House!

Director: Julian Kemp

Year: 2009

Based on the internationally best selling Alain De Botton book of philosophy, Essays in Love (US title On Love), My Last Five Girlfriends is written and directed by multi BAFTA and International Emmy award winning director Julian Kemp. Duncan generously walks us through his last five relationships. With advice from bizarre sources and intense flights of fancy, finally Duncan realises that love is a battleground where only the fittest can survive.

Director: Julian Kemp

Year: 2000

A tale of bingo hall rivalry set in the Welsh Valleys, House! stars Kelly Macdonald as Linda, a young bingo addict with a gift for guessing the numbers before they come up. When a new mega bingo arena under construction a mile up the valley threatens to close down her beloved Scala bingo hall, she tries to use her powers to save it, with comic results. Jason Sutton's screenplay for the film received a reading at the Television Arts Performance Showcase in 1998 where first-time feature director Julian Kemp saw it and was immediately struck by its cinematic potential. "It was really funny and tapped into the humour of South Wales," he says. Kemp showed the script to producer Michael Kelk, with whom he had previously worked on children's television programmes, after which Kelk optioned the rights to the script. The next step was casting. Kemp says: "For Linda, we needed someone who was in their early 20s, who had real vitality and who could believably come from a small Welsh town. Surprisingly that turned out to be quite a short list and Kelly was at the top of it." Kemp took the unusual step of recruiting Kjell Vassdal, a Norwegian director of photography to capture Wales on film. "I saw a fabulous Norwegian film called Junkmail in which the weather is very bad, but Kjell made it look spectacular. I thought if he can make Oslo look great, he can make Cardiff look great, and he did." The film was released in the UK earlier this year.

Director: Jack Sain

Year: 2026

Long-lost siblings meet for dinner. They end the night in drag. By sunrise, a shocking revelation tests the limits of love and acceptance. PAPER CUT is a debut feature from queer British writer-director Jack Sain. Alex has just found Alice - the birth sister he never knew existed - living four tube stops away. He invites her and her boyfriend over for dinner at the comfortable London home he shares with his boyfriend Sasha. Everyone is on their best behaviour. Everyone has rehearsed. By midnight, all four of them are in drag at a queer nightclub. By 5am, something comes to light that none of them can take back. The film puts social satire through an experimental lens, with a propulsive original score and formally adventurous set pieces, including a split-screen sequence. It asks what happens when people who pride themselves on openness are confronted with something they cannot absorb. The cast includes legendary trans actress Adèle Anderson, Olivier Award nominee and longtime member of cabaret trio Fascinating Aïda, and Barney White of ITV's Professor T - pairing established stage and screen talent with brilliant newcomers.