The Oxford University Film Foundation (originally a charity registered as the Oxford Film Foundation) was founded in 1981 by Michael Hoffman, Peter Schwabach and Rick Stevenson

Rick Stevenson

Rick Stevenson is a writer, director, and producer from Seattle, Washington. In 2006, his film Expiration Date won both Audience and Jury Award for Best Film at the Omaha Film Festival and took Best Film honors at the American Indian Film Festival...

. Its first production was the 1982 feature film Privileged

Privileged (1982 film)

Privileged is a 1982 film, the first theatrical release from the Oxford Film Foundation and was Hugh Grant's screen debut playing Lord Adrian...

, starring Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

, James Wilby

James Wilby

James Jonathon Wilby is an English film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Rangoon, Burma to a corporate executive father...

, Imogen Stubbs

Imogen Stubbs

Imogen Stubbs, Lady Nunn is an English actress and playwright.-Early life:Imogen Stubbs was born in Northumberland, lived briefly in Portsmouth, where her father was a naval officer, and then moved with her parents to London, where they lived on an elderly river barge on the Thames...

 and Mark Williams

Mark Williams (actor)

Mark Williams is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and presenter. He is best known as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show The Fast Show, as well as for his role as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films....

. The film was directed by Michael Hoffman with John Schlesinger

John Schlesinger

John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...

, produced by Rick Stevenson and Mark Bentley

Mark Bentley

Mark James Bentley is an English footballer, who currently plays for Hayes & Yeading United. Bentley is a midfielder.-Career:...

 with a score by Rachel Portman

Rachel Portman

Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score...

.

Some of the original founders of the Oxford Film Foundation, including Rick Stevenson, Michael Hoffman, Andy Paterson

Andy Paterson

-Filmography:* Incendiary * Beyond the Sea * Girl with a Pearl Earring * Hilary and Jackie * Restoration -External links:...

 and Mark Bentley, went on to form the Oxford Film Company in 1984. The Oxford Film Company instituted Britain's

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 first national screenwriting competition sponsored by Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...

 and later produced a series of feature films, including Hilary and Jackie

Hilary and Jackie

Hilary and Jackie is a 1998 British biographical film directed by Anand Tucker. The screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce is based on the memoir A Genius in the Family by Piers and Hilary du Pré, which chronicles the life and career of their late sister, cellist Jacqueline du Pré...

, while the revived and renamed Oxford University Film Foundation continues to produce films with the students of Oxford University.