Shorts tapped for showcase

Brit's New Directions to launch April 7

By ADAM DAWTREY

LONDON -- The U.K.'s First Film Foundation has selected seven short films for this year's edition of its New Directions showcase, which includes industry screenings in London, New York and Los Angeles.

New Directions will be launched April 7 at the British Academy of Film and TV Arts, and will then cross the Atlantic for screenings at New York's Tribeca Center (April 19) and Sony Classics theater (April 20), followed by a show at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in L.A. (April 26).

The pics' seven directors, along with five producers, will attend the screenings, which are designed to help rising Brit filmmakers make the contacts to get their first features off the ground. Previous alumni include Jim Gillespie ("I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Peter Mullan ("Orphans") and Sara Sugarman ("Mad Cows").

This year's lineup of shorts includes "Disco," directed by James Pilkington; "The Sheep Thief" by Asif Kapadia; "Hungry" by Richard Clark; "Love Story" by Nick Love; "Silent Film" by Malcolm Venville; "Home" by Morag McKinnon; and "Queens Park Story" by Barney Cokeliss.