JOWELL ANNOUNCES REAPPOINTMENTS TO FILM COUNCIL BOARD

TIM BEVAN, James Lee, Sarah Radclyffe, Iain Smith and John Hill have been reappointed to the Film Council Board.
The Film Council is the Government funded body with responsibility for developing film policy. It receives in the region of £55 million a year, including a dedicated share of lottery money for film.
Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, said: "These Board members bring to the Film Council a wealth of talent and experience. I am delighted that they have agreed to continue for a further term, which will help to ensure continuity in the work of the Film Council as it begins to implement many of the strategies it has been developing over the last year."
Bevan is co-Chairman and co-Founder of Working Title Films. Founded in 1984, Working Title's first production was Stephen Frears' ‘My Beautiful Laundrette’ for Channel 4 in 1985. This was followed by such diverse and acclaimed films as ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1986), ‘The Tall Guy’ (1988), ‘Bob Roberts’ (1992) and ‘Map of the Human Heart’ (1993).
Lee, is the Chairman of Scottish Screen and brings to the Film Council the benefit of years of experience of the film and television industry, both in the UK and in North America. He has been involved in the production of more than 30 feature films over twenty years, including many eighties British movie classics such as ‘Local Hero’, ‘Gandhi’ and ‘The Killing Fields’ and, more recently, international productions such as ‘The People Versus Larry Flynt’ and ‘Thin Red Line’.
Radclyffe founded Working Title Films with Bevan in 1984, where she was responsible for films such as ‘My Beautiful Launderette’, ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘A World Apart’. In 1993 she left the company to pursue a more independent career and set up Sarah Radclyffe Productions.
Smith is one of the UK's most experienced producers having produced Jean-Jacques Annaud's ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ Luc Besson's ‘The Fifth Element’, ‘Entrapment’ and Tony Scott's ‘Spy Game’. In 1978 he was production manager for Bertrand Tavernier's ‘Deathwatch’ and a year later joined David Puttnam and Hugh Hudson as unit location manager to make ‘Chariots of Fire’. He has served as a member of Scottish Screen and the Scottish Film Production Fund and was a founding member of the Scottish Film Training Trust.
Hill is a Professor of Media Studies at the University of Ulster. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including ‘Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956-63’, ‘The Oxford Guide to Film Studies’ and ‘British Cinema in the 1980s: Issues and Themes’. He has served as Chair of the Northern Ireland Film Council, founding Chair of the Foyle Film Festival, a Governor of the BFI and a Director of the Irish Film Theatre. He was also a member of the Communications, Cultural and Media Studies panel, appointed by the Higher Education Funding Council, for the 1996 Research Assessment Exercise, which evaluated the quality of UK research in this area. He is currently Chair of the European Institute for the Media's Working Group on the Film Industry in Europe. He is also currently Chair of the Film Council's Working Group on Specialised Exhibition and Distribution Strategy, and has been assisting the British Council in their planning of film events for the UK in NY programme in October of this year.
None of the Directors have undertaken political activity in the last five years. (CD)