Film to be screened at Cannes festival

AN INDEPENDENT feature length film, set in Warrington, is to be screened at the International Cannes Film Festival.
Barefooting, a romantic comedy filmed on location across Warrington, Northwich and Liverpool will be shown on Thursday May 22 at the Palaise E in Cannes.
It is the story of two men who try to resolve a lifelong mutual hatred by running a cross-country race – at stake is a fortune and the woman they both love.
Phil Stagg, the film’s writer and director, who lives in Appleton, said: “We’re delighted to be taking Barefooting to an international audience.
“The Cannes Film Festival is the perfect place to source a distribution deal and attract interest from across the world.”
Two years in the making, the film features a cast of professional and local actors and was produced by north west based Arena Nova Films. The crew are all film industry professionals. It features an original soundtrack scored especially for the film.
Local landmarks to appear are the Town Hall, Palmyra Square and the cooling towers at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station.
Padgate-born Ken Ward, who plays Norman in the film, said: “Getting to this point has been a long hard slog.
“There appears to be a resistance by film distributers to consider anything other than from a large known proven production company.
“At Cannes we’re establishing a name for ourselves and enabling the film to receive the audience it deserves.”
“Barefooting is a tale of ordinary folk in an ordinary northern town.
“It has a fine balance of humour and drama that makes it very entertaining and watchable.
“It’s the sort of film which I think will particularly appeal to audiences in countries like Canada, New Zealand or Australia but could be bought up by anyone”.
“I’m going to Cannes hoping that the international audience is ready to see something real and different from the Hollywood style films with which we get bombarded.”