Creative sector investment: March industry updates
// budget // creative growth finance // investment
In the UK and around the world, people are staying indoors to combat the spread of Covid-19, resulting in a spike of interest in online content – in particular something close to Creative England’s heart, film. Though times may be uncertain for our creative industries, a silver lining to a dark cloud is our collective appreciation of the sensational films produced by UK talent in recent years. So we’ve put together a list of Creative England supported films available to watch in various places online for you to explore, discover and rediscover some of the incredible filmmaking we have on offer.
Drama
45 Years
Kate Mercer is planning a party to celebrate her 45th wedding anniversary. One week before the celebration, however, a letter arrives that reawakens troubling and long-hidden memories. By the time the party comes around, what kind of marriage will there be left to celebrate? Find out where to watch 45 Years here.
Starring: Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay
Directed by: Andrew Haigh
Supported through our Lottery Production fund
Lady Macbeth
The unsettling tale of a young woman’s relentless struggle for control and happiness in the wilds of Northumberland within the constraints of a watchful society. Find out where you can watch Lady Macbeth here.
Starring: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomie Ackie
Directed by: William Oldroyd
Supported through our iFeatures programme.
God’s Own Country
Johnny Saxby works long hours in brutal isolation on his family’s remote Yorkshire farm and numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with binge-drinking and casual sex. When a handsome Romanian migrant worker takes up temporary work on the farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself having to deal with emotions he has never felt before and which could change his life forever. Find out where you can watch God’s Own Country here.
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart
Directed by: Francis Lee
Supported through our Lottery Production fund.
The Levelling
When a young Somerset farmer shoots himself, his sister returns home to understand what may have driven him to this – and in doing so is forced to confront her own role in the tragedy. Find out where to watch The Levelling here.
Starring: Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton
Directed by: Hope Dickson Leach
Supported through our iFeatures programme.
Apostasy
A faithful Jehovah’s Witness is forced to shun her own sister because of a religious transgression. As the separation draws out, she starts to question the meaning of God’s love – but nothing Find out where to watch Apostasy here.
Starring: Siobhan Finneran, Molly Wright, Sacha Parkinson
Directed by: Daniel Kokotajlo
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Jawbone
A troubled former youth champion returns to his childhood boxing club when he finds he has nowhere left to turn. Regaining the trust of the only family he has left, he seeks to turn his life around and stand tall once more. Find out where to watch Jawbone here.
Starring: Johnny Harris, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Michael Smiley
Directed by: Thomas Napper
Supported through our West Midlands Production Fund
The Goob
Goob Taylor is 16 and struggling to come of age. Trapped in a rural hand-to-mouth existence, he is forced to fight for his mother’s attention with her stock-car-driving boyfriend – but finds release with his co-workers in the fields. Find out where to watch The Goob here.
Starring: Sienna Guillory, Sean Harris, Liam Walpole
Directed by: Guy Myhill
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Spaceship
In a suburban military town, a father’s search takes him dangerously deep into the fantasies of his daughter’s friends, where he discovers a world of unicorns and rainbows, neon raves and teenage cults, where everyone is looking for their own way out. Find out where to watch Spaceship here.
Starring: Alexa Davies, Antti Reini, Tallulah Haddon, Lara Peake
Directed by: Alex Taylor
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Light Years
The mystery of a fractured family’s past is explored during one, long hot day when taking destiny into her own hands, the youngest, Rose, sets off through bewitching and liminal places to search for her missing mother. Find out where to watch Light Years here.
Starring: Zamira Fuller, Beth Orton
Directed by: Esther May Campbell
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Flying Blind
Frankie is a successful aerospace engineer designing drones for the military. When she meets student Kahil, she embarks on a passionate affair and for the first time in her life thrillingly loses control – but she has also crossed a line into a nightmarish world of suspicion and accusation. Find out where to watch Flying Blind here.
Starring: Helen McCrory, Najib Oudghiri
Directed by: Katarzyna Klimkiewicz
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Horror/Thriller
The Girl with all the Gifts
In a dystopian near future, humanity has been ravaged by a disease which turns people into flesh-eating ‘hungries’. Humankind’s only hope is a small group of hybrid children who crave human flesh but retain the ability to think and feel. Find out where to watch The Girl with all the Gifts here.
Starring: Gemma Arteton, Glenn Close, Paddy Considine, Sennia Nanua
Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Supported through our West Midlands Production Fund
Calibre
For old school friends Marcus and Vaughn, a fun boys’ weekend away turns into a living nightmare when an accident tests not only their friendship but their humanity. Calibre is available to stream on Netflix.
