BEN A. WILLIAMS

THE PASS is part of the BFI London Film Festival’s Official Selection, screening on the 12th and 14th October.  More information here: THE PASS at LFF

THE PASS opened BFI Flare’s 30th Anniversary as its Opening Night Gala. The film played to a sold-out Odeon Leicester Square.

The BFI also held some press screenings, resulting in our first small batch of reviews.  Here are some highlights:

Variety

” This directorial debut for Ben A. Williams provides a knockout showcase for Russell Tovey”

Screendaily

“this is a low-budget, intense film, characterised by the strength of the performances and the crackle of the dialogue. It’s like the bristling, in-your-face brother of Andrew Haigh’s softly contemplative Weekend…  It’s fascinating.”

Londonist – ****

“Director Ben A. Williams deserves serious plaudits for showing how to make a microbudget British film feel huge, and never letting the tension escape. He opts for smart and simple stylistic choices so he can foreground the character work and Donnelly’s excellent dialogue, which continually invokes big issues yet remains carefully tethered to the emotions of normal people cornered by the ugly side of the beautiful game.”

THE PASS is in negotiations with a distributor at present, and we hope to have more information about its release soon.

You can now buy tickets for the premiere of THE PASS at the BFI’s website:

https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Flare/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=pass

Our film THE PASS has been announced as the Opening Night Gala for the 30th BFI Flare film festival in London.  We’ll be playing the Odeon Leicester Square on March 16th, and you’ll be able to buy tickets.

Read more here!

We held our Cast and Crew Screening of THE PASS yesterday at the May Fair Hotel.

Producer Duncan Kenworthy and I made speeches

Thanks to everyone from our wonderful crew who attended.

Now the film is complete, we’ll be submitting it to festivals.

We’ve wrapped on THE PASS, my first feature.

THE PASS was written by John Donnelly based on his incredible play, and stars Russell Tovey, Arinze Kene, Lisa McGrillis and Nico Mirallegro. It’s produced by Duncan Kenworthy.  My old collaborator Chris O’Driscoll was Director of Photography and Peter Francis was our designer.

Today is the first day of the edit, and for the next few weeks we’ll be in Masahiro Hirakubo’s expert hands.

Check back here soon for more information!

Since the summer I’ve been preparing for a feature I’m directing this winter.  We’re shooting at the end of December, and I’m working with lots of the professionals I’ve enjoyed working with before, as well as many others.  I can’t say much more yet, but I’ll update with information soon, and then lots more when we start production.

My friend Al Lewis asked me to film the recording of ‘Say You Miss Me’, a Wilco cover, performed by his new band ‘Lewis and Leigh’.

Lovely.

The British Society of Cinematographers included SELFIE at its annual New Cinematographers night on 10th July.

DoP Chris O’Driscoll and I went along and met a great group of other teams who have shot some stunning work.

SELFIE’s natural feel and its stabilised running shot were very well regarded by the assembled industry pros and famous BSC DoPs.

It was a great night, and big thanks go to the BSC for the nod.