Director: Chris Noonan
starring: James Cromwell
certificate: U
running time: 89 mins
key stage: 1 & 2
subject areas: English, History, Art, Geography
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

This comic film based on 'The Sheep Pig' by Dick King-Smith tells the tale of the pig who defies destiny by daring to be different, to be of all things, a sheep-pig!

Director: George Miller (II)
starring the voices of: Magda Szubanski, James Cromwell, Mickey Rooney
certificate: PG
running time: 118 mins
key stage: 2
subject area:Literacy, Art, Science, Geography, Design and Technology
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

In this sequel to Babe, everyone's favourite hero sets off on a journey that takes him to a far away storybook city where he encounters an incredible assortment of animal friends and learns how a kind and steady heart can heal a sorry world.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
starring: Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd
certificate: PG
running time: 118 mins
key stage: 2 & 3
subject area: History, Science, Literacy

Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly has to travel back to 1855 to find and bring back Doc Brown back from the Wild West.

Director: Ron Howard
starring: Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro
certificate: 15
running time: 134 mins
key stage: GCSE
subject area: film studies
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

As a child Brian McCafferty watched his firefighter father die. Years later he joins his brother, Steven in the force by becoming a rookie firefighter. There is a history of conflict between the two brothers that is heated up by working together. With this background, a series of suspicious fires are set, each made to kill a specific person. After becoming frightened at a fire, Brian pulls strings to get into an investigative office and finds that he is now not putting out the arsonist's fires, but trying to track him down.

Director: Cheik Doukoure
certificate: PG
running time: 100 mins
key stage: 2

Based in Cameroon during the World Cup in 1990. This is about Bandian, a football mad teenager, who moves from the village to the city to nurture his football skills, with the hope of great things.

Director: Simon Wells
starring voices of: Kevin Bacon, Bob Hoskins, Bridget Fonda
certificate: U
running time: 78 mins
key stage: 2 & 3
subject area: Art, Design and Technology, Literacy
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

An animated feature film based on the true and inspiring story of half-wolf, half-dog, Balto - who saved the Alaskan village of Nome from a diphtheria epidemic.

Director: Terry Gilliam
starring: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley
certificate: PG
running time: 126 mins
key stage: 2 & 3
subject area: Art, Design and Technology, Literacy
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

An account of 17th century aristocrat Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits. A fantastic tale of how -with help from his talented henchmen and a little girl - he attempts to save a town from defeat by the Turks.

When the corrupt businessman Max Shreck and the grotesque Penguin plot to take control of Gotham City, only Batman can stop them.

Director: Sergei Eisenstein
starring: Grigori Aleksandrov, Aleksandr Antonov
certificate: PG
running time: 74 mins
subject area: Film Studies, History, Russian
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

What started as a protest strike when a battleship’s crew was given rotten meat for dinner ended in a riot. The sailors raised the red flag and tried to ignite revolution.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
key stage: 2, 3 & 4
subject area: Film Studies, Media Studies, Literacy, Geography
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Inspired by the book, 'The Grizzly King', the director of Quest for Fire creates yet another film in nature with almost no human dialogue in this picturesque story of an orphaned bear cub who is adopted by an adult male bear and must avoid hunters. Bart the Bear stars in this anthropomorphic fantasy.

Director: Hettie MacDonald
starring: Glen Berry, Scott Neal
certificate: 15
running time: 158 mins
key stage: GCSE, A Level
subject area: Citizenship, Film Studies
resources available: online notes

This lighthearted film focuses on the lives of three dysfunctional families during one summer and the developing romance between two teenage boys.

Director: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
starring voices of: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson
certificate: U
running time: 84 mins
key stage: 2
subject area: English, Literacy, Geography, Maths, Science, Technology, History, Art, Music
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Disney animation of the classic fairytale. Belle is a girl who is dissatisfied with life in a small provincial French town, constantly trying to fend off the misplaced "affections" of conceited Gaston. The Beast is a prince who was placed under a spell because he could not love. A wrong turn taken by Maurice, Belle's father, causes the two to meet.

Director: Spike Jonze
starring: John Malkovich, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener
certificate: 15
running time: 112mins
key stage: GCSE, A level
resources available: online notes

An unemployed puppet master and perennial loser takes a job as a filing clerk only to discover a magical portal in his office that leads into the head of acclaimed American actor, John Malkovich. A lucrative business venture - selling tickets to be inside John Malkovich for 15 minutes at a time - is compromised when Malkovich himself becomes involved.

Director: Jonathan Demme
starring: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover
certificate: 15
running time: 172 mins
key stage: GCSE, A level
subject area: Literature, Media Studies, Film Studies, American History

In this adaptation of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel we meet Sethe who is constantly haunted by her past on her journey to find freedom. When an old friend unexpectedly re-enters her life she realises that she may be able to rediscover who she is and regain her lost sense of hope.

