Who's Who in the British Film Industry

Daniel Battsek, 42 HEAD OF BUENA VISTA (UK) Battsek cut his teeth during the 1980s at Palace Pictures, the maverick independent distributor, fielding complaints about posters for A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 which depicted Freddie harassing a coachload of children. He now oversees Walt Disney's British distribution operation. But his edge still shines through. The morning after England's defeat by Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, adverts for Armageddon miraculously appeared on newspaper sports pages reading: "They think it's all over. It is now."

Paul Webster, 47 HEAD OF FILMFOUR Another Palace veteran, Webster once stomped around Soho as a punk. Now he is shaking up FilmFour, Channel Four's production arm, bringing in the crowds with American pictures such as She's All That and changing the rules on what a British-Asian film can do at the box-office with East is East, last year's runaway hit. His style squares nicely with FilmFour's "yoof" audience - he made The Filth and the Fury, Julien Temple's revisionist Sex Pistols documentary. 'The Filth and the Fury' opens on Friday

Tim Bevan, 42, Eric Fellner, 40 CO-CHAIRMEN, WORKING TITLE Bevan and Fellner established themselves as probably the most powerful production force in Europe with a string of hit comedies, including Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill and Bean. They are usually described as good cop (Fellner) and bad cop (Bevan), but in reality they are more flexible than that. Fellner takes the lead with film-makers such as the Coen brothers; Elizabeth was Bevan's baby (he had a cameo as "handsome man"); and they both work with writer Richard Curtis. After the demise of PolyGram, their original backer, the duo negotiated deals with two financiers - Universal, the American studio, and France's StudioCanal - providing them with the clout of Hollywood and the sensibilities of Europe. And a lot of profit points on the films they make.

Richard Curtis, 43 WRITER Working Title may have been the film-making force behind the Euro-giant PolyGram, but Curtis wrote their biggest hits. Since graduating from co-writing the Blackadder TV series, he has chalked up Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill, as well as a starring vehicle for Blackadder's Rowan Atkinson with Bean. He won't be writing Atkinson's next feature, however, as he has dropped out for a few months and gone to Bali.

David Thompson, 49 HEAD OF BBC FILMS Newly-installed BBC director general Greg Dyke gave the film department the boost it needed when he declared his support for making movies at the Beeb and installed Alan Yentob as entertainment tsar with a special brief for film. Sounds insignificant, but Thompson, who has risen through the BBC corridors to head the film department, has had to battle for funding with rival departments within a bureaucracy that even BBC insiders find confusing. Egg-on-face moments include failing to raise the finance for East is East, which arch-rival FilmFour turned into a hit. But despite the hype, the BBC has actually beaten FilmFour in getting a large-scale picture into production (Michael Winterbottom's £15m Kingdom Come).

Duncan Kenworthy, 50, Andrew Macdonald, 34 PRODUCERS & CO-CHAIRMEN, DNA FILMS Producers Kenworthy and Macdonald run DNA Films (that's short for Duncan-and-Andrew), which in 1997 was one of three companies won the National Lottery-funded studio franchise. But they are also two of the UK's most successful producers in their own rights. Kenworthy has turned the romantic comedy into a British institution by producing Four Weddings and Notting Hill. Meanwhile, Macdonald is the producing third of Trainspotting trio Danny Boyle and John Hodge - and if you thought producing was just about protecting the director, it was Macdonald and Hodge who initiated the trio's spectacular debut, Shallow Grave.

Stephen Woolley, 43 PRODUCER Starting out as an usher at Islington's Screen on the Green cinema, Woolley and executive producer Nik Powell were the driving forces behind Palace Pictures (half of the executives in this list seem to have come through Palace, testifying to its influence). Their partnership ended two years ago when Woolley and Neil Jordan, his long-time directing partner, set up their own production outfit, Company of Wolves (named after their groundbreaking 1980s Palace film). Although he has backing from DreamWorks and the chairmanship of the Bafta film committee, Woolley still rocks up to screenings with a ponytail and black leather trenchcoat - and hurrah for that.

Alan Parker, 56 DIRECTOR & CHAIRMAN, FILM COUNCIL With a background in advertising, the director of such commercially-oriented pictures as Evita, Fame and Bugsy Malone once lambasted the so-called "snobs" of Britain's art-house film establishment in his documentary, A Turniphead's Guide To The British Film Industry. Now Turniphead is the establishment, overseeing all public support for the sector as chairman of the Film Council, the Government's film superbody.

Guy Ritchie, 31 DIRECTOR and Matthew Vaughn, 29 PRODUCER When Ritchie and Vaughn picked up the Bafta audience prize for their feature debut Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels in 1998, they observed that it was only fitting that the public was giving them an award, rather than the industry, which hadn't coughed up any financing. That was a tad rich, as HandMade had originally planned to back the film, but went into liquidation. But only a tad, as the director-producer team had eventually to tap wealthy connections to get the gangster caper made. Publicity over Ritchie's relationship with Madonna threatens to eclipse even the hoop-la over the success of Lock, Stock, but the duo have gone from being (well-connected) outsiders to negotiating sophisticated deals with Columbia and directing Brad Pitt in their next film, the worryingly titled Snatch.

