Left pane: Under the Stars part of EIFF 2007; Top Right: Kevin Smith on the red carpet; Bottom Right: EIFF and UK Film Council logos.

Afternoon Finger Lickers! It’s a sunny Monday in March and what have I got for you today? A £1.88 million cash injection from the National Lottery! None other than the Edinburgh Film Festival, my favourite film festival, is to get a wee boost from the National Lottery. For those that don’t know the British Lotto system, it’s run by the Camelot Group, and regulated by a government body called the Lottery Commision. Because the Lotto is run under license from the government, they insist that Camelot donate a percentage of their income to charities and other worthy organisations.

Various government-affiliated organisation including the UK Film Council, whose remit is to promote British film and filmmaking, are trusted to distribute these fairly hefty chunks of change. This £1.88 million is a percentage of the £4.5 million that the UK Film Council has dedicated to bolstering UK film festivals over the next three years.

In accepting the biggest Lotto investment in any UK film festival to date, the Edinburgh International Film Festival said they hope to use the dough to make them the leading talent discovery festival in the world. A couple of years ago I attended festival and had a rip roaring time. I was lucky enough to see the inspirational Kevin Smith do a marathon Q&A and caught the UK premiere of Clerks II. The festival is actually becoming quite the place to premiere flicks, with both Little Miss Sunshine and Ratatouille getting their first public airing in Scotland’s capital city.

This booster for the Edinburgh International Film Festival is nothing short of brilliant and the news that a further £2.62 million is going to other fests around the country is outstanding. We are extremely lucky to live in a country where not only the filmmakers receive government help, but investors get tax breaks and the festivals get financial support to boot. If you’re a UK filmmaker, investor, or film festival organiser you’d do well to check out the UK Film Council’s website.

That’s it from me kids,

K

[digg=http://www.digg.com/movies/Hats_off_to_them_Coens]Afternoon Coen fans! I’m going to keep this brief because I’m not really in favour of the hype the Oscars gets and I don’t really want to draw any more attention to them than is really necessary. However, I felt it was of great importance to tip the metaphorical finger-lickin’ hat to the astounding Coen brothers. No Country For Old Men, my favourite film of the year to date, garnered four Oscars at last night’s ceremony and quite frankly nobody deserved it more.

The Coen brothers have been inspirational for a whole generation of filmmakers and while Fargo was also rightly recognised by the Academy, No Country for Old Men is a masterpiece and a truly brilliant return to form. So, Ethan and Joel, if you’re reading this, which you’re not, but if you are… congratulations on four every well deserved Oscars.

K

[digg=http://digg.com/movies/PropellerTV_ShortFest]

Propeller… heard of it?

Even if not, you’ll be pleased to know that they’re putting a call out for short film submissions for ‘ShortFest’ as they call it. Which will be, (quote) ‘a celebration of the best original shorts submitted by new filmmaking talent’. So it says on their website at least.

Propeller is Europes biggest short film TV channel available on Sky 195. If your work is choosen by Propeller, it’ll be shown on TV, online and in the Cinema. I think that’s a first!? They are running the Fest over 5 days from 27th - 31st March, and if you want your work to be in with a chance, click through below and grab a submission form.

For more info, check out: Screen West Midlands & PropellerTV

mark