Latest news with #ShallowGrave
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Scots festival celebrates female cinema and island culture
The artistic director of the Sea Change Festival, which will be held on the remote Hebridean island between 19 and 21 September, explains: 'My parents were Scottish. After I became redundant, my auntie offered my grandad's house on Tiree, so my family and I moved there ten years ago. 'This was around the time of Me Too and a lot of great work was being done about increasing female representation in film. I remember going to an industry event and telling everyone about an idea I had about a female-led film festival. 'A few people offered to run sessions and help out. We received funding and started the first festival in 2018.' Jen Skinner (L), alongside colleagues at the festival. (Image: Sea Change) Skinner says that the festival, which is associated with Screen Agryll and will feature the iconic mobile cinema 'the Screen Machine,' has been rebuilding since the Covid pandemic provoked a generational change in film watching. Indeed, in the run-up to the festival, Screen Argyll will tour Mull, Coll, and Seil, screening a range of classic films directed by women at local venues across the islands. While things have been 'a bit quieter' in recent years, Skinner is excited for this year's festival, which will focus on women in Scottish animation. 'The first festival really demonstrated how important it was to be on Tiree and how it benefited the community,' she notes. 'You have the chance to get away for a bit and watch a film under the big open skies. It brings out a different element, and it is really lovely how cinema can bring people together.' Orcadian Amy Liptrot, author of the The Outrun, will introduce a special screening of the eponymous Saoirse Ronan film, while Shallow Grave star Kerry Fox will speak about some of her favourite collaborations with female directors including Fanny and Elvis and An Angel At My Table. Skinner says: 'I'm delighted we will be welcoming Kerry Fox to the festival. It's bringing me full circle in a way. My first joh in cinema was managing the Hebden Bridge Picture House, and we'll be screening Fanny and Elvis, which was shot in Hebden Bridge. 'We are also welcoming Alison Gardner from the Glasgow Film Theatre. We've wanted to get her to Sea Change for a while. She'll be hosting an 'in conversation' discussion with Fox.' Gardner will also take part in the Sea Change's industry programme; which will include practical sessions, networking opportunities, and one on one conversations. An attendee takes part in a filmmaking session. (Image: Sea Change) The involvement of the local community is integral to the success of the festival, Skinner says, providing an example from a recent conversation. 'I was speaking to a local man who is very involved and sits on every community board there is on Tiree,' Skinner tells me. 'I told him how excited I was about The Rugged Island, an archival film about crofters on Shetland, and how we have two fiddle players coming to play for us as well. I said there was no excuse for him to come now!' The Rugged Island, directed by Scottish filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson, has been praised as a 'tender and beautiful dramatisation of Shetland life,' and includes a live score by award-winning fiddlers Inge Thomson and Catriona McDonald. 'Last year, we made a Mama Mia film with 98 people from the local community,' she adds. We will hold sessions in the school and animation workshops with young people and families.' The festival liaises with a range of local businesses, as Skinner notes: 'A wild bathing company from Oban will be holding seaweed baths and leading swimming sessions each morning. We also work with local providers to secure accommodation and run the cafe and organise activities.' 'What about funding,' I ask. Will the festival be able to weather the budget constraints of a world which seems to value the arts less and less. Skinner responds: 'It is always difficult as we rely on year on year project funding. However, Screen Scotland has confirmed they will fund the festival for the next two years. That's been good as we can plan for the future.' As we wrap up our conversation, I ask Skinner what her driving motivation is? Why should people spend a weekend on a remote island a four hour ferry ride from Oban? Read more: When Ozzy Osbourne played the Barrowlands, 37 years ago today Why does everyone seem to hate Maggie Chapman? Smoked salmon, Irn-Bru bhajis and micro herbs: What's on the menu at Bute House? She pauses, before responding with consideration. 'It's important to increase representation on screen. Women working in the industry are still a small number, especially the higher up you go. There still aren't a lot of female directors,' Skinner says. 'We want to platform a range of different stories from those in the global majority and around the world.' Indeed, the festival's programme is very diverse, ranging from Motherboard, branded as 'an epic look at solo motherhood shot over 20 years and 6 I-Phones' to Sister Midnight, a feminist punk comedy set in Mumbai, and Spanish film Sorda, which tells the story of a young Deaf woman trying to have a baby.' Skinner sums it up well. 'You know, cinema can be political. The shared experience of watching a film together opens people up to different worlds and new ideas.'
