Range and Contrasts of UK Film Locations Highlighted in Regional Film Critics' Poll

Range and Contrasts of UK Film Locations Highlighted in Regional Film Critics' Poll

LONDON, September 29/PRNewswire/ --

- Local Hero Polls Most Votes for Greatest Use of UK Locations

Film critics, journalists and editors from regional media across the UK will convene for the 50th Cinema Days event taking place in Milton Keynes on 6-9 October 2005. It will be the largest gathering of regional film journalists in Europe this year, featuring an unprecedented line-up of international previews and presentations.

To celebrate Cinema Days' golden milestone, Film Distributors' Association (FDA), the trade body which organises the events, has conducted an extensive poll among regional film writers and critics. Staff and freelance contributors to local newspapers, broadcasters and websites UK-wide were invited first to nominate and then to vote on the films which, in their view, had made the most atmospheric use of British locations - where the exterior settings themselves added a strong sense of time and place to the story.

From more than 2,000 votes cast, Local Hero, produced by David (now Lord) Puttnam and starring Burt Lancaster, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi and Jenny Seagrove, emerged top. In this heart-warming, BAFTA-winning comedy, the representatives of a US petro-chemical giant, seeking to build a refinery in a Scottish coastal village, come to find the gentler rhythms of the local life practically irresistible.

Lord Puttnam of Queensgate said:

"I am delighted - but not all that surprised! - that Local Hero has proved so enduringly popular, as this poll demonstrates. It's a film of which I remain immensely proud and I'm thrilled that it's continuing to give great pleasure to people across the UK."

Jenny Seagrove, who played Marina, the web-footed oceanographer, recalled:

"Local Hero was a very happy film to work on. I am proud to be associated with it and delighted that it has topped this poll."

Settings in Yorkshire and London, as well as those north of the border, lead the regional critics' choices.

The top 40 poll result is as follows:

Film Principal locations (director, year of UK Include release) 1 Local Hero Pennan village in Aberdeenshire (with no (Bill Forsyth, 1983) 'real life' phone box) and Camusdarrach beach in Morar, on opposite sides of Scotland, blend seamlessly as the fictional village of 'Furness' 2 The Full Monty Sheffield (Peter Cattaneo, 1997) 3 Trainspotting Edinburgh (Danny Boyle, 1996) 4 The Railway Children Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and Oakworth station, Yorkshire (Lionel Jeffries, 1970) 5 An American Werewolf in Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, London Tottenham Court Road tube station, London Zoo and Windsor Great Park (John Landis, 1981) doubling the Yorkshire moors 6 The French Lieutenant's Lyme Regis, Dorset Woman (Karel Reisz, 1981) 7 Brassed Off Barnsley, Doncaster, Halifax, Birmingham and Grimethorpe Colliery (Mark Herman, 1996) (with its real-life band), and the brass band finals taking place at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington 8 Brief Encounter Carnforth Station, Lancashire, stars as (David Lean, 1945) 'Milford Junction' 9 Kes Barnsley, South Yorkshire (Ken Loach, 1969) 10 Shadowlands Oxford and Wye Valley (Richard Attenborough, 1993) 11 The Wicker Man Kirkcudbright and Plockton, at the mouth of (Robin Hardy, 1973) Loch Carron, Scotland 12 Withnail and I North-west London and the Lake District (Bruce Robinson, 1987) 13 East is East Openshaw in Greater Manchester, and Southall, Middlesex, doubling (Damien O'Donnell, 1999) Bradford 14 Brighton Rock Brighton, including the Palace pier and railway station (John Boulting, 1947) 15 Dirty Pretty Things London's subculture brought to life on East End locations and in (Stephen Frears, 2002) Whitehall 16 Whisky Galore! Barra, Outer Hebrides (Alexander Mackendrick, 1948) 17 My Summer of Love Todmorden and Brighouse, West Yorkshire, (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004) and Bacup, Lancashire 18 The Long Good Friday All points London, from King George V Dock (John Mackenzie, 1980) to Lewisham 19 Mona Lisa London's Mayfair, Gray's Inn Road, Brewer Street, Crystal Palace Road, (Neil Jordan, 1986) and Brighton for the closing scenes 20 I Know Where I'm Going Colonsay and Mull (M Powell & E Pressburger, 1945) 21 28 Days Later Westminster Bridge, Bow, Central Middlesex Hospital, East and West End (Danny Boyle, 2002) 22 Billy Elliot County Durham, including Easington and Seaham, and Northumberland, with (Stephen Daldry, 2000) Billy's adult performance at London's Theatre Royal, Haymarket 23 Stormy Monday Newcastle upon Tyne (Mike Figgis, 1987) 24 Far From The Madding Crowd Shaftesbury and Weymouth, Dorset (John Schlesinger, 1967) 25 Whistle Down the Wind Bacup, Burnley and Downham all in Lancashire (Bryan Forbes, 1961) 26 Four Weddings And A Funeral Luton, Amersham, Albury Park (near Guildford), St Clement's Church in (Mike Newell, 1994) West Thurrock (the funeral), London's South Bank, Wellington Street, Highbury Place and the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great 27 Quadrophenia Brighton (East Street area) and North London (Franc Roddam, 1979) 28 Elizabeth Alnwick Castle, Durham Cathedral, York Minster, Castle Bolton and (Shekhar Kapur, 1998) Corbridge 29 If... Cheltenham College (Lindsay Anderson, 1968) 30 A Man For All Seasons Beaulieu River in Hampshire and Studley Priory in Oxfordshire (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) 31 Performance London, including Notting Hill and Paddington Station (Nic Roeg and D Cammell, 1970) 32 Sense and Sensibility Estates in Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and the Royal Naval (Ang Lee, 1995) College in Greenwich 33 Secrets and Lies North London, including Muswell Hill and Southgate Town Hall (Mike Leigh, 1995) 34 Blow Up London, including Holland Park and Maryon Park in Woolwich Road (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966) 35 Genevieve Brighton, Buckinghamshire lanes and Hyde Park, the Strand and Westminster (Henry Cornelius, 1953) Bridge in London 36 Witchfinder General Norfolk and Suffolk, including Orford Castle (for climax sequences) (Michael Reeves, 1968) 37 Braveheart Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, County Wicklow and County Kildare in (Mel Gibson, 1995) Ireland 38 Gregory's Girl Cumbernauld, Scotland (Bill Forsyth, 1980) 39 Get Carter Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead (Mike Hodges, 1971) 40 Swallows and Amazons Lake District, Cumbria (Claude Whatham, 1974)

