Pride

Matthew Warchus' Pride dramatises the real story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), the London-based activist group founded in 1984 to raise money for striking Welsh mineworkers during the Thatcher government's confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers. The screenplay is by Stephen Beresford, then a first-time writer, who had spent years researching the group through surviving members including Mike Jackson and the family of co-founder Mark Ashton.

The film won the Queer Palm at Cannes 2014, where it premiered in Directors' Fortnight, and earned Beresford the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. The cast (including Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, Paddy Considine and George MacKay) won the British Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Performance. The film was a sleeper commercial hit in the UK, opening tenth and climbing the chart over the following weeks.

Pride banner imagery from the film became politically significant in its own right: Mark Ashton's actual banner, returned to public view by the production, was paraded at the 2015 London Pride march by surviving LGSM members, who were given the front of the parade. Warchus (best known otherwise as a stage director, including the original London production of Matilda the Musical) has not made another feature since.