After a typically impressive awards run, this time largely thanks to The Banshees of Inisherin (which, despite all the love for Jenny the donkey, was rudely snubbed at the Oscars), Film4 kicks off its summer festival season with a selection of titles that could well be part of the discussion next year. And the three features ithe company is bringing to Cannes somehow manage to summarize everything that the bastion of envelope-pushing British filmmaking — founded in 1982 and still entirely owned by U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 — stands for.
In Jonathan Glazer’s competition entry The Zone of Interest, it has one of festival’s most hotly anticipated titles, the first feature in 10 years from a cult director whose previous feature, Under the Skin, is regularly cited in best film lists (and is widely considered Film4’s finest — not bad, considering a library that includes Trainspotting, My Beautiful Laundrette and Four Lions).
With Steve McQueen’s Occupied City getting a special screening, it brings the acclaimed Oscar winner to the fest with his first foray into documentary features (and one with a rather daring length — it’s a Scorsese-busting 262 minutes long). It should be noted that both McQueen and Glazer are among Film4’s regulars, a dazzling list of indie heroes that also includes Mike Leigh, Lynne Ramsay, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold, Lenny Abrahamson and Martin McDonagh.
A name that could soon be added to this lineup is Molly Manning Walker, who comes to the Croisette with her buzzy debut feature, How to Have Sex, premiering in the Un Certain Regard section.
As Ollie Madden — who last year was promoted to Film4 director after Daniel Battsek was bumped up to chairman — explains, the three Cannes titles underline the company’s core desire to unearth and nurture new talent while also ensuring its roster of established filmmakers keeps coming back for more.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Madden discussed the privilege of working for a company where risk is part of its mandate, details the (now thankfully lifted) fears it faced last year when Channel 4 looked set for privatization, and reveals the whereabouts of Banshees’ famed donkey (kind of).
Does the broad mix of filmmakers you’ve got in Cannes this year almost perfectly encapsulate the work that Film4 does?
Absolutely. Core to our mission and strategy is to have that full spread, and really finding, identifying and giving a platform for the most ambitious, exciting and innovative new filmmakers. Molly absolutely fits into that category. We think she’s a really exciting new voice. And also continuing to support really established filmmakers in making risky, interesting and highly compelling work. And I’d say in addition to that, we want to really work hard to support mid-career filmmakers as well. In Sundance, we had William Oldroyd’s film Eileen. We weren’t involved in Lady Macbeth, but it’s one of the most impressive and distinctive debuts in recent years and we’ve been trying for some years to make a film with him and that’s a relationship we want to keep growing. But in terms of Cannes, that is a spread we’re really proud of and is indicative of what we’re about.
There’s obviously a huge amount of interest around Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, but very little information. He hasn’t done any press prior to the festival and I understand there will be very little on the ground. Why the secrecy?
I’m not here to justify or explain Jonathan Glazer’s preferences as regards to press, but all I will say is the film is extraordinary and we’re also excited to be launching it in competition at Cannes. It really is the best possible launch for the film, and we can’t wait for everyone to see it.
It’s been almost 10 years since Under the Skin, also a Film4 title, and The Zone of Interest has been a long time in the making. Given how much Under the Skin was loved, does the extended wait for the follow-up add any additional pressure on the film?
I hope and expect that when the film is unveiled, all of that goes away and all we’re talking about is the film. The word “auteur” is bandied about quite regularly now and I’m very much as guilty of that, but Jonathan is incredibly thoughtful, diligent, specific, unique and takes his time to get things right.
Speaking of auteurs, anything by Steve McQueen is something to be celebrated. But Occupied City clocks in at almost four and a half hours. Is even the great man himself pushing it a bit with that length?
Not at all. I think it’s an incredible film. And it’s an experience, it’s an event. I think it absolutely justifies and rewards that experience.
But is the plan for it to get a theatrical release? It’s a long time for someone to be sitting in a cinema.
A24 is our partner on the film, and we’re talking about that now, but the plan is absolutely to have a theatrical release and to “eventize” it. And make the experience and the commitment to the film very much part of that experience.
How to Have Sex is a remarkable debut. Having seen what happened with Aftersun in Cannes last year, how exciting is it to come to Cannes with an as-yet-unknown director like Molly Manning Walker and watch a career potentially take off?
That’s why we do it, really. For Film4, with me as its current steward and Daniel [Battsek] and Farhana Bhula, our new head of creative, and our wonderful team, we feel our job is to continue and evolve the great legacy. The Steve McQueens and Jonathan Glazers and Lynne Ramsays, they were all Molly at one point in their career, and our job is to help identify that talent and support them, but also support them throughout the whole journey. It’s the developing of the film and the making of the film, but also launching it in the right way and helping them find the right distribution partners, the right audiences, helping them curate its entry into the world, because we know that’s so important. There’s so much noise out there.
Around the time you announced your deal with Searchlight for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Film4 said its business model was to make these occasional big projects with studios and use the proceeds to fund the smaller titles. You’ve made several big films in the years since, and Banshees of Inisherin was also with Searchlight. Is that still the same strategy?
Yes, it’s an ongoing part of our business — to do bigger films with key studio partners and have a bigger stake in these films. Partly it’s so that in success greater proceeds can flow back into the slate. But also it’s so that we have a proper seat at the table and can support our filmmakers with a voice that is helped by having a bigger stake in the film. So it’s partly commercial but it’s also about us delivering on what we offer filmmakers. Three Billboards was the first out of the gate, but we’ve obviously done a number of those partners since. And we’ve got Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things coming up.
Channel 4, which Film4 is part of, is now out of the woods in terms of the proposed privatization being discussed heavily by the U.K. government last year. Did that unpleasant and extended episode cause worry for you?
We obviously had concerns about anything that could have potentially undermined what we do. A couple of the areas of particular concern were our commitment to making debut films, which are often unprofitable. But also what we offer filmmakers and producers is independence and a freedom when they take our support to work with any number of partners. We very rarely fully finance a film, so once we’ve incubated and helped develop a project, we then go out to the market and help our filmmakers identify the right partners to make the film. And we’re able to do that because we don’t have any ties or any kind of corporate responsibility to serve one particular partner. So that complete freedom and independence is of such benefit to the independent film community, and I think anything that would have undermined that or challenged that would have been difficult.
I recall speaking to Daniel shortly after he joined about how working at Film4 must be one of the most rewarding jobs in the British film industry because you can be more daring than, say, BBC Film or the British Film Institute. Is that still the case?
What I will say is true and continues to be true — which is what attracts us all to the job and why it’s such a privilege — is that we have a mandate for risk. We have a responsibility to take risks and to innovate, and a culture where that is our imperative. And we’re looking for filmmakers and artists and voices that want to go on that journey. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s what we’re about. And that’s where the best work gets made. And it’s incredibly rare in the global film world to have a corporate responsibility to adhere to that.
Having worked with Martin McDonagh on Banshees of Inisherin, do you know the very secret location of Jenny the donkey?
Jenny is still relatively young, but has retired after one film and is happily living out her days on a nice farm in Ireland – a generous, respectful retirement environment. But I wouldn’t want to send her to an early grave by subjecting her to swarms of visitors.
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