Films. Unsurprisingly. But we here at HF also like music, books and pretty much everything else that is interesting, creative and new. Oh, we like sweets as well and will always be grateful for donations...
Heroes:
Hull Film Patrons
Hull Film are proud to have a number of patrons in the film industry, who are indeed our absolute heroes.
Sir Tom Courtenay
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“You can take the man out of Hull but you can’t take the Hull out of the man.”
Born in Hull, Tom Courtenay came from a working-class background, and at senior school was encouraged to take up acting. He went on to University College London to read English and later trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is currently an associate member of RADA. He made his professional debut in the 1960 production of Chekhov's The Seagull at the Old Vic. From there, he went into the West End stage version of Billy Liar. Courtenay rose to prominence with a starring role as the angry young protagonist of Tony Richardson ’s acclaimed The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). In the following year he appeared in John Schlesinger ’s adaptation of Billy Liar (1963), giving arguably his finest screen performance as the whimsical dreamer Billy Fisher. Ensuing films included King and Country (1964) and King Rat (1965). He appeared as Pasha in David Lean 's Doctor Zhivago (1965), and as an ageing actor in The Dresser (1983), both films earning him Oscar nominations. Recent films include an adaptation of Graham Swift's Booker-winning novel Last Orders (2001), and Flood (2006). Courtenay’s stage career includes a breathtaking performance in the one-man show Pretending to be Me, focusing on the renowned Hull poet Philip Larkin. In 2000, Courtenay was awarded a knighthood for his long-running contribution to both stage and screen.
John Godber
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Born the son of a miner in Upton, West Yorkshire, John Godber is currently the Artistic Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company and is one of the most performed writers in the English language. His many plays include Bouncers, On the Piste, Teechers, Gyn & Tonic, Thick as a Brick, Going Dutch and Blood, Sweat and Tears. John's TV work includes Crown Court, The Ritz, The Continental, Chalkface, Grange Hill and Brookside. His screenplay My Kingdom for a Horse, starring Sean Bean, was nominated for an alternative BAFTA award. In 1993 he directed a TV version of Shakers - The Musical that was nominated Best Children's TV Drama. John's first feature film Up ‘n’ Under was released in January 1998, and he presented his BBC film Oddsquad at the 4th Hull International Short Film Festival . John is also Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Liverpool Hope University College, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Maureen Lipman
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Hull-born Maureen Lipman studied Drama at LAMDA and spent three years in Laurence Olivier’s Old Vic Company and a season at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her West End runs include Candida, Messiah, Outside Edge, See How They Run (Olivier Award), Wonderful Town, The Cabinet Minister, Lost in Yonkers (Variety Club Award), The Sisters Rosenweig, and three separate seasons of Re:Joyce!, also screened on BBC2 and in the USA.
Her TV comedy shows include Agony, Agony Again and All about No.20 (TV Times Award), running concurrently with TV plays; The Evacuees,The Knowledge, Absurd Person Singular and Absent Friends. She has filmed TV episodes of Jonathan Creek, Coronation Street, Heartbeat, The Fugitives and Dr Who.
She played “Shani” in Eskimo Day by Jack Rosenthal for BBC1 and in 1997 filmed the sequel Cold Enough for Snow. A BBC1 Best of British documentary, devoted to her life and career, was shown in October 1999. She performed her one-woman show, Live & Kidding in 1997 which was nominated for an Olivier Award. She played the part of Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! at the National and the Lyceum Theatre and played the legendary literary agent, Peggy Ramsay, in Alan Plater’s Peggy For You in 1999.
In 2001 she acted in her daughter Amy Rosenthal’s play Sitting Pretty in New York and the UK, and also appeared in the first cast of The Vagina Monologues. In 2003/04 she appeared as Mrs Meers in the Shaftesbury Theatre production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, receiving an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. In 2004/05 she appeared as Dim Sum in Sir Ian McKellan’s Aladdin at the Old Vic Theatre and in 2005/06 Maureen played in the Olivier nominated hit Glorious at The Duchess Theatre.
Her films include Up The Junction, Educating Rita, Gumshoe, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Carry on Columbus, Captain Jack and Solomon and Gaenor (in Welsh/Yiddish). Maureen played the mother of Wladyslaw Szpilman, in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist which was Oscar nominated in 2000 for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or.
She is a PPA Columnist of the Year, and was nominated again in 2006. Maureen has written several books, all making best–seller lists. She completed her late husband’s biography ‘By Jack Rosenthal’ which was published in 2005.
She was married to the writer Jack Rosenthal for 31 years. Her children, Amy and Adam are both writers. Maureen was awarded a CBE by the Queen in 1999.
Sean McAllister
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“It is great that Hull has got its own film festival, long overdue in city where the arts have always been supported so well, and where I set out on my lonely career all those years ago. It was a pleasure for me to come home to Hull in 2005 and show some of my early work, mainly films made in Hull, about Hull people, from a Hull filmmaker. I am currently working on a feature film project, developing a script with writer Frank Cottrel Boyce (24 Hour Party People, Millions) based on a real story set partly in Hull. I hope to come back and show this film at the Hull International Film Festival in the near future”.
McAllister left school at 16 and went to work in a pea factory, which he also made a film about. He subsequently studied documentary at the National Film and Television school in London. He has made a number of documentary films including Hull’s Angel and Settlers for Channel 4 and The Minders and Working for the Enemy for the BBC. His celebrated BBC film The Liberace of Baghdad went on to win best documentary at the Sundance Film festival, The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) and a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. McAllister presented a number of his short films, some of which had never been screened, at the 4th Hull International Short Film Festival .
