The leading Hollywood film director who made a film about the Bloody Sunday massacre has hit out at proposed cuts which could threaten the future of the Derry-based Nerve Centre and Foyle Film Festival.

Paul Greengrass, who directed James Nesbitt (both pictured above) in the 2002 drama about the 1972 killings, has criticised government cuts to education programmes that help young people get into the film and creative industries.

Greengrass, best known for The Bourne Supremacy, the 9/11 film United 93 and the Oscar-nominated pirate drama Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, hit out against a proposed 50 per cent cut to funding from Northern Ireland Screen, a government agency that oversees the local film and television industry.

It currently provides funding for the Nerve Centre and the Foyle Film Festival.

In a statement to the Nerve Centre, Greengrass, who returned to Derry last year as part of its City of Culture celebrations, said: "The vibrancy, creativity, commitment, inventiveness, and sheer scale of the cultural activity taking place in Derry - particularly amongst young people - was to me breathtaking and inspiring,"

He added: "Those of us who have had the privilege to be welcomed to Derry and have seen this wonderful city emerge from dark days to stand as a beacon of hope not just for our country but for Europe and far beyond, can only register the strongest protest at the extent of the proposed cuts to the education and film sector in Northern Ireland."

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