British Oscar winner to make full-length film debut

Andrea Arnold's 'Red Road' is one of six projects receiving funds from the UK Film Council.

Jul 20 2005

Director Andrea Arnold, who won an Oscar for her short film 'Wasp' earlier this year, is to make her feature-length debut with help from the UK Film Council's Development Fund.

Arnold has been given £10,962 to get 'Red Road' off the ground, one of six projects that the Council is helping to fund

A tale of obsession and forgiveness, the film stars Nathalie Press and Danny Dyer and is being co-produced by Lars von Trier's Zentropa Films and the Glasgow-based Sigma Films.

The Council has also awarded funds to Richard McBrien to adapt his successful TV film 'Trust' to the big screen, and Hattie Dalton, who having won a BAFTA for short film 'The Banker', plans to make her feature debut with 'Cry Out Loud'.

The other three films receiving funds from the Council are:

'Unscathed' – An adaptation of Major Phil Ashby's autobiography of the same name that dealt with his time in Sierra Leone on a peacekeeping mission.

'Planet Arse' – The story of a comic book artist who pretends to be disabled in order to woo the wheelchair-bound girl of his dreams.

'Samuel Pepys: An Unequalled Self' – A film version of Claire Tomalin's Pepys biography that explores the life and times of the legendary diarist.