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XV New British Film Festival
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October 28 - November 09
Formula Kino Horizon 
As always, this year's New British Film Festival presents a varied programme of films from the best of contemporary British cinema. The programme includes films of every genre from comedies and documentaries to musical and historical movies, from dramas and thrillers to short and animation films and there is something for all tastes, with films about relationships, music, social problems, Charles Dickens' muse Ellen Ternan, miner strike in 1984 in Great Britain, religion and others. The festival program also includes the director Mike Leigh's retrospective show. The guests of the 15th New British Film Festival will be actor and director Ralph Fiennes (The Invisible Woman), editor and director Andrew Hulme (Snow in Paradise), producer Gabrielle Tana (The Invisble Woman) and writer and director Michael Whyte (Looking for Light: Jane Bown). This year, the festival also travels to such Russian cities as St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. All films will be demonstrated in English with Russin subtitles.
Film Program
Premiers:
 Lilting. Drama / Romance. UK 2014, 86 min. Directed by Hong Khaou. Starring: Pei-pei Cheng, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Leung, Naomi Christie, Peter Bowles. Awards and festivals: Sundance Film Festival - Best Cinematography. In contemporary London, a Cambodian Chinese mother mourns the untimely death of her son. Her world is further disrupted by the presence of a stranger. We observe their difficulties in trying to connect with one another without a common language, as through a translator they begin to piece together memories of a man they both loved.
Pride. Comedy / Drama. UK 2014, 120 min. Directed by Matthew Warchus. Starring: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, George MacKay, Ben Schnetzer. Awards and festivals: Cannes Film Festival - Queer Palm. U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their lengthy strike of the National Union of Mineworkers in the summer of 1984.
Snow in Paradise. Thriller. UK 2014, 108 min. Directed by Andrew Hulme. Starring: Frederick Schmidt, Martin Askew, David Spinx, Aymen Hamdouchi, Claire-Louise Cordwell. Awards and festivals: Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard participation. Dave's a petty criminal living on drugs and violence in London. When his actions kill his best friend, he's propelled into feelings of shame and remorse. Discovering Islam, he begins to find peace but his old life comes back to test him.
X + Y. Drama. UK 2014, 111 min. Directed by Morgan Matthews. Starring: Lewis Adams, Percelle Ascott, Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins. A socially awkward teenage math prodigy finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
You (Us) Me. Drama. UK 2014, 87 min. Directed by Max Sobol. Starring: Hannah Kew, Chris Wilde, Christoper Wilde, Hilary Hodsman, James Everett. Edward is addicted to murder; after struggling to suppress his desires he stumbles on Vivian, a young woman who has given up on life and wants nothing more than to kill herself, the problem is, she just can't seem to get it right. Although this seems like a match made in heaven things get complicated when Edward starts to fall in love with Vivian. Always in conflict yet somehow drawn together the pair embark on a whirlwind relationship that pits them against nosy neighbors, the police, Edward's overbearing mother and ultimately each other.
Art of Music:
 God Help the Girl. Drama / Musical / Romance. UK 2014, 111 min. Directed by Stuart Murdoch. Starring: Emily Browning, Olly Alexander, Hannah Murray, Pierre Boulanger, Cora Bisset. Awards and festivals: Sundace Film Festival - World Dramatic Competition Ensemble Award, Berlin Film Festival - participation, Newport Beach International Film Festival - Best Score, Seattle International Film Festival - participation. Set in Glasgow, Scotland, the film is about a girl called Eve who is in the hospital dealing with some emotional problems and starts writing songs as a way of getting better. Songwriting becomes her way forward, leading her to the City where she meets James and Cassie, two musicians each at crossroads of their own. What follows is a story of renaissance over the course of a long, dream-like summer.
Sunshine on Leith. Comedy / Drama / Musical. UK 2013, 100 min. Directed by Dexter Fletcher. Starring: George MacKay, Jason Flemyng, Antonia Thomas, Peter Mullan, Jane Horrocks. Awards and festivals: Empire Magazine Award Nomination - Best British Film, Best Newcomer; London Film Critics Association Award - Best Young Actor. Sunshine on Leith is based on the sensational stage hit of the same name, featuring music by pop-folk band The Proclaimers. The film follows the stories of Davy and Ally, who have to re-learn how to live life in Edinburgh after coming home from serving in Afghanistan. Both struggle to learn to live a life outside the army and to deal with the everyday struggles of family, jobs and relationships.
Art of Literature and Theatre:
NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage. Documentary. USA 2014, 97 min. Directed by Jeremy Whelehan. Kevin Spacey, Sam Mendes and the Bridge Project Company reveal some of the most intimate moments behind the scenes of their staging of Richard III.
