Andrea Arnold - Fish Tank

Fish Tank

Fish Tank premiered in 2009 and was accepted into competition for the Palme d'Or in Cannes and received the Jury Prize. In its initial production, Artificial Eye had acquired the UK theatrical rights, while ContentFilm International handled the worldwide sales. The film was backed by the Limelight Fund, BBC Films, and the UK FIlm Council's New Cinema Fund. The film was shot entirely on location in the UK. Arnold was adamant about shooting the film in chronological order, so that the journey of the film would make sense to new coming actor Katie Jarvis. She would only give her a days worth of script to study so that she could take it day by day. The film originally premiered on around 45-50 screens in Britain, making them less accessible to the general public. In regards to this, Arnold said, “I definitely feel sorry more people don’t get to see my films. They aren’t inaccessible, and if people got the chance to see them, I know they’d like them. I wish cinema could be braver, or had more money to help them show films like mine.” The film cost around $2 million to make, which is still a relatively low budget for a feature length film. Fish Tank won many awards including the best film award at the Evening Standard Film Awards. Fish Tank was released on September 11, 2009. The film and Arnold were honored at the 20th Annual Women in Film and TV Awards in 2010.