Starring: Jack Lowden, Martin McCann, Tony Curran
Directed by: Matt Palmer
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
The Marker
A criminal seeks redemption by trying to help the daughter of the woman he killed – but what he finds is a conspiracy of abuse even more disturbing than the ghost that haunts him. Find out where to watch The Marker here.
Starring: Frederick Schmidt, Ana Ularu, John Hannah
Directed by: Justin Edgar
Supported through our West Midlands Production Fund
MI5
Harry, the head of the counterterrorism unit at MI5, disappears after a terrorist escapes on his watch. He enlists Will, his protege, to help him find the traitor who orchestrated the event. Find out where to watch MI5 here.
Starring: Kit Harington, Peter Firth, Jennifer Ehle
Directed by: Bharat Nalluri
Supported through our West Midlands Production Fund
Norfolk
Set in Norfolk, amidst an idyllic, brooding landscape, a teenage boy and his father live a strange life spent hunting, fishing and daydreaming. But the father is a mercenary – and his final deadly mission threatens to destroy not just the target, but the love between a father and his son. Find out where to watch Norfolk here.
Starring: Denis Ménochet, Barry Keoghan
Directed by: Martin Radich
Supported through our iFeatures programme
The Call Up
A group of elite gamers receives a strange invitation to test out a new virtual reality system. When the gamers strap into their new hi-tech gear, they realize the game is for keeps and losing means paying with their lives. Find out where you can watch The Call Up here.
Starring: Max Deacon, Morfydd Clark, Ali Cook
Directed by: Charles Barker
Supported through our West Midlands Production Fund
In The Dark Half
After the young son of her next-door neighbour dies while in her care, Marie becomes obsessed that she is being haunted. Find out where to watch In The Dark Half here.
Starring: Jessica Barden, Tony Curran
Directed by: Alastair Siddons
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Comedy
Adult Life Skills
Anna is stuck. She’s approaching 30 and having an early-mid-life crisis – one that’s seen her regressing to a teenager, living like a hermit in her mum’s garden shed and wondering why the suffragettes ever bothered. Find out where to watch Adult Life Skills here.
Starring: Jodie Whittaker, Lorraine Ashbourne, Brett Goldstein
Directed by: Rachel Tunnard
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Old Boys
At an English boy’s boarding school, the life of nerdy Amberson is turned upside down when the new French teacher arrives bringing his teenage daughter with him. As Amberson plays matchmaker for the sporty head boy Winchester, he realises he’s falling for her himself. Find out where to watch Old Boys here.
Starring: Alex Lawther, Jonah Hauer-King, Pauline Etienne
Directed by: Toby Macdonald
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
8 Minutes Idle
When he is kicked out of the family home, slacker Dan has no choice but to live with his cat at the Bristol office where he works. The future doesn’t look bright, but lovely colleague Teri offers a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Find out where to watch 8 Minutes Idle here.
Starring: Tom Hughes, Ophelia Lovibond
Directed by: Mark Simon Hewis
Supported through our iFeatures programme
Documentary
Notes on Blindness
In 1983, when John Hull starts to go blind, he begins making a diary on audio cassette to make sense of all the changes that he is undergoing. Find out where to watch Notes on Blindness here.
Directed by: Peter Middleton, James Spinney
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Irene’s Ghost
Irene’s Ghost follows a son’s search to find out about the mother he never knew. He breaks the silence about her death and tracks down her friends, family and medical records to rebuild a picture of who she was and what happened to her. Find out where you can watch Irene’s Ghost here.
Directed by: Iain Cunningham
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Kingdom of Us
A father’s suicide sends a family of eight on a journey through childhood memories and treacherous emotional waters in this poignant documentary. Watch Kingdom of Us on Netflix.
Directed by: Lucy Cohen
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Orion
In 1979, Jimmy Ellis is plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight when people begin to believe that he might be Elvis back from the grave. Find out where to watch Orion here.
Directed by: Jeanie Finlay
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
The Lovers and the Despot
After their glamorous romance ends, a famous director and actress are kidnapped by movie-obsessed dictator Kim Jong-il. Forced to play along with a bizarre filmmaking project, they get a second chance at love but only one chance at escape. Find out where to watch The Lovers and the Despot here.
Directed by: Ross Adam, Robert Cannan
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
The Confession
Moazzam Begg gives his first-hand account of the rise of modern jihad, its descent into terror and the disastrous reaction of the West. Find out where to watch The Confession here.
Directed by: Ashish Ghadiali
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
Hustlers Convention
The proto-rap album Hustlers Convention was released in 1973 by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, otherwise known as Lightnin’ Rod: a recording which influenced hip-hop, funk and even the rarefied world of the concept album. Find out where to watch Hustlers Convention here.
Directed by: Mike Todd
Supported through our Lottery Production Fund