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Shallow Grave star Kerry Fox to appear at island festival celebrating female filmmaking talent
The Sea Change festival is the only one in Scotland celebrating female filmmaking talent. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Shallow Grave star Kerry Fox will appear at an island film festival celebrating female filmmaking talent. The actress, who played Juliet Miller in the 1994 hit film set in Edinburgh alongside Ewan McGregor, is to introduce some of her favourite collaborations with female directors at Sea Change Festival on Tiree in September. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Hebridean island is located over 80 miles away from the nearest permanent cinema. The festival's opening night will host a screening of The Rugged Isle: A Shetland Lyric, a poignant 1934 'story documentary' about crofting life by the pioneering Scottish filmmaker Jenny Gilbertson. Meanwhile, Ms Fox will introduce a closing night screening of Fanny and Elvis, in conversation with Allison Gardner, chief executive of Glasgow Film. Writer-director Kay Mellor's first film is an odd-couple romantic comedy, starring Fox as a middle-class romantic novelist and Ray Winstone as a tough car salesman who meet when her clapped-out VW Beetle. She will also introduce a screening of Jane Campion's classic 1990 biopic An Angel At My Table and lead a special industry workshop on working with actors. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Meanwhile, the writer of The Outrun, Amy Liptrot, will speak at a screening of the film adaptation of her hit book, which stars Saoirse Ronan as a woman who returns home to the Orkney Islands. Sea Change's artistic director Jen Skinner, who lives full-time on Tiree where she runs Screen Argyll, said: 'We are so excited to share brilliant films and welcome wonderful people into our communities, for this year's Sea Change. Tiree is the most Westerly Island in the Inner Hebrides and the ideal place to ask what connects us.' The festival - which takes place at venues across the island including An Talla, community hall, the 19th century Hynish Centre originally built to house the workers building Skerryvore Lighthouse and Screen Argyll's screening room in Crossapol - also offers audiences sea swims, beach pilates and ceilidh dancing classes alongside the big screen entertainment. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There will also be a focus on women in Scottish animation, with leading Scots animators Vicki Haworth and Orkney-borne Selina Wagner visiting the festival to showcase their award-winning animated shorts and lead workshops for both adults and children. Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox played the three Edinburgh flatmates in Shallow Grave. Ms Skinner said: 'Everyone is welcome to join us for a weekend of films, workshops, family activities and special guests. Local venues open their doors to filmmakers, film students and film lovers of all ages as we come together to watch, talk, walk, swim, make and share.' In addition to the festival on Tiree, screenings will be held in other Argyll island communities, including the Isles of Seill, Mull and Coll. She added: 'We are all about bringing communities together through film. I can't wait to share cinema, connections and Tiree with audiences this year.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Daily Maverick
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Maverick
28 Years Later: The rage returns in Boyle and Garland's gripping revival
It hasn't been quite that long since the horror franchise kicked off, but 28 Years Later reinvigorates Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's emotionally intense and visually striking vision of a Britain transformed by a zombie apocalypse. Zombie media may feel tired now for many, but back in the early Noughties, the horror sub-genre received an adrenaline shot, largely thanks to two movies and two filmmakers. One was the Dawn of the Dead remake that marked the feature film debut of Zack Snyder in 2004. Predating that effort, though, was 2002's 28 Days Later from already established British director Danny Boyle, who had the likes of Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and The Beach under his belt. Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later were notable for popularising the concept of the Rage Zombie, taking the traditional shuffling undead and turning them into literally rabid creatures, infected via blood and saliva, and transformed into the stuff of nightmares: aggressive, unpredictable and nearly impossible to outrun. If zombies from the mid-20th century onwards have become a commentary on consumerism, the new breed reflected the shift into late-stage capitalism and its ravenous consumption practices. Two decades later, both Snyder and Boyle are back on zombie turf, both delivering post-outbreak tales where characters venture into quarantine zones and must contend with different tiers of undead, including intimidating, unstoppable Alphas. There are a number of similarities between 2021's Army of the Dead and the newly released 28 Years Later, but it's arguably only Boyle who is once more freshening up the familiar. 28 Years Later is a wild ride, making multiple tonal pit stops: You want breath-holding, armrest-clawing chills? Post-apocalyptic societal explorations? Body horror? Quiet musings on mortality? The kind of heartbreaking deaths that the likes of The Last of Us and The Walking Dead have done so well? Acrobatic wire stunt action scenes with gory finishers straight out of a video game? 28 Years Later crams all these, and more, into its sub-two-hour running time. The surprising thing is how well handled the content mix is. For the most part. The film kicks off with a flashback to the original Rage Virus outbreak from a child's perspective, which, combined with a title card, is all you really need for context if you're coming in clean to the 28 franchise. Things are self-explanatory and standalone. From 2002, the film jumps forward 28 years, to show what life has become in walled-off and abandoned Britain (Europe apparently managed to suppress the infection) from another child's perspective. