Ashley Walters

Yeah, and I know, Isabel, there's a lot of BFI Filmmaking Fund projects in the festival this year, as always, or maybe even more than some years.

But I know Isabel was already out having a drink with the animal crew, Ashley Walters and co., at their reception and some other things.

Mona, let's come to you, because you're also in the thick of the industry program at the LFF.

And what's your reflections on that?

So I'm very much looking forward to that.

But the one that I have seen that I really, really love is Ashley Walters' debut feature, Animal.

And Animal's called A-N-I-M-O-L.

And Ashley Walters is best known as an actor, isn't he?

Yes.

So this is his first film.

So, actually, for a project this, you know, under 30 minutes, for an album that's under 30 minutes, a lot happens, especially production-wise, and Queen Mills is just on top of all of that.

Features from Scorchar, Ashley Walters, yes, the actor Ashley Walters, also Big Nasty with their little skit near the end, which was really fun, and yeah, some good stuff all over, so shout out to Queen Mills.

audrey pound bodies of water one of my favorite jazz musicians in the past couple of years um loved the first project um uh from the fire i really enjoyed that actually was that first project was that first album no oh yeah that was the first album did i miss her album last year oh no oh well marty hicks was a collab album okay there you go but this is her second album from her um, and yeah, just a continuation of just what she had previously, um, just these really silky, really just, uh, you know, warm, embracing, uh, uh, instrumentation, her voice, beautiful, uh, voice, beautiful vocals throughout, and, uh, yeah, it's just a really, really good project, really just, like, nice, um, smooth, jazzy project, um, so yeah, shout out to Audrey Pound, Leon Bridges with Happiness Anytime, if you know me, you know I've loved me some Leon Bridges ever since his first album, I've always enjoyed his work, and yeah, this is more of the same, well, I say that, more of the same, but I don't know, it just feels, this feels a little bit of, it feels like his most contemporary work yet, which considering, you know, he started off with like a more um i guess like a sam cook pastiche like he's you know he's come through the decades um very slowly started off very very very retro now he's come through to be a bit more uh on the contemporary side but yeah man i just i've always loved the vibe of leon bridges this is very summery uh which is ironic considering summer's you know pretty much fucked off at this point um shout out to lydia kitto um joshua lloyd watson and also uh i forgot all the boss man's name uh i think it was like mcfarlane or something i forget um but yeah basically shout out to jungle the group jungle because uh basically they've uh handle the production throughout this album and it makes sense.

It just makes sense to me to have someone like Leon Bridges over a Jungle type production.

They are Andrew Haigh, the acclaimed director of All of Us Strangers, whose A Long Winter is his first film since that movie, and stars Fred Hechinger and Ebimos Bachrach as a son and father negotiating the possible loss of a family member in the snowy wastes of 1950s Colorado.

There's also Ashley Walters, who is switching from appearing in front of the camera in things like Adolescence, Top Boy, and M.

Night Shyamalan's upcoming Remain, to directing with the powerful young offender's prison drama Animol, spelled A-N-I-M-O-L.

Then there's Carol Morley, director of movies like The Falling and Out of Blue, who is adapting her own semi-autobiographical novel, Seven Miles Out, about the adolescence of a young woman from near Manchester and the impact her father's suicide has on her.

Hello, Andrew.

Hello.

Ashley Walters, director of Animol.

Hello, Ashley.

Um, that was just nailed on.

We, we all thought that was just nailed on, right? And when, uh, Ashley Walters read out Blue Lights, it was- You know, the most profound good shock I've ever had in my life.

Yeah.

I was just like, you know, I, I, I mean, you, you know, speech- like speechless.

What's it called? When is it on?

With Ashley Walters?

No. Burberry, of course.

I said Burberry.

Thank you.

Bastard.

Uh, [laughs] Ashley Walters has written something.

Is that what you're talking about?

okay

up next is they'll never know and this was done by sin the members of mystique mc harvey and asher d of so solid crew and fun fact so solid would one of the biggest garage crews of that time and harvey would later marry alicia that relationship did not last but we thought we should share that with you guys So yeah, working with your, you know, your good chemistry, good production chemistry.

I mean, this

is a cool track.

And I do think it has just established itself as just having a fantastic track record for identifying the emerging UK and Irish talent who are going to make waves in the industry.

And I think one reason it kind of established itself in the way that it has is because the hit rate in the early years was so strong i mean they you know the sort of young talents that they picked you know before they were big names in the industry i mean in the first year alone it was benedict cumberbatch james mcavoy ashley walters emily blunt maxine peak andrea arnold i mean it what an incredible showcase that, you know, that launch edition was.

And then the next five years you had names like Eddie Redmayne, Robert Pattinson, Ruth Negger, David Oyelowo, Riz Ahmed, Andrea Riceboro, Andrew Garfield.

I mean, the list was just incredible.

It's got its launch in Toronto and people are talking a lot about it already.

I mean, yeah, it was selected for Platform, which is a fantastic, you know, brilliantly, highly curated strand in Toronto.

Ashley Walters' Animal is in the first feature competition.

Ashley, a former screen star of Tomorrow, of course.