THE FILM COUNCIL TO ATTEND CANNES FESTIVAL

THE FILM Council, the UK's strategic agency for film, which was launched last year, have announced that they will be attending this year's Cannes International Film Festival.
Executives from the Film Council's Premiere, New Cinema and Development funds who have a collective production budget purse of £20 million a year will be talking to film-makers about future projects.
Senior Film Council executives will be meeting and continuing discussions with European partners as part of the organisation's overall strategy for developing connections between the UK film industry and the rest of Europe. Susan Finlayson-Sitch, Director of the British Film Office in Los Angeles, which is supported by the Film Council, will also be attending the festival.
The British Film Commission (BFC), which is part of the Film Council, will also have a team at the festival promoting the UK as a production centre to the international film and television industry.
The level of inward investment production expenditure in the UK set new records last year with more than £539.5 million spent through productions such as ‘Chocolat’, ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘The Four Feathers’, ‘Yaddein’ and ‘Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone’.
At Cannes the BFC will be hosting a series of seminars and workshops for international and European producers and other industry professionals tackling specific subjects including: film finance opportunities in the UK; the range of production sector services that smooth the path from pre-production to post-production; and financial and fiscal mechanisms that can benefit films that shoot in the UK. Those contributing to the discussions and workshops include Paul Webster and Robin Gutch from Film Four, Peter Watson from The Moving Picture Company, Geoff Salmon from Barclays Bank - Media Banking Team and British Film Commissioner Steve Norris.
In addition, three showcases organised by the BFC will explore different areas of UK production expertise:
Michael Elson and Paddy Eason at The Moving Picture Company will lead a discussion - Enhancing production values through digital effects - on high quality of digital post-production work undertaken in the UK and how production values can be greatly enhanced through digital effects including matte painting, virtual sets for films and real-time camera tracking.
Steve Cook from Future Post part of the Future Film Group will host a discussion covering the pitfalls of budgeting and scheduling for film post-production incorporating picture editing, track-laying, ADR, music recording and mixing for Dolby Digital.
Iain Smith, Co-producer of Luc Besson's ‘The Fifth Element’ will lead a discussion on European co-production covering finance, legal and practical production aspects using ‘The Fifth Element’ as a case study.
The BFC are also co-hosting a reception with the British Screen Advisory Council and Kodak for European producers. (CD)