In June of last year, Shane Meadows a 23-year-old filmmaker, approached the British Film Institute's production board looking for completion funding on his debut feature, Small Time, which he had made, incredibly, for just 5,000 (US$8,000).

The BFI's production board chipped in some cash, while then BFI head of sales Dee Emerson, seeing just 10 minutes of footage, snapped up the rights for both Small Time and an accompanying short, also made by Meadows, Where's the Money Ronnie. "I thought, 'I'll have that,'" she recalls.

Only two months later the film, now with a budget of 55,000 (US$88,000) was screened to great acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, where the Michael Powell jury gave it a special mention. The comic tale of inept small-time criminals drew comparison to the work of other British realists like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.

After a "fantastic" reception followed at the film's international premiere at Toronto, there is now much interest in Meadows' next feature, provisionally titled 24.7, which was commissioned jointly by the BFI's Ben Gibson and Scala's Stephen Woolley (The Crying Game, Michael Collins), fresh from Venice winner Michael Collins. Nick Thomas