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Exposures 2008 - Festival of new talent in moving image

Exposures aims to discover and support the best new talent from across the UK, with winners from previous festivals having gone on to achieve critical acclaim and success in the film and media industry.

  • Sun 23 - Thu 27 November 2008
  • Cornerhouse and Urbis, Manchester

"exposures is a vibrant and innovative festival for students and fresh young talent from across the country... Unlike any other film festival of its kind in the UK, [it] gives a unique insight into how the TV and film industry works. I'm very honoured to be part of it."

Paul Abbott, exposures 2008 festival patron

Festival highlights include:

  • More than 70 films and moving image works
  • Writers' forum with the Shameless writing team
  • exposures festival awards
  • Behind the scenes of Dragon's Den with Helen Bullough
  • Channel M TV workshops

Exposures aims to discover and support the best new talent from across the UK, with winners from previous festivals having gone on to achieve critical acclaim and success in the film and media industry. Exposures 2008 promises excitement and inspiration with five days of screenings, special events and awards ceremonies featuring the nation's most outstanding new creative talent. The festival takes place between Sun 23 and Thu 27 November 2008 at two of Manchester's leading arts venues, Cornerhouse and – for the first time this year – Urbis.

This year's submissions from students all across the UK, have proved to be some of the most impressive and ambitious to date, encompassing a panoramic journey across India, Japan, Italy, Israel, France and Scotland; taking in bees, kittens, snails, yetis, flies, dragons, trolls, dogs, lobsters and robots along the way! The films selected for screening have been placed into nine themed programmes: India, Journeys, Young People's Lives. Urban Life, Families, Animals, Change, Animation and Anthropology.

This year students will once again be competing to win a variety of awards:

  • The coveted Corona Extra Audience Award and the Urbis Audience award are both voted for by the exposures festival audiences.
  • The mackinnon & saunders Animation Award, in which four diverse animations compete, each utilising a variety of techniques from stop motion, to CGI, to create charming and enchanting tales.
  • The Documentary Award, which features a high quality selection of hard-hitting real life human drama: parents fighting for their disabled children, life in modern-day Kosovo viewed through a child's eyes and the voices and feelings of London's homeless are amongst the topics covered.
  • There are also awards for Best Post-Production, Best Live Action, Best Artists' Film and Programmer's choice, plus the BBC Best of the North West award, which celebrates the wealth of talent on Manchester's doorstep.

The winners from each category will go forward to compete for the prestigious Grand Jury Prize (sponsored by The University of Salford). This year exposures is immensely proud to have director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, 28 Days Later), leading the Grand Jury in its deliberations.

Paul Abbott – festival patron:

This year exposures is very proud to announce that renowned writer and executive producer Paul Abbott (Cracker, Shameless, State of Play and many more) will be Patron of the festival. Paul will support a range of innovative and exciting workshops and hands-on sessions for festival attendees to enjoy. He says:

"I am really delighted to be joining Exposures in its 15th year as a patron. exposures is a place to show your work off to an audience, and to see how it works – or doesn't – on the big screen. That's pretty unique. It's also a place to strike up friendships, to forge creative alliances and to cook up new ideas."

Exposures events:

Screenings will be accompanied by a wide range of other events, to both support students on their future career paths and to encourage creativity. Highlights to look out for include:

  • Award-winning British director Asif Kapadia will take part in a Q&A session following a special preview screening of his stunning new film Far North, which stars Michelle Yeoh and Sean Bean.
  • Workshops from Channel M – the Manchester based TV channel will be opening its doors and inviting people to find out about the workings of a television studio, and even have a go at presenting to camera.
  • A Dragon's Den presentation and screening: Helen Bullough, now the Executive Director of Entertainment at BBC Manchester will talk about her work on the popular Dragon's Den, including gossip, tips for a career in TV and a screening of the best bits.
  • A rare opportunity for students to pitch their ideas for the small screen (Dragon's Den style) to four successful TV industry commissioning executives – will someone come up with the next Strictly Come Dancing?
  • A 'School Reunion' offering previous exposures' alumni the chance to meet up, celebrate their successes and look back at where it all started.

Younger filmmakers are celebrated in underexposed, which takes place on Mon 24 November. Showcasing the very best of films from the 14 - 18 age group in the UK, the programme is selected by young people from the LiveWire Management team. For more info go to: www.livewire-manchester.com.

The full programme, festival background, latest news and details of previous winners and runners up are available at www.exposuresfestival.co.uk

Image credits: L-R Khoda. Dir Reza Dolatabadi, Lillie Natailia Kaluzhanya, Lily, June Gersten Roberts

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For further information, preview DVDs or interviews please contact
Mandy Martinez mandy@mandymartinez.co.uk or 07970 713966
For images contact Rosie.Farrell@cornerhouse.org
Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5NH
Tel: 0161 228 7621 Administration
0161 200 1500 Box Office
Fax: 0161 200 1504
www.cornerhouse.org