November 2019 | Sight&Sound | 11
the south-west and the rest of the UK. It achieved a
decent debut of £32,200 for the weekend – £48,
including previews. An expansion to 44 sites in
week two saw box office rise by 39 per cent; after
24 days (at press time) Bait had reached £264,000.
A key factor in the film’s success, according to
the BFI’s Pearce, has been Jenkin himself, who hit
the road for the preview tour and has continued
to do Q&A screenings during the release. “He
has the ability to connect with audiences in a
live situation – he’s got great personal charisma.
We always make sure he’s there to introduce
it, and then audiences know to stick around.”
It was difficult for the BFI to find comparable
titles when deciding the scale of release, although
Hope Dickson Leach’s The Levelling (2016) and
Clio Barnard’s Dark River (2017), both rural
dramas, were considered. Bait’s box office has
surged far ahead of both. At Bristol Watershed,
the film is now the year’s second biggest hit
(after The Favourite). Its head of programme,
Mark Cosgrove, says, “Two years ago, who
would have said, ‘Let’s make a black and white,
Academy ratio, 16mm, post-synch-sound, hand-
processed film about second homes and the
decline of fishing in Cornwall, and, trust me,
it will be a huge international critical success
and take over £250,000 at the UK box office’?
Bait demonstrates that there is an audience for
authentic, individualistic, distinctive films.”
By Charles Gant
For Bristol-based producers Kate Byers and Linn
Waite of Early Day Films, this year began with
a dramatic piece of good news: the Berlin Film
Festival had picked their debut feature Bait for its
Forum section. The film had not been selected
by either the Sundance or Rotterdam festivals,
so receiving the email from Berlin was “an
amazing moment”, Byers says. “Our year hasn’t
stopped since opening that email,” Waite adds.
Bait tells the story of a Cornish fisherman
bristling at the impact of gentrification.
Writer-director Mark Jenkin shot it in black
and white on 16mm using a spring-wound
Bolex camera. The film was made very much
outside the British film establishment,
with no backing from the BFI or any of the
country’s micro-budget funding schemes.
The two producers had no luck attracting
a sales agent to their film (“Black and white?
You’re mad. Who are you? Who is Mark?”), but
drew on expertise from The Festival Agency,
and a consultation session with former British
Council executive Wendy Mitchell, to try to
snag distributor and press attention in Berlin.
BFI acquisitions manager Laura Dos Santos
saw Bait there, and decided it was something
special. BFI head of distribution Julie Pearce
agreed, excited by the really strong narrative
and contemporary relevance. Other distributors
were interested, but the BFI’s enthusiasm
and clear distribution plan won the day.
The BFI saw it as a late-summer release, as
counter-programming to summer blockbusters
before the big indie-film hitters arrived in the
autumn. The strategy was to start in Cornwall
and the south-west and get word of mouth
going. For this, it was essential to get local
commercial cinema operator WTW on board.
Jenkin began a Q&A preview tour in Newlyn,
his home town, on 16 August, continuing at
WTW cinemas in Truro, Wadebridge and
Newquay plus the arthouse in Falmouth, before
venturing out to Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester,
Newcastle, Edinburgh and finally London.
The BFI released Bait in 23 cinemas on 30
August, with a fairly even split between venues in
THE NUMBERS: BAIT
Mark Jenkin’s stunning black-
and-white Cornish fishing
drama has been reeling in huge
audiences across the UK
INDUSTRY
BRITISH INDIE FILMS WITH RURAL SETTINGS AT THE UK BOX OFFICE
Film Ye a r Gross
God’s Own Country 2017 £868,
Edie 2018 £545,
Trespass Against Us 2017 £267,
Bait 2019 £264,000*
Dark River 2018 £118,
The Levelling 2017 £89,
Adult Life Skills 2016 £63,
Iona 2016 £50,
Shell 2013 £42,
Radiator 2015 £35,
*still on release
IN PRODUCTION
Ù Marilyn Monroe is surely the subject of more
biopics than any other Hollywood star, but
the forthcoming portrait by The Assassination
of Jesse James’s Andrew Dominik sounds
a cut above – and after nearly a decade’s
wait, is finally in production. Dominik’s
fictionalised version of Monroe’s life
in the 1950s and 60s, Blonde, is based on
Joyce Carol Oates 2000 novel. Cuban-
Spanish actor Ana de Armas, who starred
in Blade Runner 2049, will play Monroe.
Ù Colin Farrell is the latest actor to
start his own production company –
an exciting proposition given his track
record with indie films (forthcoming
acting projects for Farrell include
fomer S&S video essayist
kogonada’s new sci-fi After
Ya n g). Chapel Place’s first
film is The Ruin, an Irish
crime drama adapted from
Dervla McTiernan’s 2018 thriller.
Ù British director Sally Potter (pictured) has yet
to premiere Molly, starring Javier Bardem and
Elle Fanning, but is already at work on her next
film Alba, a Brexit-inspired comedy about a
family on a fractious camping trip.
Ù Next up for Christian Petzold (Transit) is
Undine. He’s relocating the fairytale
of the cursed water nymph to
modern Berlin: Paula Beer plays a
tour guide who defies her fate by
refusing to kill the man who betrays her.
35 %
of the UK box office for Bait was
taken in the west and south-west,
where a typical film takes just 4.9%
A RT
PRODUCTION
CLIENT
SUBS
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