Tempest. Drama / Documentary. UK 2014, 90 min. Directed by Rob Curry, Anthony Fletcher. Starring: Mitchell Bonsra, Paris Campbell, Kieran Edwards, Charlotte Gallagher, Afra Morris. Opposite the Oval cricket ground, a group of teenagers meet twice a week to rehearse a play. Over the course of nine months, they piece together a vision of an enchanted island, ruled by Shakespeare's wizard king. The process ends with a performance of one of the most emblematic works of a culture far removed from the world we now inhabit. Shakespeare's last play is about desert islands and mythical beasts. Using a blend of drama and documentary, the film follows the kids' progress as they stage the play, building a portrait of the contradictions of what it means to be British in this brave new world.
 The Invisible Woman. Drama / History. UK 2013, 111 min. Directed by Ralph Fiennes. Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, John Kavanagh, Tom Burke. Awards and festivals: Academy Award Nomination - Best Costume Design, BAFTA Nomination - Best Costume Design, BIFA Nomination - Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Satellite Award - Best Costume Design, New York International Film Festival - participation. In the 1850s, Ellen Ternan is a minimally talented actress who catches the eye of the hailed British author, Charles Dickens. Bored with his intellectually unstimulating wife, Dickens takes the educated Ellen has his mistress with the cooperation of her mother. What follows is a stormy relationship with this literary giant who provides her with a life few women of her time can enjoy. Yet, Ellen is equally revolted by Charles' emotional cruelty and determination to keep her secret. In that conflict, Ellen must judge her own role in her life and decide if the price she pays is bearable.
Documentaries:
A Dangerous Game. UK 2014, 102 min. Directed by Anthony Baxter. Awards and festivals: Edinbourgh International Film Festival - participation, Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival - participation. Anthony Baxter's 2011 documentary You've Been Trumped brilliantly exposed the ruthlessness with which billionaire Donald Trump rode roughshod over local interests (personal, political, ecological) in order to build a ritzy golf course in Aberdeenshire. This sequel broadens the scope of the original, looking at similar cases in places like Dubrovnik while tracking Trump's plans for a second course in Scotland, and asking important questions about the environmental and economic impact of leisure resorts for the super-rich.
Looking for Light: Jane Bown. UK 2014, 90 min. Directed by Luke Dodd, Michael Whyte. A revealing portrait of this most self-effacing but great portrait photographer emerges through conversation, anecdote and candid reflection. In the almost six decades that Jane Bown (b. 1925) worked for the Observer newspaper, she became renowned for insightful, highly individualistic portraits of the famous. Some of these portraits are now regarded as classics of the genre - Samuel Beckett, Queen Elizabeth, the Beatles, Bertrand Russell, Mick Jagger, Margaret Thatcher, etc. Bown's great mantra is, "photographers should neither be seen nor heard." Diminutive in stature and with an all-important ability to blend into the background, Bown was the antithesis of the Fleet Street, macho photojournalist. This feature documentary is a beautiful portrait of both Jane Bown, her determination to succeed in an almost exclusively male world, and her process of working as a photographer. It includes interviews with Rankin, Nobby Clark and Don McCullin and her many iconic photographs of the great...
Matisse. UK 2014, 90 min. Directed by Phil Grabsky. Celebrate the giant of modern art on the big screen. Audiences are invited to enjoy an intimate, behind-the-scenes documentary about this once-in-a-lifetime blockbuster exhibition with expert contributions from those that knew Matisse as well as curators, historians, Tate director Nicholas Serota and MoMA director Glenn Lowry. Plus there are breathtaking specially commissioned performances by Royal Ballet principal dancer Zenaida Yanowsky and jazz musician Courtney Pine. Acclaimed British actor Simon Russell Beale brings insight and emotion to the words of Henri Matisse himself, while actor Rupert Young (Merlin) narrates.
National Gallery. UK, USA, France 2014, 180 min. Directed by Frederick Wiseman. The National Gallery in London is one of the great museums of the world with 2400 paintings from the 13th to the end of the 19th century. Almost every human experience is represented in one or the other of the paintings. The sequences of the film show the public in various galleries; the education programs, and the scholars, scientists and curators, studying, restoring and planning the exhibitions. The relation between painting and storytelling is explored.
One Rogue Reporter. UK 2014, 55 min. Directed by Tom Jenkinson, Rich Peppiatt. Everyone has fantasised about emailing their boss and unleashing what they really think of them. Few actually ever reach for the keyboard. Fewer still end up pressing "send". No one has made a film about it - until now. One Rogue Reporter is the story of Rich Peppiatt, a tabloid hack who snaps over his red top paper's fixation with sensationalism over substance and titillation over truth. When the phone hacking scandal engulfs Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, throwing tabloid ethics under the spotlight, Rich decides to use the skills he's honed on Fleet Street to turn-the-tables on the press barons peddling sex, lies and scaremongering under the cloak of journalism. The result is a hilariously satirical documentary: part investigative expose; part comedy caper; part cri de coeur against unaccountable press power.
