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Film Festivals
Lottery Backed Documentary Beats World Class Contenders for Best Brit Film at BAFTAS
By UK Film Council
Feb 17, 2004, 08:43

Touching The Void Wins Alexander Korda Award:
Kiss Of Life Wins Carl Foreman Award


LONDON -- The National Lottery backed film 'Touching the Void' has beaten tough competition to win this year's Best British film at the Orange British Academy Film Awards 2004.

Touching the Void, co-funded by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund was competing against Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain, Peter Webber's Girl With The Pearl Earring, Michael Winterbottom's In This World and Richard Curtis's Love Actually.

Three of the five nominees were Lottery backed films.

Paul Trijbits, head of the New Cinema Fund says, "Touching the Void is a rare film and we are proud to have supported Kevin Macdonald's extraordinary interpretation of Joe Simpson's bestseller. Supporting this film with Lottery funding has made it possible to get a brilliant documentary film to the widest UK audience."

The film, directed by Oscar(r) winner Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September), is based on the international best seller of the same name by renowned climber Joe Simpson and describes one of the most extraordinary true stories of survival and adventure of our time. The film recounts a climb Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, undertook in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. The two young and ambitious mountaineers set off to scale the hitherto unclimbed West face of Siula Grande, a remote and treacherous 21,000ft peak. The film is set this weekend to surpass feature documentary Bowling Columbine at the UK box office.

Kiss of Life starring Peter Mullan and Ingeborga Dapkunaite, also backed by the New Cinema Fund, has won the Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British director/producer or writer for their first film.

Web site: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk



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