Director: Gurinder Chadha
starring: Parminder Nagra, Juliet Stevenson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
certificate: 12
running time: 113 mins
key stage: GCSE, A Level
subject area: Film Studies, Social Studies
resources available: online notes, downloadable PDF study guide

Eighteen year-old Jess's parents want her to be a nice, conventional Indian girl. But she just wants to play football like her hero, David Beckham. For Jess, that means kicking a ball around the local park with the lads until she's spotted by Jules, who invites her to join the local women’s football team. The girls are the same age and they share the same dreams. As they become firm friends, their team really starts to go places.

Director: Gurinder Chadha
starring: Kim Vithana, Jimmi Harkishin
certificate: 15
running time: 101 mins
key stage: GCSE, A Level
subject area: Film Studies, Social Studies

A group of Indian women take a trip together to the beach resort of Blackpool, leadint them to better mutual understanding and solidarity.

Director: Tim Burton
starring: Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Ewan McGregor
certificate: PG
running time: 125 mins
key stage: 3/4
subject area: Media Studies, English
resources available: downloadable book extracts

As an eight-year old confined to bed because of a preternatural growing spurt, Edward Bloom occupies himself by reading the entire World Book Encyclopaedia. He is taken in particular with an article about goldfish, in which he learns that ‘if goldfish are kept in a small bowl, they will remain small. With more space, the fish can double, triple or quadruple its size.’Ten years later, after becoming one of the most popular young men in Ashton, Alabama, he realizes that, like the goldfish, in order for him to grow he must leave home and explore the world. And thus, an improbable and mythic journey begins.

Director: Stephen Daldry
starring: Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Bell
certificate: 15
running time: 110 min
key stage: GCSE
subject area: Media Studies

Billy Elliot is a coming-of-age story of young boy, Billy, who through his unexpected love of dance, embarks on a journey of self-discovery in the world of picket lines, cultural stereotypes and a family. The touching relationship between Billy and his ballet teacher works to strengthen Billy’s resolve to make his family understand his passion for dance and ultimately to realise his dreams.

Director: Caroline Thompson
starring: Sean Bean, David Thewlis
certificate: U
running time: 88 mins
key stage: 1 & 2
subject area: Literacy, History, PSHE
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Based on Anna Sewell's novel, this adaptation tells this classic story from Black Beauty's point of view.

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resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Director: Ridley Scott
starring: Harrison Ford, Daryl Hannah
certificate: 15
running time: 117 mins
subject area: Film Studies
resources available: online study notes

Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate five replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

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resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Director: Oliver Stone
starring: Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond J. Barry
certificate: 18
running time: 144 mins
subject area: Media Studies, Film Studies, Politics
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he became an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist, feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

Director: Peter Hewitt
starring: John Goodman, Celia Imrie, Hugh Laurie
certificate: U
running time: 108 mins
key stage: 1 & 2
subject area: Literacy, Art, Design and Technology

This adaptation of the children's classic, tells the story of Pod, Homily, Peagreen and Arrietty, the little people who live under the floorboards of a big house, surviving by borrowing from the 'Human Bean' family upstairs.

Director: Roger Donaldson
starring: Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Liam Neeson
certificate: 15
running time: 132 mins
key stage: GCSE
subject area: History
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

The familiar story of Captain Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship. This version follows both the efforts of Fletcher Christian to get his men beyond the reach of British retribution, and the epic voyage of Captain Bligh to get his loyalists safely to East Timor in a tiny lifeboat.

Bowling for Columbine
DVD

DOCUMENTARY

Director: Michael Moore
starring: n/a
certificate: 15
running time: 120 mins
key stage: GCSE, AS/A2
subject area: Film Studies, Citizenship
resources available: downloadable study guide

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of America's predilection for gun violence in this documentary film. It is a journey through America, hoping to discover why Americans pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence. Furthermore, Moore seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite, political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain.

Director: Martin Duffy
starring: James Hickey, Rita Tushingham
certificate: PG
running time: 87 mins
key stage: 2
subject area: PSHE, Music, History, English, Art

The tale of a boy with a very active imagination who convinces himself that he's a superhero from another planet. He receives a rude awakening however, when his 'magic powers' fail him during a confrontation with a school bully.

