UK, 2002, 117 min
Direction: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Paddy Considine, Steve Coogan, Sean Harris, Shirley Henderson, Lennie James, Andy Serkis, John Simm
Awards: the best film achievement in production - British Independent Film Award '02; 12 nominations
Selection: Planet Rock 
The movie of an already renowned, cult status in the realm of world cinematography, 24 Hour Party People is going to be shown within Planet Rock – the music film selection. Ever since the Gold Palm nomination in Cannes Festival 2002, 24 Hour Party People has not stopped with gaining popularity of its shows and cinema projections.
The story goes in 1976, in Manchester, the world capital of alternative and underground music sounds. An ambitious Cambridge graduate, Tony Wilson, who works as a journalist on Granada TV station, finds himself on a Sex Pistols gig. He sees the importance of the new music sound, presenting it to the public as a moment of crucial turnabout in music history. Wilson decides to seize to opportunity, and together with some friends, he founds Factory Records music label which soon becomes a synonym for a recognizable music quality of the late seventies.
Music names that were to become the most influential musicians – artists of the time began recording for Factory Records. Above all, there is a legendary band Joy Division shown in the music transformation that gave way to the cult New Order, then the unmatched Happy Mondays, and so on. The movie also records the creation of one of the world’s most known clubs - The Haçienda. Under the ownership and management of Tony Wilson, The Haçienda carried the main role on the music and cultural scene of Manchester.
Tony Wilson was born on 20th of February, 1950. After graduating from Cambridge University, he began with journalism, first as a reporter for ITN, then as a journalist for Granada TV station. So It Goes is one of many shows of cultural and music character that Wilson led. When he saw Sex Pistols in June 1976 on the scene of Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, he decided to book them for a So It Goes show. The show is considered to be the first television broadcast of the revolutionary breakthrough of the new punk-rock sound.
Wilson showed great skills in managing bands such as A Cerain Ratio, The Durutti Column, then, as a co owner and manager of Factory Records, the music house of bands such as Happy Mondays and Joy Division, as well as as the founder of The Haçienda Club, the cultural and music capital of Manchester, known at the time as "Madchester". Apart from this, Wilson did some acting, and he worked as a co producer on autobiographical movie of Ian Curtis, Control, 2007. Unfortunately, he did not live to see its complete realization.
Wilson died on 10th of August, 2007 in Christie Hospital, Manchester. Although he had cancer, he died of a heart attack, which left the world and Manchester scene without a cult icon. 24 Hour Party People is a kind of film biography of Tony Wilson, with considerable input of fictional elements.
Michael Winterbottom, the director, was born on 26th of March, 1961 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. With its work, he managed to win fifteen awards, including BAFTA Film Award, as well as thirty-one nominations. 24 Hour Party People is considered to be one of his most popular accomplishments.
