Author: Alton Williams

Released as After Class in the US, the film stars Justin Long (Dodgeball, / Die Hard 4.0) as a New York City professor, who spends a week re-connecting with his family while defending his reputation over controversial behaviour at his college. Safe Spaces also stars Kate Berlant, Lynn Cohen, and is directed by Daniel Schechter. 

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with Sean and her domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife (Molly Parker), whom she must face in court. Directed by Kornél Mundruczó (WHITE GOD, winner of the 2014 Prix Un Certain Regard Award), written by Kata Wéber, and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, PIECES OF A WOMAN is a deeply personal, searing, and ultimately transcendent story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.

Arguably maverick filmmaker Abel Ferrara’s most accessible and explosive film, King of New York’s status as an urban gangster classic is cemented by a magnetic, career-best central performance by Christopher Walken, as well as riveting support from Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi and David Caruso.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhNSas7fy0E

Similar in style to the Oscar winning “Parasite”, the South Korean film won the jury award at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, and has a steady 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

In the not too distant future, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) discovers Viola (Daisy Ridley), a mysterious girl who crash lands on his planet, where all the women have disappeared and the men are afflicted by “the Noise” – a force that puts all their thoughts on display. In this dangerous landscape, Viola’s life is threatened – and as Todd vows to protect her, he will have to discover his own inner power and unlock the planet’s dark secrets.

THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART is the first feature-length documentary about the legendary band who wrote more than 1,000 songs, created twenty number one hits and sold more than 220 Million records to date. The film chronicles the rise of the iconic group, consisting of brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb, their music and its evolution over the years and includes contemporary interviews with Barry Gibb, Eric Clapton, Mark Ronson, Noel Gallagher, Lulu, Nick Jonas, Chris Martin and Justin Timberlake.

https://vimeo.com/475909645

IFC Films invites you to check out Ekwa Msangi’s feature directorial debut film FAREWELL AMOR…After 17 years apart, Angolan immigrant Walter is joined in the U.S. by his wife and teen daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, they struggle to overcome the emotional distance between them. Walter is trying to let go of a previous relationship while his wife Esther struggles with a new country, culture and a husband who seems distant. Their daughter Sylvia is a dancer just like her father, and while she also finds her new life difficult, she bravely starts to explore the city and show herself through dance. The film is both a universal immigrant story and the unique perspective of three characters bound together by history and hope. It is an intimate and deeply personal look at an inter-generational tale that has defined America since its inception

Disney’s live-action version of Mulan charges straight to Number 1 on the Official Film Chart.

The film enters the Official Film Chart after becoming available for purchase on physical and digital download formats – it was originally available to watch via Premier Access on Disney+ this summer, in lieu of a wider cinematic release due to the pandemic. Disney’s Mulan stars Yifei Liu as the eponymous character, who disguises herself as a male soldier in order to save her ailing father (Tzi Ma) from being conscripted.

Last week’s Number 1 Last Christmas drops to Number 2 and is the first of several Christmas entries on this week’s chart. Much-loved comedy Elf flies up 12 places to Number 3, and Jim Carrey’s classic portrayal of The Grinch re-enters the chart at Number 9. Further up the Top 20, The Polar Express (15) and Love Actually (16) are also back in the Top 20 as viewers gear up for the festive season.

1917 returns to the Top 10, climbing nine places to Number 4, while Frozen 2 drops to Number 5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens enters the Top 10 at Number 6 following a new 4K re-release, as Onward drops to 7.

Dolittle starring Robert Downey Jr. zooms up 25 places to Number 8, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker rounds off this week’s Top 10 at Number 10.

On this week’s Official Film Chart online show, catch a preview of Russell Crowe in action-thriller Unhinged, which is available to Download & Keep from November 23.

Now, as well as OfficialCharts.com, the Official Film Chart can also be found on FindAnyFilm.com – the ultimate site for Film and TV fans to discover all the legal ways to buy the entertainment they want on disc and digital formats. Make sure to keep an eye out for all of these great titles over the next few months.

The Official Film Chart Top 10 – 18^th November 2020

LW	Pos	Title	Label
NEW	1	MULAN	WALT DISNEY
1	2	LAST CHRISTMAS	UNIVERSAL PICTURES
15	3	ELF	WARNER HOME VIDEO
13	4	1917	ENTERTAINMENT ONE
3	5	FROZEN 2	WALT DISNEY
NEW	6	STAR WARS VII – THE FORCE AWAKENS	WALT DISNEY
5	7	ONWARD	WALT DISNEY
33	8	DOLITTLE	UNIVERSAL PICTURES
RE	9	THE GRINCH	UNIVERSAL PICTURES
11	10	STAR WARS IX – THE RISE OF SKYWALKER	WALT DISNEY

© Official Charts Company 2020

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

Film Grad Charlie Steeds first £2000 self-financed film has made over $100,000 in world sales

Charlie Steeds is just 27 years old and is about to go into production on his 10th ‘retro horror’ feature-film, he graduated London’s MetFilm School in 2014 after studying a two-year BA in Practical Filmmaking.

