British directors score hat-trick in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight

Pride (2014)

Three British directors will have their films screened in the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. John Boorman’s Queen and Country and Daniel Wolfe’s feature debut Catch Me Daddy will premiere, with Matthew Warchus’s Pride chosen as the section’s closing film. A comedy set during the 1984 miners’ strike, Pride stars Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West and Paddy Considine and tells of an unusual alliance between a group of LGBT activists and a miners’ union. All three films are backed by the BFI Film Fund. 

Following last week’s announcement that new films by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach would screen in this year’s official competition, the Directors’ Fortnight lineup was announced today by the section’s artistic director Edouard Waintrop.

• Watch an interview with Pride screenwriter Stephen Beresford

Ben Roberts, Director of the BFI Film Fund, comments: “Last year, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight and became one of the most exciting discoveries of the festival, so we are absolutely over the moon that Edouard Waintrop and his team have chosen to select a trio of British films – Pride, Catch Me Daddy and Queen and Country – which showcase the rich diversity of our filmmakers, including exciting new writing, directing and producing talent. Taken together with Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Andrew Hulme, whose films were announced by Cannes last week, these six films show how the UK is continuing to punch above its weight internationally.”

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight runs 15-25 May 2014 and will open with Céline Sciamma’s Bande de filles (Girlhood).