The players

In the last in our new British talent series, Andrew Pulver introduces the people bringing fresh life to our film industry

Andrew Pulver

First published on Fri 3 Dec 2004 16.24 GMT




New kids on the block: (from left to right) Andrea Gibb, Saul Dibb, Amma Asante, Daniel Mays, Dominic Savage, Alwin Kuchler, Mark Herbert, Archie Panjabi, Eva Birthistle, Richard Armitage. Photo: Eamonn McCabe

Name: Richard Armitage
Age: 33
What he does: With a strong grounding in theatre, and a place in the Cold Feet cast, Armitage came of age in TV drama with a high profile lead role in the current BBC adaptation of North and South. He's now making the switch to film, and the offbeat drama Frozen, starring Shirley Henderson, has given him his first significant role.
He says: "I enjoy going to the movies much more than I used to, mostly because I understand the medium better. But TV and film are different fields, with a different bunch of actors. I know I'll have to go down the pecking order, and I'm sure I'll be very frustrated for a while. But every time you achieve something you move the goal posts a bit further."
We say: Armitage's glowering turn as the top-hatted Thornton has put him in the driving seat to be the new Colin Firth. Even if he doesn't have a cheerleader like Helen Fielding, his thespianic commitment to fine writing has taken him towards original, oddball film-making. But Richard Curtis is probably already casting covetous eyes in his direction.

Name: Amma Asante
Age: 35
What she does: After a career in TV, both as a child actor (in Grange Hill) and writer-producer of Brothers and Sisters, Asante's feature film career took off with the recently released A Way of Life. A tough account of teen racists in Wales, it garnered impressive reviews and official recognition, including the inaugural UK Film Talent award at this year's London film festival.
She says: "I've always worked hard but that doesn't always mean people will know about my films or like them. I open the paper now and still can't believe what's happened. In one way it gives you confidence; but in another you think, 'How am I going to do this again?'"
We say: When we sent a reporter to the shoot of A Way of Life back in October 2003, it seemed as if the film would be a curiosity - Cheryl from Grange Hill makes a movie! No one expected it to herald Asante's sudden ascent to the top of the film-making firmament. And she seems level-headed enough not to get carried away by it all.
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Name: Eva Birthistle
Age: 28
What she does: Dublin-born Birthistle first turned heads in Jimmy McGovern's Sunday, a drama-documentary treatment of the Bloody Sunday shootings, but it was her role in Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss... , playing a music teacher in a mixed-race romance in Glasgow, that put her on the map. After its release this year, Birthistle is now much in demand - she's just finished work on Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto.
She says: "Ae Fond Kiss ... turned my career around, to be honest. I had done a film at the beginning of the year, had a few months of being unemployed, but then the Loach job came up at the end of summer 2003. I was on cloud nine to get it. It's made a big difference to me. For the Neil Jordan film, for example, I didn't audition; he'd seen Ae Fond Kiss ... and offered it to me off the back of that. That had never happened to me before."
We say: The unforced naturalness of Birthistle's performance in Ae Fond Kiss ... marked her out as a special cinema talent. A Loach film isn't always a springboard to a long and healthy acting career, but Birthistle looks more set to follow in the footsteps of Robert "Riff Raff" Carlyle than David "Kes" Bradley.

Name: Saul Dibb
Age: 36
What he does: Dibb made his name with a string of TV documentaries featuring Guardian writer Jon Ronson, before stepping up to feature film making this year. His debut, Bullet Boy, has made a lot of noise, plugging as it does into the hot-potato issue of urban gun crime, and the astute casting of So Solid Crew's Ashley Walters.
He says: "Bullet Boy has got a good reception so far, and people seem amenable to the idea of me making another one. But it's all about having the right idea. You're wise to navigate your way carefully. You need to learn what you're good at and interested in."
We say: Dibb's debut is a tough drama that's sure to find a good measure of popularity, and he's used his documentary skills to get powerful performances from his cast. There's got to be more to come.
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Name: Andrea Gibb
Age: 42
What she does: Greenock-based scriptwriter at the forefront of Scotland's current cinematic renaissance. Two of her original scripts, Dear Frankie and AfterLife, were shot practically simultaneously in her home town. Currently working on adaptations of Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room and Vikram Seth's An Equal Music.
She says: "After Frankie people started to send me stuff with kids at the centre. But for my own development, I took on different projects. The Vikram Seth script, for example, is set in the London classical music world. I believe in film as a collaborative medium. I've set up a company with the producer of Dear Frankie, so we could do work that was story-led and find directors we really want to work with."
We say: Gibb's sensitive, intimate portrayals of families in difficult circumstances have enabled her to make an all-too-rare impact as a scriptwriter. Dear Frankie looks to be a breakout success, having attracted a heavyweight cast (Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler) and much international enthusiasm.

