Eight teams have been selected from the iFeatures slate for further development funding, as the Creative England’s low budget feature film initiative enters its full development phase.

Three of the projects will be greenlit in early 2015, each with a budget of £350,000 ($570,000).

Partners Creative England, the BFI and BBC Films will fully finance, with the BBC pre-buying UK free TV rights. The accompanying professional development programme is supported by Creative Skillset’s Film Skills Fund.

Christopher Granier-Deferre, iFeatures executive producer, said: “Covering a wide range of genres from dark unsettling thrillers to intoxicating period dramas while tackling the universal themes of grief, guilt and pride, and raising thought-provoking questions about religious, racial and sexual identity across a variety of locations, the eight filmmaking teams represent an eclectic mix of stories and illustrate the rich diversity of voices and ideas to be found in the English regions.”

The shortlisted eight are:

Fen Tigers
Setting: East Anglian Fenlands
Writer/Director:  Rupert Raby
Producers: Andrew Start, Yaw Basoah

Apostasy
Setting: Oldham, North West
Director: Dan Kokotajlo / Writer: Charlotte Wise
Producers Marcie MacLellan, Mike Elliot

The Last Tree
Setting: Birmingham, Lincolnshire, Manchester, Cumbria
Writer/Director: Shola Amoo
Producer: Lee Thomas

Gone From Here
Setting: Manchester
Writer/Director: Lewis Metcalfe
Producer: Lauren Pouchly

Lady Macbeth
Setting: Northumberland
Director: William Oldroyd / Writer: Alice Birch
Producer: Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly

God’s Own Country
Setting: The Pennines
Writer/Director: Francis Lee
Producers: Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling

The Levelling
Setting: Somerset
Writer/Director: Hope Dickson Leach
Producer: Rachel Robery

Society Path
Setting: East Sussex
Writer/Director: Camille Griffin
Producer: Sarah Brocklehurst

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