Various Songs: a film on Pete Fij and Terry Bickers. UK 2014, 65 min. Directed by Peter Bromley. Pete and Terry are former label-mates of Creation Records, one of the most important record companies of the 80's and 90's. The film captures a highly creative time for the pair with interviews, gigs and see the release of a new album. The documentary offers a unique view into two key musicians still passionate about playing and recording music.
Retrospective of Mike Leigh:
Life is Sweet. Comedy / Drama. UK 1990, 103 min. Directed by Mike Leigh. Starring: Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner, Timothy Spall, Stephen Rea. Awards and festivals: Bodil Award - Best European Film, Independent Spirit Award Nomination - Best Foreign Film, London Critics Circle Award - British Film of the Year, Los Angeles Crirtics Circle Award - Best Supporting Actress, National Society of Film Critics Award - Best Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Taormina International Film Festival - Golden Charybdis Award, Golden Mask Award. Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy.
 Mr. Turner. Drama / History. UK 2014, 142 min. Directed by Mike Leigh. Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Karl Johnson. Awards and festivals: Cannes Film Festival - Best Actor, Volcano award, Britannia Award - John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing. Mr. Turner explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.
Secrets & Lies. Comedy / Drama. UK 1996, 142 min. Directed by Mike Leigh. Starring: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Awards and festivals: Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or, Ecumenic Jury Prize, Best Actress; Academy Award Nomination - Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay; Golden Globe Award - Best Actress; BAFTA Award - Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film; Cesar Award Nomination - Best Foreign Film; Goya Award - Best European Film; Guild of German Art House Cinemas Award - Best Foreign Film; Humanity Award - Best Feature Film etc. Cynthia lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and trace her mother.
Topsy-Turvy. Comedy / Drama / Biography. UK, USA 1999, 160 min. Directed by Mike Leigh. Starring: Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Dexter Fletcher, Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville. In English, French, German, Italian, Japanese with Russian subtitles. Awards and festivals: Academy Award - Best Costume Design, Best Make-up; Venice Film Festival - Volpi Cup for Best Actor; Evening Standard Award - Best Film, Best Actor; London Film Critics Association Award - British Actor of the Year; BIFA Award Nomination - Best Director, Best Producer, Best Actor; Chicago Critics Circle Award Nomination - Best Actor, Best Screenplay; Empire Magazine Award Nomination - Best British Film; Independent Spirit Award Nomination - Best Foreign Film etc. After their production "Princess Ida" meets with less-than-stunning reviews, the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan is strained to breaking. Their friends and associates attempt to get the two to work together again, which opens the way to "The Mikado," one of the duo's greatest successes.
British Animation Awards (selected films):
Head Over Heels. UK 2012, 10 min. Directed by Timothy Reckart. Awards and festivals: Academy Award Nomination - Best Animated Short, Cannes Film Festival - participation, Anima Mundi International Animated Film Festival - Best Film, Audience Award, Annie Award - Best Student Film, RiverRun International Film Festival - Best Animated Student Short Film, Encounters Short Animated Film Festival - Best European Animated Film. After many years of marriage, Walter and Madge have grown apart: he lives on the floor and she lives on the ceiling. When Walter tries to reignite their old romance, their equilibrium comes crashing down, and the couple that can't agree which way is up must find a way put their marriage back together.
Everything I Can See from Here. UK 2013, 7 min. Directed by Bjorn-Erik Aschim, Sam Taylor. Awards and festivals: BAFTA Nomination - Best British Animated Short, Edinbourgh International Film Festival - participation. A game of football turns deadly as an uninvited player joins in.
 I Am Tom Moody. UK 2012, 7 min. Directed by Ainslie Henderson. Awards and festivals: BAFTA Nomination - Best British Short Animation, Annecy International Animated Film Festival - Special Jury Award Graduation Films, Annie Awards Nomination - Best Student Film, Edinburgh International Film Festival - participation, Encounters International Film Festival - Best of British Award, Glasgow Film Festival - Scottish Audience Award, Norwich Film Festival - Best Animated Film, Slamdance Film Festival - Grand Jury Prize Animated Short. A surreal trip through the subconscious of a stifled musician as he struggles to sing.
Apodemy. UK 2013, 5 min. Directed by Katerina Athanasopoulou. Awards and festivals: London Greek Film Festival - Best Animated Film. Plato likens the human soul with a cage, where knowledge is birds flying. We're born with the cage empty and, as we grow, we collect birds and they go in the cage for future use. When we need to access knowledge we put our hand in the cage, hunt for a bird - and sometimes catch the wrong one.
