Frears, Coogan and Pope on the FEST!

Philomena is a film inspired by the book The lost child of Philomena Lee by journalist Martin Sixsmith and is based on a true story. The plot centers on Philomena Lee, who for 50 years has been tracking her son given to adoption in a monastery by force. With the help of reporter Sixsmith, she finally finds out the truth. Judy Dench stars as Philomena and Steve Coogan as Sixsmith.

The team of the film consisting of the director Stephen Frears, the co-writer and lead actor Steve Coogan and writer Jeff Pope will be the guests of the 42th FEST!

 Philomena is currently having a successful festival life; it has been awarded as many as 9 awards on the festival in Venice, three nominations each for the Golden Globe and BAFTA (it won the BAFTA award for best adapted screenplay) and is awaiting the results of the Oscars in four categories - best film, best adapted screenplay (Pope and Coogan), best lead actress (Judy Dench) and best soundtrack composed for a feature film (Alexandre Desplat).

Coogan and Philomena Lee met recently with Pope Francis and the film was also shown in the Vatican. It was also instrumental in launching an investigation about similar cases of illegal adoption in Ireland.

    Steven Frears has been active as a film and TV director for 30 years. His first major success was My Beautiful Launderette, which was nominated for an Oscar and two BAFTA awards. His Hollywood debut was the film Dangerous Liaisons and he has subsequently made several good films, including The Hi-Lo country, High fidelity, Mrs. Henderson presents and Queen with Helen Mirren about Princess' Diana's death, which earned him a second Oscar nomination and many other acknowledgments.

Steve Coogan is a British comedian, best known for the character he has created (Alan Partridge) and played in several radio programs, TV series and a feature film. His career has included many roles in Britain and in Hollywood, including 24 Hour party people, Coffee and cigarettes, around the world in 80 days, Marie Antoinette, Night at the museum. He has been awarded 5 BAFTA awards and was included every UK list of top comedians; in 2012 he came second on the list The 100 people in comedy. 

Jeff Pope is a British producer and writer. He started as a journalist, only to move to television, where he has produced and written more than 30 programs. He has won the BAFTA award for the television drama See no evil: The Moors murders. With Steve Coogan he wrote the screenplay for Philomena for which he has received many awards.

The buzz about Philomena will only increase with the film crew's visit to FEST.

There are still tickets for the film, but you should hurry up if you plan on seeing it.

 Philomena will be screen on Saturday, March 8 at 7 PM, in Sava centar.