May 2010
Cup Cake wins Audience Award
Adam Best as PJ Johnson
Christine Murphy won the Northern Ireland Screen Low Budget Fiction Fund last year for her feature script ‘Wee Buns’. It was produced under the new title ‘Cup Cake’ in October 2009 and was directed by Colin McIvor.
The film had its gala premiere at the Belfast Film Festival on 21 April 2010 and against stiff competition from established international directors, it won the festival’s Audience Award. There is a link to a report on the film’s win at
www.belfastfilmfestival.orgThe film is being entered in film festivals and there is keen interest from several distribution companies. Christine already has new commissions for TV series work.
Christine works part-time as PA to Robert Buckler and is an alumnus of the MA Screenwriting at LCC, graduating 2001.
April 2010
Ministerial Visit
Thursday, 4th February, 2010 saw a visit to Pinewood Studios by Sion Simons MP, Minister for the Creative Industries. After a tour of the Harry Potter set on the ‘007 Stage’, the Minister was keen to meet some of our carpentry and plastering apprentices working on Harry Potter.
He was introduced to carpenters Adam Shepherdly and Thomas Wright, both studying bench joinery at Level 3 and plasterers Charles Pollecutt and Jonathan Daffurn, also studying at Level 3.
The meeting took place in the marketing suite and was attended by Kate O’Connor, Deputy CEO of Skillset, Adam Fahey, Division Manager of Ealing Institute of Media, and Rob Buckler, Director of the Skillset Screen Academy at LCC & EIM.
This is the third such ministerial visit for the screen academy. In April 2008, Margaret Hodge MP, then Minister for the Creative Industries, visited our workshops in the run up to the 2008 35mm Project and in November 2008, Barbara Follet MP witnessed the signing of the screen academy’s historic partnership agreement with Pinewood Studios and the launch of our Industry Assessment Centre and Apprenticeship scheme.
“Photograph reproduced by kind permission of photographer, Roy Morris, and with thanks to Pinewood Studios.”
April 2010
National Film Theatre Screening
On Wednesday, 3rd February 2010, the screen academy presented the films from the 35mm Projects for 2008 and 2009 at the National Film Theatre. An invited audience of students, college staff, film industry mentors and film industry personnel saw three short dramas - Savage Christmas (2008), The Last Jazz Musician (2008) and The Black Dinner (2009) plus a cinema commercial Pot Noodle Fight Club (2008) and a short documentary looking behind the scenes of the 35mm Project itself.
In his speech, Screen Academy Director, Rob Buckler, noted the significant role the 35mm Project has played in helping students further their careers. In a recent survey of screen academy alumni, 58 had found jobs in the industry or had achieved places in a higher level of education and, of the 58, 49 had worked on the 35mm Project.