Two Creative Scotland-supported films will have their international premieres this coming week at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

As well as showcasing the best of new North American and international features, documentaries and short films, TIFF is an important industry forum and film market that plays host to a number of financing and talent development programmes.

Director Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: An Odyssey, produced by Hopscotch Films, received its premiere on Monday 12 September. The documentary, already described as ‘visually ensnaring and intellectually lithe, it’s at once a love letter to cinema, an unmissable masterclass, and a radical rewriting of movie history.’ Sukhdev Sandhu, The Telegraph.

Screening three hours each day from Monday until Friday 16 September, The Story of Film: An Odyssey traces the entire history of film, concentrating on artistic vision (rather than business or celebrities) from the silent era to the digital age, featuring interviews with some of cinema’s outstanding talents and drawing on image makers as diverse as Buster Keaton, Satyajit Ray, Federico Fellini, Youssef Chahine and Nicholas Roeg, to name only a few.

‘A brilliant and monumental achievement for all concerned.’

Roger Graef, documentary filmmaker, praises The Story of Film

Producer John Archer, along with distributors Hanway, will look for opportunities to place The Story of Film in territories throughout the world. The film has been backed by MEDIA2, MORE4, UKFC, BFI, FILM4 and HOPSCOTCH FILMS. For viewers unable to reach Toronto, The Story of Film will screen on Saturday evenings on More4 throughout September

Premiering on Friday 16 September, The Awakening, directed by Nick Murphy and produced by Origin Films, and starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West (fresh from a critical triumph in the drama Appropriate Adult) was shot in Edinburgh and Berwickshire. During shooting, the production employed a range of Scottish crew and leveraging an additional £1.15million into the Scottish economy. Set in 1921, The Awakening belongs to a great English tradition of ghost stories that work their chills through psychology and suggestion. This feature debut is impeccably crafted and attentive to every subtle escalation in tension dictated by its twist-laden script. Murphy has directed episodes of numerous acclaimed television programs, including Primeval (08). In 2009 he directed the BAFTA-winning war drama, Occupation. The Awakening (11) is his first feature film.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said:

‘Scotland is a creative nation with exceptional talent, renowned for producing captivating and provocative film. Featuring exciting new Scottish productions, Toronto’s Film Festival is a fantastic showcase of our talent on the international stage and an excellent platform for our emerging creative practitioners to engage with those at the top of the industry. Supporting the promotion of our talent across the globe is key to investment in our creative sector, ensuring our world-class artists are recognised, and raising the international profile of Scotland.’

Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development, Creative Scotland said:

‘Creative Scotland is pleased to be supporting Scottish locations, projects and producers at Toronto International Film Festival, arguably North America’s most important film festival. Projects involving Scotland’s writing, directing and producing talent are being appreciated by audiences and future films projects are being promoted to international financiers and distributors through the Market Leaders programme.’

Scotland’s independent production companies will also be represented through the Creative Scotland- supported Market Leaders programme. Managed by Initialise Films, several Scottish companies have projects to promote:

Claire Mundell – claire@synchronicityfilms.co.uk

BLOOD OR WATER

Budget circa £2m
International Sales – LevelK

A neo-noir thriller about disconnected family and unwitting incest. BAFTA nominated Stephen McCole plays JAKE LEVER, a lawyer implicated in the murder of a brother he never knew he had, fighting to clear his name. Juliette Lewis, Greta Scacchi, Gary Lewis, Kate Dickie also star. Justin Molotnikov to writes & directs.

TRIP

Out to directors just now
Budget circa £1.5m
Sales: TBC

A psychological thriller set in the world of travellers and back-packing. Sheltered small town and troubled Australian teenager BRONNY runs away to London to escape her demons. But the city holds secrets more horrifying than the ones she left behind. Adapted from the novel “The Devil’s Staircase” by Helen Fitzgerald.

Angus Lamont – anguslamont@crabapplefilms.com

71

An action thriller set in the chaotic and murderous Belfast streets of 1971. A young British Army soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit and must endure one night in the alien killing grounds as he attempts to find his way back to safety.

This is an original screenplay by the multi award winning playwright Gregory Burke. His play Black Watch has been an international smash hit sensation and is currently on it’s second world tour. The First Draft screenplay has recently been completed with finance from Creative Scotland, Northern Irish Screen and Warp Films. Currently considering potential directors.

Warrior Daughter

Feature film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Janet Paisley.

2,000 years ago on the Isle of Skye, a warrior is born.

Daughter of an Iron Age warrior queen, Skaaha is wild, headstrong and revered. But she is also a child, and when her mother dies in suspicious circumstances leaving the queen’s rival Mara in her place, Skaaha’s charmed life lies in ruins.

Her passage in to adulthood sees her endure many dangers as she learns the fighting skills, the guile and wisdom to solve the mystery of her mother’s death and finds within herself the courage to confront her enemies in defence of her people.

Illuminated by the great Celtic fire festivals, Warrior Daughter is inspired by the historical Scathach, a fierce warrior woman of the first century AD and forerunner to the equally ferocious Boudicca.

Crab Apple Films is excited to have secured renowned computer games and comic book writer Rhianna Pratchett to write the screenplay.

Eddie Dick – Makarprod@aol.com

IDENTITY THIEF

(Budget CAD$5m)

Carlyle Macpherson, a masterful Canadian ‘identity thief’ who lives and thrives in the shadows of the London underworld finds his ‘moral code’ pushed to extremes when he becomes embroiled in human smuggling and falls in love with the wife of one of the refugees he abandoned to die.

MASTER OF LIES

(Budget £4.5m)

With increasing frequency and intensity, Marr temporarily plunges into blindness. There’s no physical cause, is it the result of a moral crisis in his life? A beautiful and mysterious woman claims to know the real, lurid Marr, which he vehemently denies. But someone has been cruising the vice dens… From that moment on, Marr’s exemplary marriage, his reputation, identity and sense of honour become besieged by obsessive sexuality and murder. Marr is forced to go in search of his other self. Is he searching for the truth or creating an intricate fiction? Nic Roeg to direct.

Arabella Page-Croft – arabella@blackcamel.co.uk

BREATHE

Writers: Steve Barker (OUTPOST, OUTPOST: BLACK SUN) & Simon Barry (THE ART OF WAR, THE FALLING)

In development with Brightlight Pictures, Vancouver & LA

Playing out against the broad cinematic canvas of the Rocky Mountains, Breathe is a thrilling, action-packed chase movie that follows a determined female police officer and her desperate attempts to get a high profile prisoner back into custody, whilst evading a well-connected crime syndicate who are ruthlessly hunting her down.

Budget: $ US 10 – 15m

ADVENTURES IN CUISINE

Writer: Nick Walker (BLACKBOX)
Director: Debbie Isitt (CONFETTI, NATIVITY!, NATIVITY! 2)

An eccentric British chef and her Italian husband operate an idyllic and transformative Italian Cooking school for misfits and the broken-hearted. When an accident forces her estranged daughter Zafina to take over the reins of her latest cookery course with her ten year old daughter Penny in tow hilarious and poignant antics ensue.

Budget: £ 2.6m

Source: Creative Scotland