Was stunned to receive the news this week that I’ve been accepted as a member of BAFTA Connect! As a former BFI Network x BAFTA Crew member, I’m really excited to move forward on my journey with BAFTA over the next few years and beyond, and thankful for the support and investment in me.
I’m honoured to be selected – a genuine much-needed surprise – and eager to throw myself into the development programme and conferences, screenings and events, enjoy the club and literally connect with my fellow Connect community.
My feature film, EVACUEES, currently in development with Kato Pictures, has made the press!
Big thanks to Starburst firstly for their continued support of my work. Full article here.
And we’re mentioned in Penny Dreadful’s fabulous column in this month’s SFX magazine (April 2021 issue). What a legend. We’re referenced alongside some awesome talent there – extremely flattering! Massively appreciated. Lauren Parker and I are chuffed.
A cool project that I’m involved with is now on sale! I’m a guest writer included in Faux Hidden Gems of the VHS Era – a collection of all the best/worst and bonkers plots from the back covers of 1980s VHS boxes, but for movies that don’t exist! It’s a smashing little book available in an actual print edition and is the brainchild of the magnificent Mike Garley, an EMMY-nominated comic series writer (Collider, Wallace and Gromit, Adventure Time, The Kill Screen).
As a kid, my family rented stacks of VHS tapes every weekend – all the weird and wonderful shock and shlock flicks. They all had glorious cover art that was sometimes better than the movie itself, cracking loglines and enticing synopses. This book pays tribute to the era with a compendium of completely made up movies that could totally have been made and fit in perfectly with the real thing on video shop shelves.
I’ve created a totally made up cult VHS hit for this book, complete with logline, reviews, production gossip and a crazy premise. The book features 52 fantastic creations from the depths of the mind of Mike Garley and other guest writers – it’ll leave you wishing you could actually rent these gems. It’s great escapist fun and only £6.00. Buy it here now.
I’m delighted to have written the cover feature for this month’s Film Storiesmagazine! I was lucky enough to interview the chameleonic actress Morfydd Clark, who spoke to me about two new films out in October that she stars in – psychological horror, Saint Maud, and the comedy drama, Eternal Beauty. We had a good old natter and chatted about both and so much more.
Speaking to me from New Zealand, where she is currently filming the new Lord of the Rings TV series for Amazon, Morfydd was incredibly insightful, charming and self-effacing. She sets the screen ablaze in both films. I also wrote the Eternal Beauty review in the same issue. Huge thanks to the editor, Simon Brew, for being such a supporter of my writing.
Films Stories, issue 19, October 2020 is shipping now.
This month, my short comedy play Crappy Birthday to Me premiered at the marvellous Slung Low Shorts alongside a collection of new plays by new and established writers. Slung Low 4, as it was Slung Low’s fourth outing, was performed at The Holbeck, Leeds from 18th to 21st July. I was delighted to be asked to be part of Slung Low this year – it was an honour.
Crappy Birthday to Me is a twisted family comedy about a twentysomething woman who returns home to a secret birthday party. She is less than thrilled at the idea of an awkward evening with her parents and sister, but this is no ordinary birthday bash…
Programme extract
I was super excited to be there on the opening night and meet my cast and director, and see and hear the reaction of the audience. It was a full house and I’m really proud of the team for pulling it together so brilliantly. And some horror geek trivia, the dad was played by Michael S. Siegel who was in Killer Klowns from Outer Space!
With the cast and director
I’ll be bringing this short play to London soon, and may possibly turn it into a short film, but for now… I’m happy to say that my play was the one with the most clean up afterwards… Apologies to the stage management team for putting up with the fruits of my mad brain.
And huge thanks to all of Slung Low for including me in the line up this year! It was utterly brilliant and I can’t wait to see Slung Low 5.
An extended article I wrote for the spectacular new print magazine Film Stories has now been published. The feature is about the too often overlooked 90s rom com Jack & Sarah, starring Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench and Dame Eileen Atkins. Spread across five pages, I argue that the film is well worth a revisit and discuss its many merits. It includes extracts from an exclusive interview I did with the writer/director, Tim Sullivan, who was very generous with his time and shared so many interesting stories about the making of his ‘baby.’