Director: John Singleton
starring: Lawrence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Junior
certificate: 18
running time: 107 mins
subject area: Media studies
resources available: downloadable PDF study guide

Set in south central Los Angeles, this film follows the fortunes or otherwise of a group of three young friends growing up together, struggling to escape the violence and drugs.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
starring: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder
certificate: 18
running time: 127 mins
key stage: GCSE, A Level, Intermediate, Higher
subject area: English, Film Studies
resources available: online study notes

This version of Dracula is closely based on Bram Stoker's classic novel. A young lawyer (Jonathan Harker) is assigned to a gloomy village in the mists of eastern Europe. He is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy's friends gather together to try to drive Dracula away.

Director: Mark Herman
starring: Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor
certificate: 15
running time: 112 mins
key stage : GCSE, A Level, GNVQ Media Studies & Music

The story of a community struggling to survive when its chief industry is closed down, and also a romance - between father and son, between boy and girl and between man and music.

Director: Mel Gibson
starring: Mel Gibson, Patrick McGoohan, Sophie Marceau
certificate: 15
running time: 171 mins
key stage: GCSE, A Level, GNVQ
subject area: Media Sudies, Film and Communication, Production
resources available : downloadable PDF study guide

In the late 13th century, William Wallace returns to Scotland after living away from his homeland for many years. The King of Scotland has died without an heir and the King of England, a ruthless pagan known as Edward the Longshanks, has seized the throne. Wallace becomes the leader of a courageous army determined to vanquish the greater English forces.

Director: Ken Loach
starring: Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody
certificate: 15
running time: 110 mins

Two Latina sisters who work as cleaners in a downtown office building fight for the right to unionise.

Director: John Hughes
starring: Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy
certificate: 15
running time: 97 mins
resources available: online notes

When five disparate students are thrown together by Saturday morning detention, each begins to see the others apart from their stereotypes and finds qualities about the others that makes the Saturday morning change their lives.

Director: Gurinder Chadha
starring: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies
certificate:12A
running time: 111 mins
key stage: GCSE, Scottish Intermediate
subject area: English
resources available: DVD educational resource

Director Gurinder Chadha transports the comic tale of a witty young woman trying to find a suitable husband to a cross-cultural setting that spans 21st century India, London and America. It all begins in a modest Indian village when the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find marriage atches for her four beautiful daughters while there's a lavish wedding party in town. Right away, the smart and headstrong Lalita announces she will only marry for love, giving her mother nightmares. Then Lailita meets the wealthy American Will Darcy and sparks immediately fly. But is it love or hate? Alternately enchanged by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors until pride is humbed and prejudice overcome so that love can triumph.

Directors: Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker
starring voices of: Joaquin Phoenix, Rick Moaranis,
certificate:U
running time: 85 mins
key stage: 1/2
subject area: Literacy, Science, Geography, ICT,Environmental Studies

Set against the majestic natural splendour of the great American Northwest, the film tells the story of a boy named Kenai, whose life takes an unexpected turn when the Great Spirits transform him into a bear - the creature he hates most. Befriended by a bear cub named Koda, Kenai sets out to regain his human form while his brother (who doesn't realise Kenai is now a bear) pursues him on a mission of revenge and family honour.

Director: Wim Wenders
certificate:U
running time: 101 mins
key stage: A Level
subject area: Music, Film Studies
resources available: online production notes

In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wim Wenders was on hand to document the occasion.

Director: John Lasseter & Andrew Stanton
certificate:U
running time: 94 mins
key stage: 1 & 2
subject area: ICT, Science
resources available: Downloadable study guide

The movie is loosely based on one of Aesop's famous fables 'The Ants and the Grasshopper'. Our hero Flik's ant colony is under attack and he takes on a dangerous mission to Bug City to enlist the support of tougher bugs to help. Inadvertently he gets a troupe of unemployed circus performers and the fate of Ant Island rests in their hands.

Director: Saul Dibb
starring: Ashley Walters, Luke Fraser, Leon Black
certificate: 15
key stage: KS3/4 AS/A2 English, Film Studies
subject area: English, Film Studies
running time: 86 mins
resources available: Downloadable study guide

Bullet Boy views life through the eyes of two brothers and twelve-year-old Curtis which takes place over a couple of days and changes their lives. Ricky has completed a year in jail for stabbing a man in an affray and is picked up from a rural prison by his best friend, the ironically named Wisdom a drug dealer and petty criminal. Curtis has bunked off school and stowed away in Wisdom’s car. His emergence from the darkness of the car’s boot in which he’s locked is a metaphor for the possibility of his own release from a society and set of false values in which he’s trapped. For Ricky, on the other hand, there is little chance of escape.

Director: Neil Jordan
starring: Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw
certificate: 15
key stage: GCSE
subject area: film studies
running time: 110 mins

Set in an Irish town in the early 60s the film centres on a troubled young boy, Francie, whose dad is a drunk and mum is sliding towards insanity. He escapes into a world of fantasies inspired by comics, sci-fi movies and TV shows.