Benjamin Scheuer: The Lion. UK 2014, 4 min. Directed by Peter Baynton. Awards and festivals: Annecy International Animation Festival - Special Jury Prize, Edinbourgh International Film Festival - participation. An animated music video for Benjamin Scheuer's song The Lion.
Buy Buy Baby. UK 2012, 9 min. Directed by Gervais Merryweather. Awards and festivals: Edinbourgh International Film Festival - participation. It's the roaring twenties and things are looking great for Frederick Frinklesworth II and the rest of the New York Stock Exchange, but when his daughter Betty is left in his care for the day can Fredrick and Wall Street survive the mayhem that ensues?
The Shirley Temple. UK 2013, 10 min. Directed by Daniela Sherer. Awards and festivals: Dresden International Film Festival - participation. The boundaries between childhood and adulthood become blurry for a kid at his mother's cocktail party.
Short Film Program: What Is Animation (selected films):
 My Stuffed Granny. Short / Animation. UK 2014, 10 min. Directed by Effie Pappa. Awards and festivals: Edinbourgh International Film Festival - Best New British Animated Film. Little Sofía loves her grumpy granny: even though she is always hungry and eats what little food they can buy. Her pension is the only thing keeping her and her father alive. To what extremes will they go to once granny is no more?
Nae Pasaran. Short / Animation. UK 2013, 14 min. Directed by Felipe Bustos Sierra. Awards and festivals: Tribeca Film Festival - participation, Glasgow International Film Festival - participation, Leipzig Film Festival DOK - participation. In a small Scottish town in 1974, factory workers refuse to carry out repairs on warplane engines in an act of solidarity against the violent military coup in Chile. Four years pass before the engines, left to rust in factory yard, mysteriously disappear in the middle of the night.
Monkey Love Experiments. Short / Animation. UK 2014, 9 min. Directed by Ainslie Henderson, Will Anderson. Awards and festivals: Edinbourgh International Film Festival - The Outstanding Individual Contribution to Short Film Award. Inspired by love, a misguided monkey believes he's destined for the moon.
The Bigger Picture. Short / Animation. UK 2014, 8 min. Directed by Daisy Jacobs. Awards and festivals: Cannes Film Festival - Cinéfondation Award, 3d Place, Annecy International Animation Film Festival - Best Student Film, Hiroshima International Animation Festival - Grand Prix, Edinbourgh International Film Festival - Creative Innovation in a Short Film Award. Life-size animated characters tell the stark and darkly humorous tale of caring for an elderly parent. "You want to put her in a home; you tell her!" hisses one brother to the other. But Mother won't go, and their own lives unravel as she clings on.
Schedule:
28 October, Tuesday
20:30 - The Invisible Woman // Q&A: Gabrielle Tana, Ralph Fiennes (Formula Kino Horizon)
29 October, Wednesday
19:00 - Mr. Turner (Formula Kino Horizon)
30 October, Thursday
19:00 - X+Y (Formula Kino Horizon)
21:15 - British Animation Awards: Short Animation Film Program (Formula Kino Horizon)
31 October, Friday
19:00 - God Help the Girl (Formula Kino Horizon)
20:30 - Looking for Light: Jane Bown // Q&A: Michael Whyte (Documentary Movie Centre)
21:00 - You (Us) Me (Formula Kino Horizon)
1 November, Saturday
17:00 - Sunshine on Leith (Formula Kino Horizon)
17:00 - NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage (Documentary Movie Centre)
2 November, Sunday
17:00 - Various Songs: a film on Pete Fij and Terry Bickers (Documentary Movie Centre)
19:00 - Pride (Formula Kino Horizon)
3 November, Monday
17:00 - National Gallery (Documentary Movie Centre)
19:00 - God Help the Girl (Formula Kino Horizon)
4 November, Tuesday
15:00 - Matisse (Documentary Movie Centre)
19:00 - Lilting (Formula Kino Horizon)
5 November, Wednesday
19:00 - One Rogue Reporter (Documentary Movie Centre)
19:00 - Mr. Turner (Formula Kino Horizon)
6 November, Thursday
19:00 - A Dangerous Game (Documentary Movie Centre)
19:30 - Tempest (Formula Kino Horizon)
7 November, Friday
19:00 - Life is Sweet (Formula Kino Horizon)
21:00 - Short Film Program: What Is Animation (Formula Kino Horizon)
8 November, Saturday
17:00 - Snow in Paradise // Q&A: Andrew Hulme (Formula Kino Horizon)
19:45 - Secrets & Lies (Formula Kino Horizon)
9 November, Sunday
17:00 - Pride (Formula Kino Horizon)
19:30 - Topsy-Turvy (Formula Kino Horizon)
More info
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