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

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