SCOTLAND could have its own pavilion at next year's Cannes Film Festival, writes William Russell in Cannes. The British pavilion this year has been a marketing nightmare, too small, and lacking any clear identity with its users - Scottish Screen, the British Council, and the other UK bodies. They are packed in cheek by jowl.
The pavilion cost #60,000 and the problem for Scottish Screen is to find sponsorship so that it can afford to have one of similar size. Although inadequate for the British film presence, the tented pavilion this year would be ideal for Scottish Screen and the Edinburgh International Film Festival to sell their wares.
The pavilion was opened by Films Minister Tom Clarke who was in Cannes for three days followed by a separate visit by the Culture Secretary Chris Smith. Under previous governments the tendency was for only the Films Minister to come.
Mr Smith's only public engagement was to preside at the launch of a #30,000 script-writing contest. Had he stayed at home, the money spent on his visit and that of his entourage might just have been available to spend on improving the pavilion's facilities.
British film this year has been almost exclusively Scottish, with Ken Loach's My Name is Joe and Peter Mullan's Orphans attracting the most attention so far.
Film Four, which has Velvet Goldmine in competition, and the BBC use their own premises.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article