Michael Foley

Poet and non-fiction author

The Great Gatsby is currently available in the UK in at least seven different editions, is about to appear in its sixth film adaptation, has been adapted on innumerable occasions for radio and theatre, even succeeding without adaptation as an eight-hour theatre reading, and has also been performed as a ballet, an opera and an orchestral suite.

Anne Charnock

Author and Artist

When BS Johnson first approached a literary agent with his debut novel Travelling People he received an outright rejection. The agent described the novel as 'pretentious and unsaleable,' according to Philip Tew, co-editor of a new compendium of Johnson's diverse output, Well Done God! Selected Prose and Drama of BS Johnson.

Simon Curtis

Director, 'My Week With Marilyn'

The Prince and The Showgirl, made at Pinewood Studios in 1956, is best known for the conflict between its leading lady Marilyn Monroe and her director and co-star Sir Laurence Olivier. I have directed the film My Week With Marilyn based on the diaries of Colin Clark, who was the third assistant director on the film, and he had a front row seat to watch the struggle between the two legendary actors.

Chris Simpson

Journalist, West Africa

Wearily predictable, but very necessary, the first thing I had to do after paying an extortionate West End £12.30 to see the much-feted film version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was to nip into a nearby HMV to buy......Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a mere £7 if you're interested. You know the one.

Stephen Applebaum

Freelance writer and interviewer

Danish cinema's not-so-enfant terrible, Lars von Trier, came to Cannes this year trailing Melancholia, a beautifully mounted apocalyptic drama, which, compared to his previous cinematic assault, Antichrist, had all the shock value of a children's tea party. There was no graphic sex, no horrific close up of clitoral self-mutilation, no violence. It was up to Von Trier to personally up the ante at the now notorious post-screening press conference that sent shock waves along the Croisette.

Daniel Cadwallader

Writer, PR Guy, Geek

Allan Niblo is an award-winning film producer and a founder member of film production and distribution company, Vertigo Films. His past credits include Human Traffic, Football Factory, StreetDance 3D and the award winning Monsters. Here, he reveals his inspiration for filmmaking and passes on top tips to aspirational filmmakers.

Sara Bivigou

Writer

Watching black boys from London as protagonists made me giddy with joy, made me a black girl from London feel recognised, less invisible in the wider world. I don't know much about the actors that played the teenagers but their mannerisms and accents were convincing. Even in dealing with the film's drug dealing sublot which felt superflous - empty, weighty and simplistic - they were earnest enough.

Sara Bivigou

Writer

All Night Long (1962) is an exception, a film I can't just turn up to. At the weekend I began watching it in jeans and a t-shirt but felt so slobbish that halfway through I paused and changed into a dress. (This wasn't sufficient but it was better.) One must prepare to watch All Night Long, it is an invitation to a party. You should attend in high spirits, your back straight, head held up.

Jack Pelling

Freelance film critic, writer and broadcaster. Editor of CelluloidHeroes.co.uk

The discussion of 3D is a horse that has been flogged to within an inch of its life over the last few years, with powerful film writers such as Roger Ebert being particularly vocal in their resentment of cinema's latest technological development. But with the vast majority of critics uncharacteristically singing from the same hymn sheet, and audiences beginning to turn their back on inflated ticket prices, what do people on the creative side of the film industry think?

Daniel Green

Based upon the autobiographical novel of Latif Yahia, a body double for Saddam Hussein's son Uday Hussein during the late 1980s, director Lee Tamahori...

Daniel Green

Ayoade has once again shown himself to be as fine behind the camera as he is in front (excluding perhaps the deeply unfunny The IT Crowd and the misjudged Marenghi spin-off Man to Man with Dean Learner), and with his feature debut has produced a dark, sensitive and at times hilarious exploration of small town teenage existence.

Ross Jones-Morris

Digital marketer and writer for HeyUGuys.co.uk and OntheBox.com

It's been a busy few days for Tom Hardy. Whilst filming The Dark Knight Rises this week he has also apparently signed on to play pop culture's favourite prohibition era Mafioso Al Capone in what looks set to become a trilogy's worth of life story. With his Hollywood future becoming more and more assured with every passing day and the conclusion of the Batman franchise set for release in 2012, Hardy's role as chemically enhanced super-villain Bane should surely help cement him as one of Hollywood's most unlikely leading men.