ReelScotland round-up 🎬 10th November 2023
BAFTA Scotland noms, Filmhouse campaign extended, Brian Cox + Bond
Welcome (back?) to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in the world of Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector, are trying to enter it or just enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, then this is for you.
News
🏆 BAFTA Scotland has announced the full list of nominations for its 2023 awards, “honouring excellence and celebrating talent across the Scottish screen industries”. Highlights include feature film Aftersun receiving five nominations in categories such as Actor, Actress and Director, while TV dramas Mayflies and Karen Pirie received three nominations each. Full details are now on the BAFTA website and the ceremony takes place in Glasgow on Sunday 19th November, also being streamed live on YouTube.
📽️ The crowdfunding campaign to reopen Edinburgh’s Filmhouse has passed the £175,000 mark, with the deadline extended until 24th January 2024. Screen Scotland has also awarded project team a development grant of £299,000. The building itself is currently undergoing some long-overdue refurbishment by its new owners, while refurbishment of the cinema interior and bar/cafe will be covered by the fundraiser, which you can donate to here.
💰 Congratulation to the six short film projects selected to receive up to £25k of funding from Short Circuit's Sharp Shorts initiative. Subjects include a journey to the moon, a home carer's first day on the job and someone cutting out their own heart... Finalists will receive guidance, mentorship and resources to help bring their cinematic visions to life.
🎬 Following recent success with crime drama, erm, Crime, Dougray Scott has committed to tell “bold, ambitious stories from Scotland” as part of his Buccaneer Scotland production company, recently hiring a Creative Director to “supercharge the scale of its productions”. Its slate includes Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting TV spin-off The Blade Artist and the development of novels ‘The Panopticon’ and ‘Luckenbooth’. Full details on Deadline.
🎬 James McAvoy will make his feature directorial debut on a movie about the true story of two lads from Dundee who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be Californian rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains. More on Deadline. The story was previously covered in Jeanie Finlay’s excellent 2013 documentary The Great Hip Hoax, search it out on various streaming sites.
🔍 Film Bang - the guide for Film and TV production in Scotland, listing Production Companies, Facilities and Technicians - has launched a Jobs Board. Film and TV productions can list job opportunities and practitioners will be notified when roles are available.
🎭 National Theatre of Scotland has announced a new short film commission opportunity for Black artists and artists from the African and/or Caribbean diaspora, including those with mixed heritage, specifically those based in Scotland. It’s part of an ongoing initiative to cross-fertilise talent between the screen and stage sectors.
📺 BBC Content, BBC Scotland and Screen Scotland are seeking to co-fund the development of a premium history series and or/singles from Scotland. They’re seeking ideas from production companies located in Scotland and they must be creatively distinctive “with strong Scottish portrayal in terms of location and voices, with talent that will resonate with both a Network audience and an audience in Scotland.” Full details.
📽️ Words On The Wind, a film about Caithness, its people and landscape premieres at Wick's Lyth Arts Centre this week and there are plans to show it four other local venues as well as at the Edinburgh Folk Film Festival and the Scottish Poetry Library. Find out more.
👵 Readers of a certain age will remember the classic ITV series Super Gran, all about a granny (Gudrun Ure) with super powers. Now Deadline reports that another Super Gran might one day enter production, the everyday story of a boy sent to live with his granny in Scotland who turns out to have secret superpowers and a spy base beneath Loch Ness. The project from writer Keri Collins has topped the annual Brit List of unsigned TV and film projects.
📖 Apologies for a piece of personal promotion, but I’ll be introducing a screening of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero at Kelvin Hall on Wednesday 29th November and there are still some FREE tickets available. I wrote a book about the film, ‘Local Hero: Making a Scottish Classic’, for this year’s 40th anniversary and I’m looking forward to talking about my favourite Scottish film on the night.
🎄 A new Christmas film shot in Scotland, appropriately called Christmas in Scotland, will be broadcast on Channel 5 on Sunday 12th November. According to the synopsis, “On vacation in Scotland, a New York installation designer finds herself tasked with helping a small, rural community create a festive light display and compete in a ‘Best Christmas Village’ festival, despite the interventions of a wealthy, influential heir who sees Christmas as an inconvenience.” Starring Jill Winternitz and Dominic Wattars, the film was shot in the Fife village of Culross - beware the trailer below, which reveals most of the plot…
🎬 This is more of a rumour, but Guillermo del Toro has announced to his followers on X that he’s in Scotland, leading to fans suspecting he’s scouting locations for a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.
Watchlist 📺
Finally, a few films and TV series with a Scottish connection are dotted around the place right now, including:
007: Road to a Million, the reality TV series hosted by Brian Cox, arrives on Prime Video today
The first two episodes of Shetland Series 8, now starring Ashley Jensen, are on BBC iPlayer
The Buccaneers, a period drama based on the unfinished novel by Edith Wharton and shot on location in Scotland, premiered on Apple TV+ this week
David Tennant's starring role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Hamlet can now be seen on iPlayer
Watch hundreds of episodes of classic and new(er) episode of Doctor Who on iPlayer under the new Whoniverse banner - Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan are among the famous faces to be found there
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