As part of the poll, the regional critics were also asked to vote for their all-time favourite screen icons of any nationality and for the screenwriters whom they most admire. Results in these categories are:

Favourite Favourite female stars Favourite male stars screenwriters

1 Billy Wilder & IAL Katharine Hepburn James Stewart Diamond 2 Woody Allen Ingrid Bergman Robert De Niro 3 Joel Coen & Ethan Coen Meryl Streep Humphrey Bogart 4 Charlie Kaufman Jodie Foster Al Pacino 5 William Goldman Marilyn Monroe Jack Nicholson 6 Quentin Tarantino Audrey Hepburn Gene Hackman 7 Robert Towne Nicole Kidman Johnny Depp 8 David Mamet Cate Blanchett Sean Penn 9 Orson Welles Susan Sarandon Cary Grant 10 David Lynch Catherine Deneuve Sean Connery 11 Preston Sturges Julianne Moore Clint Eastwood 12 Paul Schrader Grace Kelly Kevin Spacey

Welcoming the poll, Steve Norris, British Film Commissioner, said:

"For millions of people around the world, film is often their first engagement with the UK, and this selection of classic films showcases the length and breadth of Britain's coastline, cities and countryside. An impressive range of places have been cast as settings, whether past or present, fact or fantasy. From Scottish castles to London's Soho via the Yorkshire moors, the poll is a great tribute to the writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, production designers, location managers and editors whose skills have ensured these eclectic places are now an indelible part of the emotional as well as the geographical landscape of world cinema."

To view further information and editors' notes, go to

http://www.launchingfilms.com/press_releases/cdevent.html

Source: Film Distributors' Association Ltd

Peter Scott, Cinema Days Co-ordinator, Email peter@cinemadays.com Tel +44-(0)7855-940-920, Mark Batey, FDA Chief Executive, Email mbatey@fda.uk.net Tel +44-(0)20-7437-4383

------- Profile: Ent