When the lights go down in the theater and a feature film begins, the casual movie goer likely pays little attention to the calling cards of the various production companies or studios that appear in the first frames. More seasoned cinephiles, however, have become familiar with the main players and can connect the dots between companies, studios, producers, and directors. One such recognizable entity that has been gaining momentum and accolades through the years is Film4, the film development and finance arm of UK television's Channel 4.
Under the longtime leadership of Tessa Ross, Film4 has garnered recent attention for developing and co-financing such Oscar fare as Danny Boyles's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE, and Phyllida Lloyd's THE IRON LADY, while also nurturing more "mainstream alternative" films like Ben Wheatley's SIGHTSEERS, Chris Morris' FOUR LIONS, and Jonathan Glazer's UNDER THE SKIN.
After a decade long tenure leading Universal Pictures and Universal Pictures International, David Kosse took over as Film4's current chief, and attributes Ross' legacy as well as his new initiatives for the company's current 15 Academy Awards nominations- a number that is bested only by stalwart 20th Century Fox. Says Kosse, "Tessa led a creative team under the guidance of Rose Garnett and she left a wonderful legacy. During the last 18 months we have been thoroughly delighted to see so many of the films we have championed achieve box office, critical and awards success. The journey for Room, Carol, Ex Machina and 45 Years, to highlight just a few, has been deeply gratifying. Film4 is known to back acclaimed and innovative films which stand the test of time and have audience appeal – that strategy is something we want to continue, expand and elevate with our current slate and the films for 2016 and beyond."
Under the longtime leadership of Tessa Ross, Film4 has garnered recent attention for developing and co-financing such Oscar fare as Danny Boyles's SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE, and Phyllida Lloyd's THE IRON LADY, while also nurturing more "mainstream alternative" films like Ben Wheatley's SIGHTSEERS, Chris Morris' FOUR LIONS, and Jonathan Glazer's UNDER THE SKIN.
After a decade long tenure leading Universal Pictures and Universal Pictures International, David Kosse took over as Film4's current chief, and attributes Ross' legacy as well as his new initiatives for the company's current 15 Academy Awards nominations- a number that is bested only by stalwart 20th Century Fox. Says Kosse, "Tessa led a creative team under the guidance of Rose Garnett and she left a wonderful legacy. During the last 18 months we have been thoroughly delighted to see so many of the films we have championed achieve box office, critical and awards success. The journey for Room, Carol, Ex Machina and 45 Years, to highlight just a few, has been deeply gratifying. Film4 is known to back acclaimed and innovative films which stand the test of time and have audience appeal – that strategy is something we want to continue, expand and elevate with our current slate and the films for 2016 and beyond."
Film4 boasts nods for Best Picture and Achievement in Directing (ROOM and helmer Lenny Abrahamson), Best Feature Documentary (AMY), Best Supporting Actress (Rooney Mara, CAROL), and 3 out of 5 nominations for Best Actress (Cate Blanchett, CAROL; Brie Larson, ROOM; and Charlotte Rampling, 45 YEARS).
Critical and festival darling EX MACHINA has also earned screenwriter/director Alex Garland an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for his sci fi tale about artificial intelligence and some of the ethical questions that may be raised in the not-to-distant future. The AI fantasy has also been nominated for Achievement in Visual Effects (Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett). EX MACHINA is a perfect example of a film that was supported and fostered in the early stages by Film4, even when it didn't exactly fit with the majority of the company's previous releases. In addition to JOE Cornish's ATTACK THE BLOCK and Glazer's UNDER THE SKIN, EX MACHINA is one of Film4's recent major forays into genre film making and certainly its first push in the category with regard to award season. When asked if we can expect more genre films from Film4 in the future, Kosse replied, "I hope so – Ex Machina was a brilliant film from Alex Garland who made his directorial debut. He absolutely represents the kind of filmmaker and bold storytelling we are looking to support. Our ambition is also to broaden the range of films and filmmakers we back, whilst still retaining that distinctive Film4 tone of voice – bold, distinctive, alternative, quality."
As far as the future of Film4, Kosse adds, "We’ve expanded the amount of funding we can invest in movies to $36m for 2016 and we’ve completed a major new deal with Fox Searchlight; the deal with FP Films and Entertainment Film Distributors will generate four new comedy feature films over two years; and we plan to greenlight 15 films this year."
Kosse elaborates, "As our commercial revenues are invested back into the independent productions we support, we want Film4 to be a more self-sustaining part of the business and ensure that when our films are successful we can share in the returns – this is a virtuous circle that will enable us to invest more back into the sector so we are being bolder in our dealmaking. This will all help to support the films we will be backing this year including include Selfish Giant director, Clio Barnard’s next film, Dark River; Burt Layton’s new heist movie, American Animals, which we will be partnering on with AI Films; the next film from 45 Years director Andrew Haigh, Lean on Pete; a biopic about Mary Magdalene from Garth Davis; Danny Boyle’s long-awaited sequel to Trainspotting; and new films from first-time filmmakers – Michael Peace’s Beast ; Toby MacDonald’s Old Boys; Adam Smith’s Trespass Against Us and Benedict Andrews’ Una."
Whew! Considering this list of recent announcements in addition to news that they are co-financing Martin McDonagh's THREE BILLBOARDS IN EBBING, MISSOURI with Fox Searchlight and producer Blueprint Pictures, it seems we will be hearing quite a bit more from Film4- whether it's during awards season or not.
Rebecca Elliott
Aka Annette Kellerman