Film Stories, Issue 5, is available now from the BFI Shop, WHSmiths and via mail order. It’s a snip at just £5.99, or it’s even cheaper if you opt for a subscription deal! This issue also includes:
The stars of Rocketman on bringing the Elton John biopic to the screen
Richard O’Brien on the lost Rocky Horror Picture Show sequels
The movie apocalypse films that have flown under the radar: Reign Of Fire, anyone?
True confessions of a movie PR rep
The woman who transformed Warner Bros’s movie marketing
Jack & Sarah: revisiting an overlooked 90s British movie.
The evolution of movie special effects, and the return of practical
Three films and he’s out: the movie career of Yahoo Serious
Celebrating the musical films of John Carney
The trick to making a horror movie remake
So don’t miss out! And I hope you enjoy reading my lovingly crafted article!
Chuffed to announce that I’ve been selected for the BAFTA Crew Film/TV programme 2018! I’m part of a group of shorts to feature writers, directors and producers who are working towards their debut feature or TV show over the next few years.
Looking forward to meeting everyone and getting started on the roundtables, seminars and networking events. Knowledge is power. @BAFTAGuru #baftacrew2018
Seeing your work in print is a great buzz for any writer, but it’s all the more special when the story is personal, heartfelt and concerns the life of a loved one who has since departed.
Earlier this year, I was thrilled to receive the news that my short story, The Shells at Miramare Market, had won the Fresher Publishing Writing Prize for Creative Non-Fiction 2017.
After submitting to the independent publisher, Fresher, late last year, I did what many writers often do – logged that I’d submitted the piece, filed it away and completely forgot all about it, expecting to hear nothing at all or perhaps a ‘thanks but no thanks’ email. Much to my surprise, I didn’t just receive a standard email – I was ecstatic to learn that I’d actually won! Not only had I bagged myself a nice title and a prize of a consultation with a publisher, the story would also be published in the print anthology alongside all the category finalists and winners for the year.
After several months of eager anticipation, Fresher Writing Volume 3 arrived at my doorstep – an advance copy! Though I often read books on my iPad, there’s nothing quite like holding and smelling a real book. It takes me back to my childhood – devouring the pages of my dad’s old Penguin Classics with the orange spines and that distinctive smell of age.
Turning the pages of the beautifully bound paperback anthology, it is a joy to see the story in print. It’s been a little while since my last short story appeared in print or was recorded for radio, but this story is extra special. Inspired by the true story of my dad’s mother’s secret life as a partisan in her native Italy during World War 2, The Shells at Miramare Market is a blend of Sofia’s stories as they were retold to us over the years, mixed with a little invention to plug factual gaps.
Sofia and her husband Ronnie back in the day
Sofia sadly passed away in 2015, followed shortly after by her husband of six decades, Ronnie, but I was extremely fortunate to have a private recording, made just a few months before her passing, of her talking about her life to guide me through the writing process. Hearing her voice helped me develop the character of the piece, but I also interviewed my dad to get more detail – descriptions of Miramare, Trieste and his memories of his mum, her attitudes and her parents, but also her brother Mario, a fellow partisan who suddenly went missing one day during the war. The family never knew what happened to him and suspect he ended up a victim of war, possibly in the Karst Foiba. This loss was often commented on by Sofia and was something that she carried with her through her life.
Though the piece is termed creative non-fiction for good reason, I felt a great responsibility to tell her story as sensitively and accurately as I could. But I also wanted to tell her story in a compelling way – structuring the narrative and invented dialogue in my scenic writing to hook in the reader, create tension and even laugh at the juxtaposition of the little frail old lady with a surprising, dark and heroic past that you’d never have known just by looking at her. Though her passing was recent at the time of writing the piece, and therefore raw and quite difficult for myself and my dad, it’s such a personal piece and one that I was completely invested in – more so than much of my other work – and I hope this shows in the quality of the writing, the narrative, dialogue and characterisation. I’m proud of this story and feel it’s a love letter to Sofia and to her life. And who knows, maybe there is more to this story and it could become something more long-form…
Fresher Writing Volume 3 will shortly be available to purchase via Amazon. Stay tuned for a link!
Cat Davies 