Creative England Makes Its Cannes Debut

Creative England is to make its debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, participating in four events to illustrate its work in the English regions.
The organisation, which launched in October 2011, will kick off its Cannes programme with a panel session to introduce Creative England to an international audience and explain its role within the new landscape of support for the creative and digital media industries in England.
The session at the UK Film Centre will feature contributions from Creative England’s Chief Executive, Caroline Norbury, the Head of Talent, Chris Moll and the Head of Location and Production Services, Kaye Elliott. It will be chaired by independent film producer, Heather Rabbatts CBE, who sits on the Met Film School advisory board as well as on the board of Creative England.
With its flagship talent development programme, iFeatures2, now underway, Creative England is also partnering with Film London on Micro Scope: an in-depth look at the rise of the microbudget feature film. Tristan Goligher, iFeatures2’s Executive Producer will join a panel chaired by Warp Films’ Peter Carlton, to talk about his experiences running the low budget feature film programme, and also of producing the award-winning feature film, Weekend.
Clips from the three feature films to be made under the first iFeatures programme, which launched in 2010, will be shown on a showreel throughout the festival at the UK Film Centre. The three films are the recently completed 8 Minutes Idle, a bittersweet romantic comedy starring Tom Hughes, Ophelia Lovibond, Antonia Thomas and Montserrat Lombard; the forthcoming Flying Blind, starring Helen McCrory and In the Dark Half, which premiered at last year’s Raindance Festival.
The Cannes Film Festival offers unrivalled access to international filmmakers, and Creative England will be showcasing the work of its Location and Production Services team at the UK Film Centre’s Working with the UK panel session. Designed to answer questions on matters from tax to technical skills, the session will include a contribution from Creative England’s Kaye Elliott on the nationwide work of her department.
Kaye will also be a guest speaker at the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI), who are hosting a series of discussions in their pavilion. Kaye will be in conversation to explain what Creative England is, how it works and the services her department provides.
Three of the above events will take place at the UK Film Centre, of which Creative England is a supporting partner. To find out more details about the programme of events, check out the UK Film Centre website at www.ukfilmcentre.org.uk