Author: Alton Williams

Principal photography has wrapped on ALI & AVA, the fourth feature from writer-director CLIO BARNARD (Dark River, The Selfish Giant, The Arbor), starring ADEEL AKHTAR (Four Lions, ‘Back To Life’) and CLAIRE RUSHBROOK (Secrets & Lies, ‘Home Fires’). 

The film is a compelling contemporary British love story imbued with the intricacies of age, class and race. 

ALI & AVA is produced by Clio Barnard’s long-term producer Tracy O’Riordan (Dark River, The Selfish Giant, Dream Horse) of Moonspun Films.  The film is financed by BBC Films, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding) and Screen Yorkshire, with Altitudehandling world sales and UK and Irish distribution.  Shooting recently took place on location in Bradford.

AVA (Claire Rushbrook) is a respected matriarch on a predominantly white Bradford estate.  In her fifties and from an Irish-Catholic background, Ava is a devoted mother, grandmother and teaching assistant who fills her time looking after others and listening to country and folk music, masking the scars left by an abusive ex-husband.  ALI (Adeel Akhtar) is a charismatic son, brother, boss and landlord, an avid music and book lover and moon watcher. 

In his mid-thirties, Ali is devoted to his family and Asian community in Bradford.  Still living with his estranged wife, he hides their separation from his family, painfully continuing the charade of marital domesticity because he still loves her.  Both lonely for different reasons, Ava and Ali find each other and sparks fly fierce, despite their own fears about intimacy and expectations of their families and communities.

Writer/director Clio Barnard has established herself as one of the UK’s most distinctive cinematic voices.  Her feature-length debutThe Arbor, a documentary about the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar, received huge critical success on its release in 2010 and numerous awards.  Her sophomore feature The Selfish Giant, about two 13-year-old working-class friends in Bradford seeking their fortune, launched at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2013 and won the British Film of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards along with a host of other festival awards. 

Her third feature, Dark River, starring Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley and Sean Bean premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival gaining a special mention from the festival jury for the Platform Prize.   

Producer Tracy O’Riordan says of the film ‘It was wonderful to be back in Bradford shooting Clio’s fourth feature; a love story, based on people we have met whilst making our previous films there. Inspired by Fassbinder’s ‘Fear Eats the Soul’, ALI & AVA is a film about fear and courage, loneliness and belonging, time and love’.

Cinema First, the UK cinema industry body, has today confirmed that cinema admissions for last year exceeded 176 million in the UK, worth over £1.25 billion at the box office. Those admissions figures put the year on a par with 2018, when – at 177 million attendances – UK cinema-going reached its highest level for 50 years.

This is the third consecutive year that UK box office has exceeded £1.25 billion, with 2019 proving to be another exceptional year, confirming the British public’s appetite for watching films on the big screen and the extraordinary health of the UK cinema sector. 

The landscape of cinema has changed dramatically over the last decade with technological innovation, a golden era of storytelling and a wide choice of high quality cinemas all contributing to the 27% increase in the UK box office from £988 million in 2010 to £1,251,836,436 in 2019.

The box office boom was led by Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Joker and Jumanji: The Next Level, in addition to British films successes including Downton Abbey, Rocketman, Last Christmas, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Yesterday. Complementing these blockbusters were break-out successes such as Judy, Knives Out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Stan and Ollie, Fishermen’s Friends, Blue Story and Pain & Glory alongside a burgeoning trend for successful big screen reissues of restored classic films, including Apocalypse Now, Alien and The Matrix.

Cinema-going gained strong momentum throughout 2019 with a diverse film slate that culminated in the final six weeks delivering 23% more box office revenue than the same period in 2018.

Last year, 900 films were released in UK cinemas, with more independent films than ever receiving a theatrical release. British films again represented a significant proportion of the total box office, confirming audiences’ appreciation of homegrown stories and reinforcing the UK’s excellent reputation as a global leader in film and TV production.  

2019 also saw a continuation of ongoing and massive investment by UK cinema operators in refurbishing and growing the country’s cinema infrastructure, with over 20 new sites opening across the country and many more planned for 2020 and beyond, ensuring audiences will continue to enjoy the best possible cinematic experience.

2020 is off to an incredibly healthy start with holiday titles Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Little Women continuing their strong runs at the box office; whilst Sam Mendes’ homegrown World War 1 epic Oscar nominated 1917 has ridden a wave of acclaim to top the latest box office charts, delivering a £7.3m opening weekend, all contributing to a 25% increase in box office over the same period in 2019. 

Commenting on these latest numbers, Iain Jacob, Cinema First Chair said:

“The 2019 figures prove that cinema is alive and in remarkable shape with audiences having better access to a diverse film slate and massive investment making the big screen experience better value than ever. As we enter a new decade, the film production sector in the UK continues to flourish, generating significant value to the UK economy and British films continue to captivate audiences both at home and abroad. With a phenomenal roster of upcoming films already scoring big at the box office, 2020 is off to a great start.”

Judy Edition: Bits & Pieces – Described as “Sightseers meets Thelma and Louise”, directed by breakout British filmmaker Staten Cousins Roe, who was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Screen International Genre Rising Star Award and starring Olivier Award-winning Katie Brayben (Beautiful: Carole King the Musical, Doctor Who, King Charles III, This Way Out), Poppy Roe (This Way Out, Drawn, The Leisure Class), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Divergent, Me Before You, Malevolent) and Emmy-nominated Sian Clifford (Fleabag, Vanity Fair, Dodgy Dave) the film has already received rave reviews.

