Channel 4 supports UK cinema sector with season of Film4 classics and bespoke marketing campaign
Category: News Release
11 June 2021
Film4 have teamed up with global film distributor Park Circus to offer UK cinemas a programme of six classic Film4 productions to encourage UK audiences back to the big screen this summer. The season will be supported by an on-air promotional campaign running across the Channel 4 portfolio of channels and a paid digital campaign, both created by Channel 4’s award-winning creative agency 4Creative.
The season demonstrates Channel 4’s commitment to supporting the UK’s broader creative sector, pulling together content from Film4’s catalogue, the creative prowess of 4 Creative on the promotional campaign, and Channel 4 airtime to bolster the hard hit UK exhibition sector’s recovery from the pandemic closures of the last 15 months.
Picturehouse, Everyman, Odeon, Vue and Showcase cinema chains will all take advantage of the season which is available to book from the start of July, with a number of additional sites expected to participate over the coming weeks.
Director of Film4 Daniel Battsek comments: “Film4 have a long history of producing films for theatrical exhibition. We felt we should do something to help the sector’s recovery from the pandemic and remind audiences that cinemas remain the best places to experience movies.”
Mark Hirzberger-Taylor, CEO of Park Circus adds: “We’re incredibly proud of our long-standing partnership with Film4, and are delighted to be collaborating with them on this special programme this summer, comprising six of their very best classic films, back on the big screen for audiences to enjoy.”
The season comprises six of the most beloved films from Film4’s history, also demonstrating the brand’s historical commitment to diversity, inclusion, geographical representation, authored filmmaking and new talent:
Danny Boyle’s iconic Trainspotting (1996) is the first of two films in the season celebrating their 25th anniversaries in 2021. An innovative and darkly comic exploration of the lives of a group of Edinburgh drug addicts, the film is widely viewed as a British classic and kickstarted numerous careers; notably Ewan McGregor’s, who scored another early lead role in Mark Herman’s passionate, moving drama about the colliery brass band of a small mining community, Brassed Off (1996).
Daniel Day Lewis and Gordon Warnecke headline Stephen Frears’ romantic comedy-drama My Beautiful Launderette (1985), from Hanif Kureishi’s script about a young entrepreneur’s attempt with his lover to transform a grubby laundromat into something more opulent. While Bhaji on the Beach (1993) from director Gurinder Chadha and writer Meera Syal depicts a cross-generational group of Asian women escaping the pressures of their daily lives with a trip to Blackpool.
Local Hero (1983) sees a Texas oil company executive bewitched by the Scottish village he’s been despatched to buy up and tear down to make way for a refinery. Peter Capaldi, Jenny Seagrove, Denis Lawson and Burt Lancaster are among the cast of this comedy-drama for which Bill Forsyth won the BAFTA for Best Director.
Finally, Sexy Beast (2000) marked the debut of director Jonathan Glazer, now regarded as one of the most revered, innovative filmmakers on the world stage, and whose fourth feature film will go into production this summer, again backed by Film4. Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley face off in a searing, Oscar®-nominated crime thriller, now available in a brand-new DCP.
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For further information:
Phil Cairns
Press & Publicity Manager, Film4
020 7306 1049 / 07590 488 774 / PCairns@channel4.co.uk
Kate Timperley
Marketing & Communications Director, Park Circus
07585 005428/ kate.timperley@parkcircus.com
ABOUT FILM4
Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, both new and established.
Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Florian Zeller’s The Father, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years.
Film4’s recent releases include Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, Coky Giedroyc’s adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s How To Build a Girl, Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses and Asif Kapadia’s Diego Maradona. Forthcoming releases include Jonathan Butterell’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Rebecca Hall’s Passing, Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo and Cathy Brady’s Wildfire. Films in production or post include Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday, Michael Pearce’s Invasion, Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Earwig, Aml Ameen’s Boxing Day, Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men, Julia Ducournau’s Titane, Jim Archer’s Brian & Charles and Chasing Chaplin from Peter Middleton and James Spinney.
For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.
ABOUT PARK CIRCUS GROUP
Park Circus Group is a leading all-rights sales agency and distribution company representing the greatest names in filmed entertainment. Our classic films distribution and sales divisions represent the major Hollywood and British studios including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Film4, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing International, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and ITV Studios as well as a large number of independent producers and rights holders.
Our contemporary division finances, sells and distributes arts, cultural and independent feature films. Operating worldwide, the company aims to enable audiences to experience classic and contemporary cinematic content, through working with theatrical exhibition, television, digital and home entertainment partners.
For further information please visit www.parkcircus.com.
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