Name: Mark Herbert
Age: 33
What he does: Head of Warp Films, the production arm of successful music outfit Warp Records. Herbert's first outing was My Wrongs, the Bafta-award-winning short film by Chris Morris; he then took on low-budget auteur Shane Meadows and produced his most recent film, Dead Man's Shoes.
He says: "I started off as a location manager, and spent a lot of time sitting in cars with directors while they were getting depressed about everything. It made me think there's a lot of good film-makers in this country, but they don't have a chance to have a voice. If you can fuse the way the music industry and the film industry work, you can do something new."
We say: Not too many film producers can claim to be cool, but Herbert's music-business associations have given his activities that Spike Jonze touch. Herbert's first foray turned out to be one of the best short films ever, and he's been astute enough to give Meadows's unpredictable talents a home. And Chris Cunningham, Herbert's other main property, could turn out to be the UK answer to Michel Gondry.
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Name: Alwin Kuchler
Age: 38
What he does: Kuchler, though born in Germany, has quickly become identified with the new generation of British cinema, principally through his association with fellow National Film School student Lynne Ramsay. Kuchler shot Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar for her, before moving on to work for Michael Winterbottom (The Claim), Roger Michell (The Mother) and Damien O'Donnell (Heartlands).
He says: "One of the reasons Lynne and I were attracted to working with each other was that we both came from a still-photography background. When we work with each other, we go for frames that are interesting without thinking about the conventional way of doing something. Lynne understands that reducing logistical things around you gives you more thinking time. It means you feel freer to find the right shot."
We say: Kuchler's photography was a big part of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar's radical aesthetic, managing to be both beautiful and disquieting at the same time. He's inevitably gone on to some high-profile, perhaps more commercial, projects, but he hasn't surrendered his identity as a top-notch artist.

Name: Daniel Mays
Age: 26
What he does: Mays graduated from drama school in 2000, and almost immediately found himself rubbing shoulders with the top echelon of the British film industry, after being cast in Mike Leigh's All or Nothing. Leigh clearly liked his work as the abusive boyfriend, and cast him again in his abortionist drama, Vera Drake.
He says: "It's gone really well since I graduated. I couldn't believe my luck. So many film-makers around at the moment try to play it safe or make a quick buck. You have to be creative in the choices you make. That's what I enjoy. It becomes boring otherwise."
We say: Mays grabbed the eye in All or Nothing, and Vera Drake proves there's more than one string to his bow. There are lots of smooth young male actors around, but Mays has an edge that makes him stand out.

Name: Archie Panjabi
Age: 28
What she does: After winning a small part in East Is East, Panjabi profited from the sudden explosion of British-Asian film-making. Now she's graduated to the proper lead, taking the eponymous role of Yasmin in Kenny Glenaan's follow-up to Gas Attack.
She says: "Acting's hard anyway, but when you're Asian it's especially difficult. Five years ago there was nothing around. I started off doing a few TV bits, the usual Asian one-line things. And East Is East opened up every bloody door there was. Yasmin has hit all the trade journals and got good reviews, so it's an opportunity I have to exploit."
We say: Panjabi's performing charisma is immediately apparent, even in early short films that passed across the Guardian's film desk some years back, and it's no surprise that she's been asked to hold a film together on her own.

Name: Dominic Savage
Age: 42
What he does: A relative industry veteran, Savage made TV documentaries until he fell foul of tabloid rage over "fake" sequences in a docu about scam artists called Rogue Males. He moved readily into TV drama, and his third work, Out of Control won the best new British feature film award at the 2002 Edinburgh film festival, though it never went into cinemas. He's just finished shooting his first feature film proper, Love and Hate.
What he says: "Film-making can be a stressful, worrying process because of the risks of using people who haven't acted before. But despite all that, there's nothing like the moment when you first put them in front of a crew and a camera."
We say: With his TV dramas, Savage is at the head of a documentary-influenced strand of British film-making, and it's time he transferred his proven abilities into the feature film arena. Whether Love and Hate will achieve the impact of his TV work remains to be seen, but his record says that his chances are unmatched.