Friday, February 2----Two British films receiving their international premieres are prominently featured in the Competition Section of the Berlin Film Festival, which opens this coming Thursday.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL, features two tasty (and Oscar-nominated) performances by Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett as, respectively, a sexually repressed olderschool teacher who blackmails a younger teacher who is having a secret affair with a young male student. The psycho-sexual thriller with lesbian overtones is adapted by screenwriter/playwright Patrick Marber (CLOSER) and is directed by theater and film veteran Richard Eyre. The film, which has been nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards, also has Oscar nominations for screenwriter Patrick Marber and the film's composer Phillip Glass. The actresses and their director are expected to take to the red carpet at the Berlinale Palace when the film screens in Berlin.

The second British film competing for the Golden Bear is HALLAM FOE, the latest from director David Mackenzie, whose film YOUNG ADAM (2003) won the London Critics Circle Award for Best British Newcomer. The film stars Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT) as a confused young man who has chosen an unusual way of following life on his father's estate - voyeurism. Convinced that his stepmother is responsible for his mother's suicide, his voyeurism becomes dangerous, until he is eventually redeemed by love. MacKenzie's last film ASYLUM was screened in competition at the Berlinale in 2005, winning the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas. The film is represented internationally by Film Four International.

Sandy Mandelberger
Berlin Online Dailies Editor