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives on the defended tidal island of Lindisfarne, which has retained a rustic normality. The community may have been founded in 2002, but it feels more like something from the 1910s, with no electricity, running water or connectivity, along with society roles like farmer, fisherman and scavenger. Also lacking are medical supplies, so following a harrowing 'first kill' mission to the Northumbria mainland with his imperfect father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Spike heads back with his ailing mother Isla (Jodie Comer) to find the lone doctor in the area. 28 Years Later could have been relentlessly bleak and terrifying, but Boyle – reunited with 28 Days Later writer Alex Garland, now an acclaimed filmmaker in his own right – refuses to let the movie wallow in post-apocalyptic gloom. It's been a while since we've seen anything from the Oscar winner (for Slumdog Millionaire), and it's possible that audiences have forgotten the director's high-energy, kinetic style. In 28 Years Later, that means shaky cam chases, shot on iPhone 15 Pro Max and other smaller digital cameras, to capture the panic of the moment, plus editing that often breaks free of time. Sometimes that means you aren't sure if you're looking at past, present or future events. Other times, the action is intercut with stock footage and medieval battle re-enactments, implying how British society has regressed, with scruffy villagers using bows and arrows against the savage, Pictish-like infected, who now roam the countryside in packs, nude and filthy. 28 Years Later doesn't just rely on visual interest to freshen things up, though. The film includes a surprising amount of heart and humour, with Williams, Comer and an especially likeable Ralph Fiennes – who demonstrates avuncular flashes of David Attenborough – all ensuring the film's climax will uppercut you in the feels. Not every creative choice has the same impact, mind you. The introduction of Edvin Ryding's Swedish Nato soldier has a lot of potential to explore the difference between the audience's present-day sensibilities and frozen-in-time, quarantined England. However, it's barely mined for comic effect before being abandoned. The final scene, too, which acts as an introduction to Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a sequel shot back-to-back with this film, is not so much cheeky in its lack of resolution as jarringly cartoonish, given the grittiness that has come before. Then again, life is messy and unpredictable in the direction it can go. 28 Years Later reflects that, and with Boyle lined up to return for the third and final part of this new trilogy, all penned by Garland, viewers seem set for a vigorous and gory coming-of-age saga that will be memorable, no matter what. DM 28 Years Later is in select cinemas now, having been released on 20 June. PFangirl.
The Herald Scotland
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Soaring demand for premieres boosts Edinburgh film festival
Nearly two thirds of films in last year's programme – the first under director Paul Ridd and producer Emma Boa - have since been picked up for cinema distribution. Read more: The festival will be returning to the recently-reopened Filmhouse for the first time in three years, and also working in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland and the Monkey Barrel Comedy Club as part of a drive to attract new audiences. An expanded programme of industry events will be rolled out at a new 'festival hub' which will be set up at the Central Hall, near the Cameo cinema in Tollcross, with the 600-capacity venue also playing host to the festival's strand of in-conversation events for a second year. Oscar-winning Scottish documentary maker Kevin Macdonald, his brother Andrew, producer of Trainspotting, Shallow Grave and the 28 Days Later franchise, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold and American director Nia DaCosta will be among the special guests. The event will feature the world premiere of an animated film by Bridget Jones star Renee Zellweger, a remake of the cult 1980s comedy horror The Toxic Avenger featuring new turns from Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon, new British crime drama All The Devils Are Here, about four thieves ordered to hide out in a secluded house, and Dragonfly, a mystery thriller starring British actresses Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough. An animated film directed by Renee Zellweger will get its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival Festival. (Image: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures) Grow, a fantasy set in the self-proclaimed "pumpkin capital of the world" from Scottish filmmaker John McPhail, director of zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse, features a star-studded cast including Nick Frost, Jeremy Swift, Alan Carr, Jane Horrocks, Tim McInnnery, Alan Carr. Other highlights include documentaries exploring the life and work of best-selling Edinburgh author Irvine Welsh and what goes on at Scotland's annual porridge-making, and a collaboration between Scottish actress-turned-filmmaker Morven Christie and teenage screen star Frankie Corio, who was propelled to fame in Aftersun, the 2022 EIFF curtainraiser. The festival will host a 35th anniversary screening of the Scottish prison drama Silent Scream, Robert Carlyle's first film, in honour of film and TV producer Paddy Higson, who passed away earlier this year, and a 40th anniversary screening of the classic Scottish comedy Restless Natives, which was recently turned into a new stage