After being horrendously embarrassed by the mean girls at school, Faye, a practicing witch, summons the evil Cupid to take revenge on all those who wronged her. On Valentine’s Day Cupid does in fact rise and will stop at nothing until the walls are covered in blood. The students must figure out a way to stop Cupid and undo the spell before their hearts get broken…very literally.

Altitude and Element Distribution have announced that CALM WITH HORSES, the feature film debut of director Nick Rowland, will be jointly released in UK and Irish cinemas on 13^th March 2020. The film received its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2019 and featured at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2019.

Set against a gritty London backdrop, Olga Kurylenko plays a tough motorbike courier whose day takes a wrong turn after discovering a package she’s carrying is a bomb… The target? Nick Murch (Amit Shah, The Witcher, Final Score), the only witness able to testify against ruthless crime lord Ezekiel Mannings (Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight).

Appiness is the debut feature from filmmaker Canadian Screen Award nominee Eli Batalion, creator of the acclaimed webseries “YidLife Crisis”, who brings a decade of comedic stylings and a reverence for HBO’s “Silicon Valley” to the film.  He is joined in front of the camera by Varun Saranga (“Schitt’s Creek”, “Wynonna Earp”), and Amber Goldfarb (“Bellevue”, “Helix”). Batalion also produced the film alongside associate producer Sheiny Satanove and line producer Joelle Agathe. Philip Kalin-Hajdu (Game of Death, “YidLife Crisis”) served as executive producer.   Appiness was supported in production by Telefilm Canada’s Talent Fund through MainFilm and in development by SODEC’s Jeunes Créateurs.

The official trailer for Sir David Attenborough’s new feature film has been released today – and it promises to be his greatest story yet. For decades, the legendary broadcaster has introduced the wonders of the natural world to audiences worldwide. Now, at the age of 93 and in one of his most personal projects to date, he reveals his own witness statement and vision for the future.

The life of a professional hockey player was not always a glamorous one. For legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk, each save means one more gash to his unmasked face and one more drink to numb the pain. Even with a wife and seven children at home, he is haunted by the void left from his childhood which he tried to fill with cheering crowds. Sawchuk traveled across the country racking up 103 shutouts and 400 stitches to his face, proving that this is a man who lives, breathes, and dies a goalie.

Acclaimed Horror director Joe Begos (Almost Human, Bliss) & producers Amanda Presmyk (Dragged Across Concrete) & Dallas Sonnier (Bone Tomahawk) bring together this “insanely fun cast” (Bloody Disgusting) in “a gory and fun throwback to ’80s punk rock action movies” (Flickering Myth). VFW assembles cult film royalty featuring performances from Martin Kove (Karate Kid), Stephen Lang (Avatar), Fred Williamson (From Dusk Till Dawn) & William Sadler (Die Hard 2). 

Quezon’s Game stars Raymond Bagatsing, Rachel Alejandro & Kate Alejandrino and is directed by Matthew E. Rosen who makes his feature-length directorial debut. The film has received acclaim at numerous festivals, including 12 awards at the Cinema WorldFest Awards in Canada and four at The WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

To support the recent Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Makeup’ for JUDY this clip illustrates Renée Zellweger’s amazing transformation into Judy Garland. 

Jennifer Lopez returns to the top of the Official Charts – this time reigning supreme over the Official Film Chart as her 2019 film Hustlers claims Number 1 on digital downloads only.

Also starring Constance Wu, Lili Reinhart, Kiki Palmer, Lizzo and Cardi B, Hustlers tells the story – based on a viral New York Times article – of a group of former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their former Wall Street clients.

Former Number 1 on the Official Film Chart Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood rises to Number 2 amid its Golden Globes successes and Oscar nominations. Angel Has Fallen drops to Number 3, while last week’s chart-topper It: Chapter Two slides to Number 4.

A second new entry this week comes from Ad Astra (5) starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut who undertakes a mission across the solar system, in an attempt to uncover the truth about his missing father and a doomed expedition that 30 years later now threatens the universe. There’s a third Top 10 debut from British crime drama Rise Of The Footsoldier 4: Marbella, bringing guns, geezers and gore to the Costa Del Sol at Number 6.

The Lion King drops two to 7, while Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw lands at Number 8 this week. Elton John biopic Rocketman (9) holds onto the Top 10 for another week, and finally Spider-Man: Far From Home (10) rounds off the week’s Top 10.

Rounding off this week’s show is a sneak peek at The Goldfinch, which comes to digital download from Monday January 20. Make sure to catch this stunning literary adaptation starring Ansel Elgort & Nicole Kidman from then.

The Official Film Chart Top 10 – 15^th January 2020

LW	Pos	Title	Label
NEW	1	HUSTLERS	SONY PICTURES HE
4	2	ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD	SONY PICTURES HE
2	3	ANGEL HAS FALLEN	LIONSGATE
1	4	IT – CHAPTER TWO	WARNER HOME VIDEO
NEW	5	AD ASTRA	20TH CENTURY FOX HE
NEW	6	RISE OF THE FOOTSOLDIER 4 – MARBELLA	SIGNATURE ENTERTAINMENT
5	7	THE LION KING	WALT DISNEY
7	8	FAST & FURIOUS – HOBBS & SHAW	UNIVERSAL PICTURES
6	9	ROCKETMAN	PARAMOUNT
8	10	SPIDER-MAN – FAR FROM HOME	SONY PICTURES HE

© Official Charts Company 2020

VIEW THE FULL TOP 40 – https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/film-chart/