- Neil McCartney
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Neil McCartney
Neil McCartney is a UK-born journalist, consultant, producer and entrepreneur.
He has been co-founder of a number of initiatives, including a series of specialist newsletters for the Financial Times in the 1980s, the British Independent Film Awards in 1998, and more recently a group of companies which are creating sustainable forestry plantations in developing countries, including NICOL Forests UK Limited. He is chairman of The Independent Film Trust, a UK charity set up to advance the cause of independent filmmaking, and co-chair of the Cambridge Film and Media Academy, an alumnus group for people working in film, television and new media.
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Journalism
Having studied Natural Sciences at Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge and written a thesis on new media at Imperial College in London in 1980, produced numerous article on the subject and co-authored the book Hunt on Cable TV: Chaos or Coherence? which was published by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom in 1982[1][2], Neil became a freelance journalist in media and telecommunications. He was a founding editor of Screen Finance and Mobile Communications, the FT newsletters on the film and mobile telephone industries, which he ran for more than 10 years[3], along with a number of other titles including Telecom Markets and New Media Markets, until these were taken over by the Informa Group in 2000[4][5]. During this time he chaired the judging panel for the FT Global Telecoms Awards. He continues to write for national newspapers[6][7][8], to act as a commentator for organisations such as the BBC, Sky and The Observer[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], to speak at conferences and similar events and to serve on industry judging panels[17][18][19][20].
Consultancy
Neil is managing director of McCartney Media, a consultancy which specialises in media and telecommunications. Past and present private clients include Alcatel, BT, BellSouth, Bertelsmann, Deutsche Telekom, Granada, Nokia, Openwave, Qualcomm, Vodafone, Warner Brothers and the European Commission. It also works with the Raindance Film Festival.
Production
Neil has produced a number of short films[21][22][23] and co-produced one feature, Season of Mists[24][25][26], an Anglo-Russian co-production which has won a number of prizes at international festivals[27][28][29]. He also acts as London representative for the Moscow International Film Festival[30].
He is a director and head of business affairs at Tribute Inspirations Limited, organiser of the Listen Campaign which has been set up to raise more than $100 million a year for children’s charity projects[31][32][33]
Charity
The IFT supports ventures and initiatives that encourage an interest in film production and help emerging film-makers to develop and express themselves. It also funds activities such as basic film courses for the disadvantaged[34] and the provision of training scholarships for those who have demonstrated talent but need financial help[35]. In October 2010 the IFT-backed short film Night Music, a 12-minute animation by Paul Jacques which was made as part of the Vision Shorts film-making initiative for people recovering from mental health problems, was premiered at the Raindance Film Festival[36][37][38]
The Cambridge Film and Media Academy (CAMFA) exists to promote an awareness and appreciation within the colleges and the University of film, television and associated areas and to bring together aspiring student programme makers and established alumni professionals[39].
References
- ^ The two lead authors were Neil McCartney and Patrick Hughes
- ^ McCartney and Hughes co-wrote the article “Behind the news: cable technology” which was published in the Spring edition of Capital and Class in 1983
- ^ Speaker at the Lunch Club as Screen Finance editor, 15 November 1996
- ^ Business Publisher 24 December 1999. The deal was agreed in December 1999 and came into effect in January 2000
- ^ Funding Universe website history of Informa Group plc
- ^ Financial Times 28 March 2006
- ^ The Guardian 26 October 2006
- ^ Business Week 17 September 2007
- ^ Participant in St George's House seminar on Journalism June 2006
- ^ BBC New 7 February 2008
- ^ Sky News 27 February 2008
- ^ BBC News 27 May 2008
- ^ BBC News 25 August 2010
- ^ Sky News 8 October 2010
- ^ The Observer 31 October 2010
- ^ Interview about mobile handset sales on BBC News channel 10 November 2010
- ^ Mobile Entertainment Forum website reference to membership of the board of judges for the First Mobile Entertainment Awards in 2004
- ^ Mobile Entertainment Forum website reference to membership of the board of judges for the Third Mobile Entertainment Awards in 2006
- ^ CAMFA panel on film financing at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge 11 November 2010
- ^ Rushes Soho Shorts website reference to judging panel for festival in July 2011
- ^ Night Music reference on the Internet Movie Database - IMDB
- ^ Night Music at Raindance Film Festival 2010
- ^ Vision Shorts reference on the Internet Movie Database - IMDB
- ^ Season of Mists website
- ^ Season of Mists reference on the Internet Movie Database - IMDB
- ^ Season of Mists reference on the British Films Catalogue run by the British Council
- ^ In September 2008 the film won the Best Actress award for Marina Blake (as Marina) at Kinoshock, the XVI Film Festival of CIS and Baltic countries, held at Anapa on the Black Sea. This is Russia's second most important festival for national films (after Kinotavr)
- ^ In October 2008 it won two awards at the Faithful Heart film festival in Moscow - the award for outstanding achievement (effectively the second prize after the Grand Prix) with particular reference to direction, screenplay and cinematography; and the Best Actress award for Marina Blake
- ^ At the Russkoe Zarubezhye Film Festival in November 2009 it won the Gran Prix and Best Actor for Sergei Chonishvili (as Sacha). The picture shows the director Anna Tchernakova accepting the first of these (co-producer Evgenia Tirdatova is just to her left)
- ^ Moscow International Film Festival website
- ^ Channel 4 News 15 November 2007
- ^ The Daily Telegraph 15 November 2007
- ^ The Sunday Times 30 December 2007
- ^ The Guardian 13 April 2010
- ^ IFT website: Training Scholarships
- ^ Night Music reference on the Internet Movie Database - IMDB
- ^ Night Music at Raindance Film Festival 2010
- ^ IFT Vimeo site
- ^ CAMFA website
Categories:- Living people
- British journalists
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