musical. The Irvine Welsh documentary Reality Is Not Enough will close this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival. (Image: Chris McCluskie) Ten world premieres will compete for a new Sean Connery Prize for feature filmmaking excellence, which was launched at last year's festival, and was won by self-taught British director Jack King for his debut feature The Ceremony. The £50,000 prize was instigated after the Sean Connery Foundation, which was created to honour the legacy of the Edinburgh-born actor, agreed to support the relaunch festival he was a long-time patron of. Contenders this year include road movie Low Rider, On The Sea, a love story set in a Welsh fishing village, Two Neighbors, a modern-day fable focusing on two women who collide at a party, Once You Shall Be One Of Those Who Lived Long Ago, a documentary on a Swedish mining town with a dwindling population, and Concessions, which is set on the final day of business at a small-town American cinema, A remake of The Toxic Avenger will be screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. (Image: Supplied) Members of Sir Sean's family will be among the special guests introducing early morning screenings at the Filmhouse of the six classic James Bond films he starred in between 1962 and 1971. The festival is also joining forces with the Sean Connery Foundation and the National Film and Television School to premiere the first six short films to emerge from a new talent lab initiative which was launched last year to help develop a new generation of Scottish filmmakers. New British crime thriller All The Devils Are Here will be premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. (Image: Supplied) The festival was relaunched last year following a turbulent period in the wake of the sudden collapse of the Edinburgh-based Centre for the Moving Image in October 2022, which forced both the EIFF and the Filmhouse to shut down. The Filmhouse has only just reopened after being put up for sale by the CMI's administrators and rescued by a group of former staff, while a brand new board and team has been assembled to lead the festival into a new era. The Golden Spurtle documentary will go behind the scenes at an annual porridge-making world championships held in a village in the Highlands. (Image: Supplied) Last year's reboot, which also feature the launch of a short film prize named after Oscar-winning filmmaker. She was one of last year's special guests, along with filmmaker Gaspar Noe, writer Alex Garland, and screen stars Saoirse Ronan and Kelly Macdonald. The Edinburgh International Film Festival will be returning to the historic Filmhouse cinema for the first time in three years. (Image: Kat Gollock) Mr Ridd said: 'I think we had a really strong start last year. 'We had a real opportunity, because we were building a whole new organisation, to rethink a lot of things and relaunch the festival. Festival director Paul Ridd, film producer Andrew Macdonald, the chair of the EIFF board, film editor Thelma Schoonmaker and festival producer Emma Boa. (Image: Pako Mera) 'We set out a template for how the programme will look and what the shape of the festival will be. 'We are consolidating things with the return of our two major competitions, which are the centrepiece of the festival. Around them, we will have some amazing UK and world premieres, some great guests and a really good industry programme. Scottish comedy Restless Natives will get a 40th anniversary screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. (Image: free) 'For me, this year is all about being bigger and better, and reinstating our intention to provide a really audience-focused festival, that is integrated into both the wider film industry and the arts landscape in Edinburgh.' Mr Ridd said the involvement of the Sean Connery Foundation had been crucial in helping to realise ambitions to showcase new films of the highest possible quality drawn from around the world. Classic James Bond films, including Goldfinger, will get rare screenings at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. (Image: Supplied) Filmmakers from Canada, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Croatia, France, Turkey, Australia, Brazil and Japan feature in the programme, which will champion 43 new features, including 18 world premieres in total. Mr Ridd said: 'Every programming decision we make is about providing a broad range of really high-quality international work. Lady MacLean will be among the new Scottish films premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 'We have got really a strong presence of Scottish films, Scottish filmmakers, UK films and UK filmmakers, embedded in a wider matrix of international cinema. That is absolutely crucial to what we're doing at the festival. 'Having Sean Connery's name on the feature filmmaking prize has been absolutely invaluable for the festival. Actress Morven Christie will be launching Stray, a new short film she has directed, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. 'Last year we had around 2500 submissions for the feature filmmaking prize. This year we have been considering more than 4500 films. 'It has been a very difficult process, but what it has meant that the films that are in the final programme are of a very high standard. 'People obviously really see the value of that prize, the prestige of the Connery name and the history of the festival. 'Jack King, who won the Connery prize with The Ceremony last year, has told us that it has completely altered the trajectory of his career.' Mr Ridd said it was 'crucial' for the festival to attract filmmakers to Edinburgh to launch their films to help them find the widest possible audiences for their work. He said: 'I would measure around 50 per cent of our success on the seven days the festival is in August, and what we deliver for audiences and filmmakers. 'I think the other 50 per cent is about tracking what happens to those films and filmmakers afterwards. 