Charlie’s love for films started when he was only 10 years-old, he’d discovered the films of Tim Burton and as he grew older, he discovered Stephen King, but it was an interview that he saw by Quentin Tarantino that encouraged him to become a filmmaker.

Charlie said: “I was probably 14 years-old, I’d seen Reservoir Dogs and I was interested to know more about Tarantino, I watched an interview he gave, I think it was part of the special features on the Jackie Brown DVD when I learned that Tarantino was basically once a film geek like me – he was working in a video store and just started writing scripts.

“Straight after I saw the interview, I managed to get hold of a camcorder and I grabbed some of my friends and that’s when I started making films.”

Mid way through his A-levels, Charlie started investigating film schools, he’d originally considered going to America, but the cost of doing that was prohibitive so he looked closer to home. He chose MetFilm School because it was a practical hands-on degree that he could complete in two-years.

He said: “One day our tutor Robin Vidgeon took a few of us to Pinewood Studios and it was incredibly insightful. Naturally, being a horror fan, I admired Robin (who worked on the Hellraiser films) and his advice/knowledge was always inspiring, as was the whole cinematography department.

When Charlie graduated in 2014 he didn’t have a job to go to and felt there wasn’t one on the horizon so he went back home to Bristol and eventually got a videography job with Mountain Warehouse.

He said: “Having the film degree was important to them, I’d never have got the job otherwise – I was making their corporate videos, content for their social media and website.”

While employed Charlie managed to save enough money to make his first feature-length film. The film, originally called Labyrinthia (retitled Deadman Apocalypse for the US market) was released in 2016, it cost less than £2000 and has since made over $100,000 in sales.

Charlie said: “I didn’t know how to release a film and get it picked-up by distributors so, I made a trailer, created an IMDbaccount and sent some information about the film to a movie magazine.  

“I was lucky, the magazine did a five-page feature on the film and it wasn’t long before an American sales company got in touch, wanting to pick up the sales rights.

“The sales company required me to shoot an additional 20 minutes of the film and change the title to Deadman Apocalypse, they felt that it would boost sales, they were right.”

He attributes the success of this film to coincidence, the distributers wanted something like Mad Max Fury Road (which had just been released) and Charlie’s film fitted the bill.

Using some of the money he’d made on Deadman Apocalypse, he self-financed another two films. 

One of these films, The House of Violent Desire explores LGBT themes, it has a black female lead and has a running time of nearly two hours – all things a sales agent, at the time, wanted to avoid or cut from the movie, for the sake of international sales. 

Sadly, the film agent was right, the film didn’t sell as well as Deadman Apocalypse, but it hasn’t deterred Charlie from developing and writing black characters; he’s just completed another film where black actors are the lead protagonists (battling KKK cannibals) and… it looks to be a winner – he’s just sold the USA rights and has big plans for the 2021 release – it’s called Death Ranch.

These days, others finance Charlie’s movies. Distributors approach him and tell him the sort of thing they’re looking for, he said: “Different distributors want different things and there are trends to watch out for too… one company might want vampires or werewolves and another might want sci-fi or paranormal.”

Charlie’s recent release, A Werewolf in England – reached number 3 in the UK DVD charts, and remains in the top 100 six weeks later, it’s his biggest project to date. 

According to figures, compiled by The Official Charts Company, UK consumer spend on digital buys grew 87% to a value of £113 million ($145.6 million) during the lockdown period, from March 28 through to late June. Research firm Kantar also reports that 1.8 million new customers either bought or rented digital content during lockdown.

Charlie is back living in Ealing and continues to make two films a year for the straight to DVD and digital download market, you can find his films in HMV, ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury’s and via digital downloads on Sky, Apple, Amazon etc.

Charlie’s mother, Megan Steeds has been a huge support to him, Charlie said: “My mum has been incredibly supportive, as a child whenever I needed a camera, or equipment she made sure I got what I needed.  She had to sacrifice a lot to send me to film school. 

“I was delighted when she agreed to play a small part in one of my films, it’s a cameo in The House of Violent Desire, she plays a maid – slashed to ribbons with a razor and dies in a pool of blood on the floor.”

Charlie seems quite relaxed about his future, he says: “Naturally I dream of being discovered one day by the big film companies like Netflix, I’d love to make a film with a £500K+ budget, but I’m happily enjoying straight-to-DVD filmmaking at least until I hit my 30s. But if I’m not discovered, that’s okay too – I love the creative freedom of working with lower budgets and I’m having so much fun doing it.”