Microwave Partnership Give The Greenlight

BBC Films and Film London have announced they will extend their partnership on the successful micro-budget feature film-making scheme.
Film London Microwave, the groundbreaking training scheme responsible for the BAFTA-nominated Shifty, now has the funding to make three more feature films, giving further opportunities to emerging film-makers.
This will bring the total slate to 13 films with the scheme running for another three years from 2011.
Two new features have been given the greenlight from the last round of over 80 applications. Ill Manors is written and directed by critically acclaimed Musician and Actor Ben Drew - aka Plan B - whose new album entered the UK charts at Number One and will be produced by Atif Ghani.
Also greenlit is Borrowed Time from Writer/Director Jules Bishop and Producer Olivier Kaempfer, graduates of London Film School. Both projects will receive up to £60,000 cash funding from Microwave and are currently securing the additional finance.
Unique in its approach to film-making, Microwave - which also receives support from Skillset - has an integrated training programme which sees film-makers benefiting from crucial guidance and mentoring throughout the film-making process. With its innovative set-up focusing on training and development, Microwave has enjoyed excellent results with the scheme's three completed features Mum & Dad, Shifty and Freestyle.
Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London commented: "The great strength of Microwave is that allows us to find and support, fantastic new creative talent that can flourish under the Microwave banner; while we as funders get the absolute best value for public investment, putting in modest but critical funding to make these films.
"Microwave isn't just about providing production funding, it is the training, mentoring and guidance which make it so much more.
"Microwave offers these new talented film-makers the right tools to make a feature film and while it may be on a limited budget, we aim to ensure every Microwave film has the potential to reach audiences and be commercially successful," he said.
(BMcN/BMcC)