'Last year, 60 per cent of our feature films secured UK distribution, which was really good, but we want to grow that figure. 'The way that we do that is to create opportunities for our filmmakers to speak directly to audiences but also interact with all the industry delegates that we have. It's all about what the future of their films and what the future of their careers looks like. 'These are tough times for filmmakers. It is a miracle every time a film gets made, let alone seen. Distribution is really tricky at the moment. 'We have a weight of responsibility to foster an environment in which films have the best possible chance to secure distribution, and filmmakers have the chance to potentially meet that next collaborator, commissioner or producer on the ground. We are very much focused on providing a really strong platform to address the challenges that filmmakers have. We can promise that we will give those films and filmmakers in our programme a fighting chance beyond the dates of our festival 'We are very much focused on providing a really strong platform to address the challenges that filmmakers face. 'We can promise that we will give those films and filmmakers in our programme a fighting chance beyond the festival.' The film festival was launched in 1947, the same year as both the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe, and ran at the same time of year as the other events until a controversial change of dates in 2008, when it was moved to mid-June. It kept the earlier dates until the Covid pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 event. However the rebooted version of the EIFF seems set to stay in August for the foreseeable future. Mr Ridd said: 'Edinburgh has the biggest arts festival in the world in August. There are so many creatives from all areas of the arts engaged in performance and discovery. 'There is an audience that is already invested with the 78 years of this festival's history and our programme. 'To me, it is about bringing those audiences who are engaging with the music, comedy and theatre that is going on to bring them to our films as well. 'We want to open up opportunities for people to take risks and explore all this new work. The idea of discovery is what really gives the film festival momentum.'
Gulf Today
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Danny expresses regret over sudden 'James Bond' exit
Director Danny Boyle has revealed the one regret he has after quitting the James Bond franchise in 2018. The '28 Years Later' creator and his collaborator, the writer John Hodge, were due to complete work on Daniel Craig's final stint as the British spy in the 25th film in the series based on Ian Fleming's novels. However, the pair dropped out of production mid-way through the movie, citing "creative differences". As speculation surrounding Craig's replacement continues to ramp up, Boyle was asked if it could signal his return to the franchise. "That ship has sailed," he told Business Insider. "The thing I regret about that is the script was really good. John Hodge is a wonderful writer." Hodge is one of Boyle's closest collaborators. The pair worked together on 'Trainspotting '(1996), 'The Beach' (2000) and 'Shallow Grave' (1994). "I don't think they appreciated how good that script was, and because they didn't, we moved on, and that's the way it should be," he explained. Eventually Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation; Maniac) took over as director, with 2021's 'No Time to Die' serving as Craig's swansong as Bond. In an interview with Esquire in 2022, Boyle shed light on what the unseen script had envisaged for the film. "Weirdly — it would have been very topical now — it was all set in Russia, which is of course where Bond came from, out of the Cold War," he said at the time. "It was set in present-day Russia and went back to his origins, and they just lost, what's the word... they just lost confidence in it." Boyle added that, despite the producers thinking they want something original, they "don't really want" anything that is too untraditional. Boyle previously told The Independent of the Bond saga: "We just fell out about the way the script was going. I think that obviously, being as they are, they want it their way and normally a director would accept that and go along with it. "But I have this relationship with my writer [John Hodge] that's quite intense, passionate and loyal and I would not change him - precisely because I really liked what he was doing. Our idea was good, but they didn't think so." Casting rumours have circulated ever since Craig — the longest-running actor to ever play the super spy — announced he would be retiring from the franchise. A number of actors have been reportedly in the running to replace him in the iconic role, including Bridget Jones star Leo Woodall, Luther actor Idris Elba, Happy Valley's James Norton,Venom star Tom Hardy, and rumoured favourite, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. In February, it was announced that Amazon MGM had taken full creative control of the Bond franchise after striking a deal with long-time producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. The duo remain co-owners of the franchise, but the business decision leaves creative control of future James Bond productions in the hands of American-owned Amazon, prompting concern from fans over potential changes to the beloved franchise. In March, Pierce Brosnan weighed in on the speculation that the role could go to a non-British actor. Brosnan, who played 007 in four films between 1995 and 2002, insisted that it was a "given" that the next actor to play Bond should be British. For more than 30 years, in flashy, generally two-hour-long increments, Danny has made Britain seem like the coolest place in the world. His Britain is one of beautiful movie stars, pop-music montages and frenetic style. The Independent
