Press Releases & Press Packs

22.01.03

BBC FOUR

BBC FOUR announces new award for best foreign language film of 2003

Press pack available

To celebrate the wealth of contemporary international film-making and BBC FOUR's commitment to international cinema, the channel today announces a new venture, BBC FOUR Film of the Year in which, every year, a jury of experts from the film world will select the best foreign-language film released in the UK in the preceding year.

The first winner will be announced in a new programme, BBC FOUR Film of the Year 2003, to be shown in January 2004.

Controller of BBC FOUR, Roly Keating says: "In the past 10 months BBC FOUR has already shown that there's much more to cinema than Hollywood and proved that viewers have a real appetite for brilliant film-making, whatever its language and country of origin.

"Audiences have been flocking to cinemas to see films such as Together, Y Tu Mama Tambien and City of God and I'm delighted that the BBC FOUR Film of the Year will help to put films like these centre-stage.

"BBC FOUR is for people who are open-minded, multi-cultural and globally aware - exactly the sort of people who are passionate about foreign-language films."

Since its launch in March 2002, BBC FOUR has put international cinema at the heart of its schedules, with at least one new or classic foreign-language film shown in peak every week, over half of which have been television premieres.

Films have ranged from Mohsen Makhmalbaf's award-winning Kandahar to Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dalí's 1928 classic, Un Chien Andalou.

BBC FOUR's weekly film programme presented by Stuart Maconie, The DVD Collection, also brings viewers the best in international cinema released on DVD and is the only regular film review programme entirely dedicated to this increasingly important and vibrant sector of film.

BBC FOUR also announces today a major season of foreign language movies which will receive their UK television premiere in March: Roberto Succo - based on the true story of an Italian psychopath who became France's public enemy number one; The Devil's Backbone - Guillermo del Toro's supernatural thriller set in the final days of the Spanish Civil War; The Fast Runner - a tragic love story set in the closely-knit Inuit community; The Officer's Ward - the story of a young French lieutenant's recuperation after suffering horrific injuries at the beginning of the First World War; and Time of Favor - Joseph Cedar's thriller set in an Orthodox settlement on the West Bank.

And the channel continues to increase its upfront investment in UK theatrical releases.

Recent and upcoming titles bearing an 'In association with BBC FOUR credit' include The Son (Jean-Pierre Dardenne; Luc Dardenne - Belgium); Abouna (Mahamet Saleh Haroun -Chad); Divine Intervention (Elia Suleiman - France/Palestine); Lilya 4-Ever (Lukas Moodysson-Sweden); Nowhere in Africa (Caroline Link- Germany) and The Man Without A Past (Aki Kaurismaki - Finland).

Notes to Editors

· A shortlist of six international films will be announced in the first week of January 2004. The BBC FOUR Film of the Year Award will be judged by a panel of six people with expert knowledge of international cinema past and present (such as film-makers, critics and writers) as well as an element of public involvement online.

The winner will be announced in the programme, BBC Film of the Year 2003, shown at the end of January 2004, which will include extended features on each of the shortlisted films.

More details including eligibility will be announced shortly.

· BBC FOUR has shown at least one foreign-language each week since its launch in March 2002 including 28 TV premieres (i.e. the first time the film has been shown on television since cinematic release)

· BBC FOUR is a free-to-air digital channel covering culture in its broadest sense - from specially commissioned drama and adaptations of plays and music performance, through thought-provoking documentaries and news.

Its outlook is intelligent and international - reflected in its world news, international documentaries (including Storyville) and world music as well as its commitment to international cinema.

There is an International cinema on BBC FOUR press pack available below, in PDF format. You may require Adobe Acrobat Software to read PDF files which can be obtained here.

International cinema on BBC FOUR (20 KB)

www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour

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