Movie Masterclass

06/12/2023

An important petition to help protect one of the most important areas of water in the country. All of our waterways need protection from sewage - this has to be a strike back!

Please sign!

Save Windermere lake from sewage and an environmental catastrophe

19/02/2023

We were delighted to hear that Mamoun Hassan will be remembered at this evening's BAFTA awards for his contribution to the success of the British Film Industry.

Movie Masterclass wishes good luck to Sally El Hosaini for her nominated feature THE SWIMMERS, Mamoun worked with her on MY BROTHER THE DEVIL

These are the British films nominations

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

AFTERSUN – Charlotte Wells,

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin

BRIAN AND CHARLES – Jim Archer, Rupert Majendie, David Earl, Chris Hayward

EMPIRE OF LIGHT – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris

GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE – Sophie Hyde, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski, Katy Brand

LIVING – Oliver Hermanus, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Kazuo Ishiguro

ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL – Matthew Warchus, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn, Luke Kelly, Dennis Kelly

SEE HOW THEY RUN – Tom George, Gina Carter, Damian Jones, Mark Chappell

THE SWIMMERS – Sally El Hosaini, Producer(s) TBC, Jack Thorne

THE WONDER – Sebastián Lelio, Ed Guiney, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Alice Birch, Emma Donoghue

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

AFTERSUN – Charlotte Wells (Writer/Director)
BLUE JEAN – Georgia Oakley (Writer/Director), Hélène Sifre (Producer)
ELECTRIC MALADY – Marie Lidén (Director)
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE – Katy Brand (Writer)
REBELLION – Maia Kenworthy (Director)

Thank you to the BFI for their support.

The 2023 Baftas take place this weekend, with Netflix’s German First World War drama All Quiet on the Western Front in pole position to scoop the most wins

23/01/2023

23/01/2023

Thank you to our friends at the British Film Institute for the wonderful tribute event to the early work of Mamoun Hassan, the creator of Movie Masterclass . Distinguished guests Kevin Brownlow and Chris Menges shared their wonderful documentaries from the 1960's. It was truly a journey back in time to a world when young film makers were inviting us to take a long hard look at the world. It was amazing to see Mamoun's "The Meeting " on a full size screen. A tiny film with a big emotional impact.. https://moviemasterclass.com/mamoun-hassan-celebrated-at-british-film-institute-london-southbank

25/01/2022

What Mike Newell isn't saying is that we need institutions like the National Film Finance Corporation, with a real remit to support new and unestablished film makers with subjects and talent that need backing. Under that credo, for a modest investment of a few hundred thousand pounds, films like Babylon, Gregory's Girl, Another Country, Dance with a Stranger (Newell's first successful film - at the recommendation of the then Managing Director) and When the Wind Blows were able to bridge the gap between being made or consigned to the shelves. It is possible to make successful films that also challenge what is possible in British Cinema.

We don't have a big enough home market to give guarantees that will satisfy the big international distributors, and we need money to invest in our future. The old Eady levy on cinema seats gave a source of finance - and there was the proposed tax on blank media in the 80's that would have given a lifeline. Tax and seed capital don't appear in current government thinking, despite the creation of jobs, stimulus to the economy and international prestige. When David Puttnam won the Academy Award for Chariots of Fire: 'The British are coming'! It seems that the British came and then went home.

A lunch at No 10 in the 80's had Mrs Thatcher saying that we shouldn't be helping our industry, it should be left to the marketplace - the US market wouldn't do it so why should we. Lew Wasserman, the representative of the US, disagreed and said that the industry would always go straight to the Government to do what it could to support an industry that not only creates revenue, but also spreads the culture of the US.

She ignored it, and so have all successive governments.

New creative talents need to be able to take risks, says the director of Four Weddings – and for all the financial obstacles, there are things we can do to enable them