26 November 2015. The British Council’s annual New British Film Festival will run for the 15th time this year, celebrating and showcasing the best of British cinema from 2015.

The festival will open with Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette (staring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, and Helena Bonham Carter), which depicts the story of an early 20th century working-class suffragette, and which had its European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival earlier in October.

Other films as part of the programme include:
- The Lobster: Cannes’ Jury Prize winner this year, Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film tells the story of romance and coupling in a dystopian future. The film starts Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux, and Ben Whishaw.
- 45 Years: domestic drama directed by Andrew Haigh (Weekend) which tells the story of a couple and its 45th year anniversary celebration. Charlotte Rampling won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and Tom Courtenay won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlinale this year.
- Set Fire to the Stars: semi-biographical drama directed by Andy Goddard (directorial debut), which stars Elijah Wood and Celyn Jones as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
- The Lady in the Van: a comedy by Nicholas Hyrtner (The History Boys), adapted from Alan Bennett’s play about his strained friendship with an eccentric homeless woman who temporarily parked her van in Bennett’s house, and ended up staying there for 15 years. The film starts Maggie Smith, who played the same role in the original, theatrical version.

“2015 has proved to be another vintage year for UK film, with diverse, bold and distinctive new work from established masters, rising stars and international collaborators. The current UK cinema scene is an extraordinarily rich one and with this programme we hope to demonstrate to audiences the breadth and talent of UK filmmakers. Our partnership with Arthouse Traffic gives us a great platform in Ukraine and makes our annual film festival here one of my year’s highlights.”, – Christine Bardsley – British Council’s Film Advisor for Wider Europe – commented in relation to this year’s Festival programme.

Simon Williams, Director British Council Ukraine, also said: ‘We are delighted to be presenting our 15th edition of the New British Film Festival, and to be working with Arthouse Traffic again. The festival is one of the cornerstones of our annual film programme, which also includes projects with Odessa International Film Festival and DocuDays UA.”

Traditionally, the New British Film Festival presents a feature-length selection of short live action and animated films from the EE British Academy Film Awards. BAFTA Shorts 2015 are favorites that all together comprise the diversity of topics and genres.

When: the 15th New British Film Festival 2015 will take place at Kyiv Cinema from 26 November – 2 December. Films are shown with Ukrainian subtitles. The festival is a British Council project, in collaboration with Arthouse Traffic Company.