blinkbox coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you!

Now you’ll be able to enjoy the stunning blinkbox movie experience on your TV through the Xbox 360, bringing the latest releases direct to your living room

blinkbox, the UK’s leading online movie service, is coming to Xbox 360 later this year, giving Xbox LIVE subscribers across the country yet another way to access the incredible blinkbox library of movies. Users will now be able to watch the very best in films and TV shows, including the latest Hollywood releases, through their Xbox 360 console in addition to PC, Mac, and a whole range of connected TV and tablet devices where blinkbox is already available.

Adding the Kinect for Xbox 360 experience to blinkbox’s  impressive movie catalogue, users will be able to interact with their favourite entertainment in a more personal, seamless and effortless way. With Kinect for Xbox 360’s integrated motion control and voice command, voice search with Bing on Xbox, viewers can quickly find the content they want.

The new blinkbox app, brings the blinkbox library to Xbox 360 with more titles than any other UK movie streaming service. blinkbox’s growing catalogue of Hollywood blockbusters, classic titles and new releases available the same day as the DVD release, means users will be spoilt for choice.

Michael Comish, CEO and co-founder of blinkbox said, “The launch of blinkbox on Xbox 360 means that we can bring our huge library of blockbuster movies to even more people across the UK, giving them yet another way access their favourite entertainment. Whether on PC, connected TV or console, our customers are now even closer to an amazing entertainment experience.”

Stephen McGill, Director of Xbox and Entertainment for Microsoft UK, said: “We are really excited to be able to bring the blinkbox movie experience to our Xbox LIVE members and give them access to the incredible library of movies that blinkbox offers through Xbox 360 in their living rooms.”

You can already enjoy blinkbox on a number of other devices including PC, Mac, PS3, tablet devices and both LG and Samsung internet connected TVs, making entertainment enjoyable wherever and whenever you like, you are in total control of your viewing.

So Scottish! Focus on Scottish cinema at the Dinard British Film Festival in 2011.

Five Scottish feature films and six Scottish short documentary films are set to wow audiences at The British Film Festival in France, Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard.

Dinard Festival takes place over five days (05 – 09 October) and is attended by over 24,000 film fans. It attracts key producers and industry personnel from both France and the UK, allowingdistributors to discover films and giving film-makers an opportunity to conquer the European Market.

This year's programme will have a So Scottish focus highlighting some of the best new and original work coming from Scotland. 

Critically acclaimed Scottish director Lynne Ramsey will screen her feature We Need to Talk about Kevin, alongside David Mackenzie’s two features: Perfect Sense and You Instead. Award-winning filmmaker Sue Bourne’s documentary Jig, about the 40th Irish Dancing World Championships will also show. 

Amy Hardie’s documentary Edge of Dreaming which sees her disturbing dream manifest itself in real life, will screen alongside a selection of short documentaries s from the Scottish Documentary Institute including Ben Wigley’s P.S.Your Mystery Sender- winner of the Rushes Soho Best Short Doc award. Ben’s short received investment through the ‘Bridging the Gap’ initiative, supported by Creative Scotland through the National Lottery, as did Twinset, The Worm Inside and ThePerfect Fit. The Scottish BAFTA winning and Sundance attending Ma Bar ensures a very Scottish flavour to the festival.

Caroline Parkinson, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said; ‘The festival presents a fantastic opportunity for our creative talent to get their work noticed and screened by international distributors, allowing them to make connections and secure deals. Creative Scotland’s investment in many of the Scottish films screening reinforces our commitment to the strength of Scottish film-making.’

Finlay Pretsell from Scottish Documentary Institute, said; ‘In Scotland there is such a strong tradition of documentary going back to pioneers like John Grierson and more recently Kevin McDonald. It really is an achievement for documentary to be recognized in a feature film orientated film festival like Dinard which continues to champion work from the British Isles. It is a very proud moment to have so much strong work made in Scotland to show. We make films that happen to be documentaries and we want to shake the stigma that is often related to documentary film – we are just telling stories that happen to be real life. This kind of exposure will really help get a foot inside the typically tricky French market.’

The Scottish films showing include: 

5 Scottish feature films:

·         The Edge of Dreaming by Amy Hardie*

·         Jig by Sue Bourne*

·         Perfect Sense by David Mackenzie*

·         You Instead by David Mackenzie*

·         We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lynne Ramsay

6 Scottish shorts:

·         The Right to Privacy by Alice Nelson*

·         Twinset by Amy Rose*

·         P.S Your Mystery Sender by Ben Wigley*

·         The Worm Inside by Sam Firth*

·         The Perfect Fit by Tali Yankelevich*

·         Ma Bar by Adrian McDowall / Finlay Pretsell

*(these films have all received Creative Scotland investment)