Organised by the British Council in Ukraine and produced by Arthouse Traffic, the festival opens with this year’s Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner, Ken Loach’s social realist drama I, Daniel Blake. The film depicts the hard life of a former joiner fighting with welfare bureaucracy. The festival will also feature a documentary tribute to the two-times Cannes prize winner’s work – Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach.
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Another festival premiere from Cannes – and its Jury Prize winner – is Andrea Arnold’s road movie, American Honey. The story focuses on a teenage girl with nothing to lose as she and a band of misfits criss-cross the American Midwest. Sasha Lane plays the lead in her big screen debut, with Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough handling the roles of her on-screen companions.
This year’s programme is also bringing War on Everyone, a new comedy from the director of Irish and Calvary, John Michael McDonagh. The film tells the story of two corrupt and overconfident cops who cross paths with a type of criminal they hadn’t counted on. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård and Theo James.
Also playing is Simon Aboud’s This Beautiful Fantastic – a romantic comedy about the friendship between an eccentric girl who dreams of becoming a children's author, and her neighbour, a cantankerous widower. The film stars two-times Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, and the star of the television hit-smashes Downton Abbey and Black Mirror,Jessica Brown Findlay.
A highlight of this year’s festival is Nicolas Roeg’s homage to the legendary musician and actor David Bowie, who died in 2016, The Man Who Fell on Earth. This 1976 science-fiction classic stars Bowie in the role of an alien who has come to earth in search of water for his drought-stricken homeland. Viewers will experience the newly-restored version of the film, which made its debut in UK cinemas in September.
Photo: British Council web page
The festival will also screen a selection of the UK’s best new short films, as nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The BAFTA Shorts include seven short-format animated and imaginative works representing a broad range of genres and thematic material.
Simon Williams, Director British Council Ukraine comments: “The British Council is thrilled to present the best and brightest of British film to Ukrainian audiences and to celebrate the UK’s cinematic talents and creativity. We are proud to be holding the New British Film festival for the sixteenth time in Ukraine and invite guests in all six Ukrainian cities to attend the screenings and enjoy the festival.”
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The 16th New British Film Festival opens in the capital’s Kyiv Cinema on 10 November, before travelling to the cities of Lviv, Dnipro, Mariupol, Odessa and Kharkiv. All films are screened in English with Ukrainian subtitles.. Support for the opening will be provided by our official partners at the New England residential complex, and by our general partner for this year’s festival, Kyivstar.
Showtimes and information: http://www.britishcouncil.org.ua/en/britfilm2016