Sam Mendes, 34 DIRECTOR Over the course of one Oscar night, Mendes became the toast of the film industry from London to Los Angeles. But on the Oscar podium, he made a point of saying how much he looked forward to getting back to his beloved theatre, the Donmar Warehouse in London. And Steven Spielberg, whose US studio DreamWorks financed American Beauty - Mendes's feature debut - made a point of keeping his protégé happy by making a donation to the Covent Garden theatre.

Nick Park, 41, Peter Lord, 47, David Sproxton, 47 DIRECTOR, CHAIRMAN, MD, AARDMAN ANIMATIONS Before Sam Mendes was getting DreamWorks to support the Donmar, Aardman was securing the US studio's cash to sponsor the Bristol animation festival. Founded by Lord and Sproxton, the Bristol animation house is making its feature debut with Chicken Run, a tent-pole release this summer. Testifying to a growing clout in Hollywood, Aardman last year struck a long-term deal with DreamWorks. 'Chicken Run' will open in the summer

Jude Law, 27, Ewan Mcgregor, 29 ACTORS &CO-FOUNDERS, NATURAL NYLON PRODUCTIONS The British don't do stars, don't you know - but the actors behind the Natural Nylon production company are probably as close as this generation is going to get. Some see the company as a vanity publishing label, but Natural Nylon Productions at least proved it could get films made when McGregor used it to get Nora, his forthcoming James Joyce picture, off the ground. Law is now starring in Steven Spielberg's AI, while McGregor is off to shoot the second instalment of Star Wars. But if Hollywood - or carousing at the Met Bar - doesn't distract them, Nylon could now really take off, with projects such as the $20m Marlowe a very real proposition. 'Nora' opens on 19 May

Stephen Evans, 53, Angus Finney, 35 CO-CHAIRMEN, RENAISSANCE FILMS BT pension funds started making movies last year, when Evans and Finney teamed up to raise $40m in equity through the fund managers Hermes. Evans is a former stockbroker turned producer of adaptations of such classy period pieces as The Madness of King George and The Wings of the Dove. Finney is a former journalist, and penned The Egos Have Landed: The Rise And Fall of Palace Pictures. Evans's taste for upscale period fare remains - the company's debut production is an adapation of Nabokov's The Luzhin Defense. But the new company's overseas division also picked up UK rave flick Human Traffic.

John Madden, 51 DIRECTOR On the back of Mrs Brown's critical and box-office success, Madden landed a three-picture deal with America's Miramax Films and established himself as one of the UK's top directors with the Oscar-festooned Shakespeare in Love. When the production company Working Title wanted Madden's services for one of this year's highest-profile British productions - the adaptation of Louis de Berniéres's Captain Corelli's Mandolin - they were prepared to give Miramax a host of rights on Corelli and their forthcoming adaptation of Bridget Jones's Diary if it would release him.

David Kosse, 38 HEAD OF ALLIANCE ATLANTIS/KINOWELT A relocated American, Kosse worked at PolyGram in the US before moving to the UK division of Universal Pictures International when the American studio took over PolyGram. Now the anglophile has gone indie, overseeing the British joint distribution company of Canadian media giant Alliance Atlantis and German powerhouse Kinowelt. Armed with $75m over three years, this is the man who will be in charge of UK distribution for Blair Witch Project 2 and films from Natural Nylon.

Guy East, 48, Nigel Sinclair, 52 CO-CHAIRMEN, INTERMEDIA The co-founders of this British-based concern are in charge of one of Europe's most powerful film companies, handling financing, production and international sales on films ranging from Sliding Doors to the forthcoming The Wedding Planner, starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey. East is a former film-sales man, while the LA-based Sinclair was a media lawyer. They are floating the company on the German stock market this year.

Simon Franks, 28 HEAD OF REDBUS FILM GROUP When Simon Franks declared he was going to create the UK's leading independent film distributor, few people had heard of him - and fewer took him seriously. A mere 18 months later, the former investment banker has built a force to be reckoned with. The company has teamed up with Cliff Stanford, internet guru, and its strength lies in a Video-On-Demand operation that will broadcast films on the web (and will go public later this year). There, and in being prepared to fight leading players for the UK rights to films starring Kevin Costner, Keanu Reeves and Kevin Spacey.

Danny Boyle, 43 DIRECTOR Boyle and his regular collaborators, writer John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald, triggered a very public row by casting the A-list Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach instead of Ewan McGregor, the star of their hits Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, and their disappointment, A Life Less Ordinary. But while Boyle and co are out to make commercial films, they still keep a bit of an an edge. Boyle has not decided on his next project, but a film about the late-Eighties Madchester club scene has been mooted.

Elisabeth Murdoch, 31 INDEPENDENT PRODUCER The Murdoch scion shocked the media sector last week by quitting the satellite powerhouse BSkyB to head up an independent production company focusing on film, TV and new media. Then again, Elisabeth always was the creative sibling. At BSkyB, she was a driving force behind Sky Pictures, the film production arm, which scored its highest- profile coup this year with Saving Grace, a success at the Sundance Film Festival. One suspects that Murdoch genuinely likes film; she was, at least, happy to queue for the unisex toilets in a freezing East London warehouse at the Working Title Christmas party. 'Saving Grace' is out on 19 May

Adam Minns is UK Film Editor at 'Screen International'