Jan Komasa’s
Good Boy, about a football hooligan kidnapped by a middle-class family seemingly intent on turning him around. The film has also received funding. It is a co-production between the UK and Poland that was produced by Jeremy Thomas, Komasa has worked on Corpus Chrsti. Bartek Bartosik & Naqqash Khalid are the writers. Emily Morgan’s Quiddity Films has received funding for Butterfly, a minority UK co-production with Norway, Sweden and Germany. Quiddity Films has partnered with Mer Film in Norway and Zentropa in Sweden Itonje Guttormsen, a Norwegian director and writer, has written and The sisters reunite after their mother’s death, which is a mystery. Confirmed cast include Norwegian actors Helena Bjornebye and Renate Reinsve.Mike Goodridge’s Good Chaos is the minority UK co-producer of Laszlo Nemes’
Orphan, co-producing with Hungary’s Pioneer Pictures, France’s Agat Films and Germany’s Pallas Film. Nemes writes and directs his third feature film which follows a young boy in Budapest in 1957, 12 years after the end of the war and one year after the Hungarian Uprising.Further films to be supported include
Birthday Party, a minority UK co-production with Greece, Spain and Belgium. The UK producer Raucous Pictures is working with majority Greek producers Heretic as well as Spanish Fast It is directed by Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, and based on Panos It is about a Greek tycoon celebrating his daughter’s 25th birthday on his private island, where he will face an unpredictable chain of events.All are being made under the European Convention of Cinematographic Co-production.
Company awardsCompanies to receive UKGSF international business development awards include Big Little Fish Television, which aims to hire an executive to further its US market expansion; David Barron’s DB Films, which plans to build a slate of elevated genre films; and Greenacre Films, to put towards the hire of an international intellectual property consultant.Financial support for international business development will provide the 23 companies from all over the UK with funding via one of two tracks: ‘film transformation’, for internationally-focused transformational business strategies related to independent UK films, with strategies spanning three to five years, or ‘general’, for business strategies to create, acquire and/or exploit intellectual property (IP) across film, TV, animation, documentary and interactive narrative video games, with strategies spanning three years
The funding, awarded in the form of non-recoupable grants and ranging between PS50,000 and PS150,000 in total over a three-year period, is focused on helping companies achieve new international business partnerships, enhance their profile and reach in the global marketplace, and increase revenue generation through export and international expansion.
UKGSF’s international business development strand’s reopens for applications as follows: round one on February 7 and round two on September 30 for international co-production and April 4 for international business development.
All other UKGSF funds are assessed on a rolling basis throughout the year,
UKGSF international co-production awards
A Prayer For The Dying
(Swe-Nor-UK)
Dir. Dara Van Dusen
Prods. Eye Eye Pictures, Garagefilm International, The Bureau
Birthday Party (Greece-Sp-Belg-UK)
Dir. Miguel Angel Jimenez
Prods. Heretic, Fasten Films, Lemming Film, Raucous Pictures
Butterfly (Nor-Swe-Ger-UK)
Dir. Itonje Soimer Guttormsen
Prods. Mer Film, Zentropa (Pol-UK), Quiddity Film, Quidd Jan Komasa
Prods. Skopia Film, Recorded Picture CompanyLomu
(UK-NZ)
Dirs. Gavin FitzGerald, Vea Mafile’o
Prods. Sylver Entertainment, Tahi ProductionsNightborn
(Fin-Lithuania-Fr)
Dir. Hanna Bergholm
Prods. Komeetta, Filmai, Getaway FilmsOrphan
(Hun-Fr-Ger-UK)
Dir. Laszlo Nemes
Prods. Pioneer Pictures, Agat Films, Pallas FilmUK Global Screen Fund International Business Development awards
Alleycats (Icebox Films trading as Alleycats)
Big Little Fish Television
Dare PicturesDB Films
FunDay Studios
Greenacre Films
Ground Shatter
- Hoho Rights
- JOI Productions
- Luti Media (Portobello Post Ltd trading as Luti Media)
- Mallinson Television Productions
- Miracle Tea Studios
- Moonraker VFX
- Nosebleed Interactive
- Paper Owl Films
- Particle Productions
- Ping Online Communications
- Pirate Productions
- Proper Content
- RapidEyeMovers
- Severn Screen
- Taunt
- Tin Roof Media
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