Diy arthouse movie gatecrashes Michael Powell awards at Edinburgh film festival

Small Creatures – UK Premiere, Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012

International Emmy and Royal Television Society Award winner and BAFTA nominee, Martin Wallace, makes his feature debut with Small Creatures, a sensitive portrayal of a smart but naive teenager who ignores all the warnings and ends up in serious trouble with the law.

Made on a shoe-string budget and starring both children AND animals, Small Creatures was shot in Liverpool and features a host of breakthrough performances from a brilliant teenage cast of Michael Coventry, Tom Pauline and Paul Bamford. It’s a gritty yet poetic tale of Coggie (Michael Coventry) – a boy who gets it all wrong when he fails to keep his distance from the charismatic but dangerous homophobe, Ste (Tom Pauline).

“Wallace never romanticizes – far from it – but offers a sensitive look that seems to suggest that no one is beyond redemption. A true work of love”

Leo Bankerson, Film & Festivals

Perhaps best known for his music video work with, amongst others, Pulp, Aphex Twin and Tindersticks, as a director of factual TV, Wallace won an International Emmy for the Channel Four series “Wise Up” and a Royal Television Society award for his documentary about the and murder of James Bulger, “Liverpool Lullaby”. In 1999 he was nominated for a Children’s’ BAFTA for the documentary “Teenagers on the Line”.

Here he brings us a lyrical tale about the fragile nature of adolescent male insecurity and the part it plays in forging the future of a kid who should know better.

With nods to Kes and the 400 Blows, Small Creatures marks a bold and unique entry into the British features landscape. Yet, it was made for the large part, almost single-handedly over a two-year period.

Small Creatures had it’s world premiere in the International Discoveries section of Mannheim-Heidelberg International film festival before making it’s US bow in Hollywood, where it picked up the Grand Jury Award Honorable Mention at Dances With Films.

In Edinburgh, the film competes for the Michael Powell Awards for Best British Feature and Best Performance.