Dydd Santes Dwynwen Day

Celebrate the Patron Saint of Welsh lovers on Dydd Santes Dwynwen Day with your Welsh love-themed screenings and events.

We’ve curated a package of Welsh films with a ‘love’ theme (below) to help with your programming ideas:

Heartstrings

• Director: Rhiannon Evans
• Release: 2009
• Running time: 3mins 7secs
• Synopsis: Heartstrings is a 2009 British animated short film directed by Rhiannon Evans at the University of Wales in Newport. It tells the story of two stop-motion figures made from string, who fall in love; their love is represented by a red string that connects them at the heart. The film was made on a budget of £500 and took around four months to complete. In 2010 it was included on the Best of British Animation Awards Vol. 8 DVD. It won 12 awards between 2009 and 2010.
• Booking contact: Rhiannon Evans – rhianimator@ymail.com
  

Y Cwtch Letchwith / The Awkward Hug

• Director: Visual Influence (Christian Britten & Richard Starkey)
• Release: 2013
• Running time: 2mins 58 secs
• Synopsis: A Welsh language (without subtitles) comedy short that captures a moment that hopefully everyone has or will experience at one point. That moment when someone says ‘I love you!’
• Booking contact: Christian Britten – chris@visualinfluence.co.uk or Richard Starkey – rich@visualinfluence.co.uk
  

All My Happy Friends

• Director: Paul Allen
• Release: 2015
• Running time: 3mins 11secs
• Synopsis: Life’s a stage. And so is social media. When Claire checks her phone, her friends quite literally ‘pop up’ to tell her how good their lives are. She slowly gets more depressed, but maybe she’s part of the problem.
• Booking contact: Paul Allen – pallen33@gmail.com

Millionaire

• Dir: Lauren Orme
• Release: 2014
• Running time: 2m
• Synopsis: Animated poetry film for “Millionaire” by Mab Jones. Winner of Best Animation, Best Valentine and Best Overall Production at Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 2015. Screened at Glastonbury Festival 2015. One of 10 films shortlisted in the Southbank’s Shot through the Heart poetry film competition, as part of Poetry International 2014.
• Booking contact: Lauren Orme – laurenormefilms@gmail.com

Ding Dong

• Director: Tracy Spottiswoode
• Release: 2001
• Running time: 3mins 11secs
• Synopsis: An eccentric vicar (Phillip Madoc) comes up with an unusual solution for a wedding facing disaster but the bridesmaid has a plan to save the day, if she can get to the church on time. Set at St Catwg’s Church, Cadoxton, Barry.
• Booking contact: sgrinasain@llyfrgell.cymru 

Line Engaged

• Director: Wayne Cater
• Release: 2001
• Running time: 3mins 36secs
• Synopsis: Barry (played by Drew Mulligan) is desperate to get married. He prepares his approach and practices his proposal in front of the mirror. The ring’s ready and he just needs to say the words…
• Booking contact: sgrinasain@llyfrgell.cymru 

Three Big Words

• Dir: Chris Buxton
• Release: 2001
• Running time: 3m 25 sec
• Synopsis: Miles (played by Simon Ludders) is on his way to his girlfriend’s house with a bunch of flowers, to tell her that he loves her, when passers-by begin to follow him to question him and offer their advice.
• Booking contact: sgrinasain@llyfrgell.cymru 

Solomon a Gaenor

• Director: Paul Morrison
• Release: 1999
• Running time: 105minutes
• Synopsis: Oscar nominated film starring Ioan Gruffudd and Nia Roberts in the title roles.
  It’s the story of two lovers whose relationship crosses religious and social divides in a Valleys’ community in the early nineteenth century. The film also stars Maureen Lipman and David Horovitch as Solomon’s parents and William Thomas and Sue Jones Davies as Gaenor’s parents.
• Booking contact: Park Circus. Mark Truesdale – mark@parkcircus.com
  

Rhosyn a Rhith / Coming up Roses

• Director: Stephen Bayly
• Release: 1986
• Running time: 93minutes
• Synopsis: An award-winning comedy film set in a depressed town in the South Wales Valleys. When the local cinema is closed down, the former projectionist, plagued by money problems, devises an ingenious plan to make money.
• Booking contact: S4C

Hedd Wyn

• Director: Paul Turner
• Release: 1992
• Running time: 123 minutes
• Synopsis: Oscar-nominated film starring Huw Garmon in the title role. Poetry was Ellis Evans’ passion and his life’s ambition was to be chaired at a National Eisteddfod. He achieved this at the Birkenhead Eisteddfod of 1917. Unfortunately, he never knew of his success as he was fighting the Germans in the trenches of Ypres, where he died during his first day on the Western Front.
• Booking contact: S4C