''The Greyness of Autumn'' is a short

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

film following the life of Danny McGuire, an ostrich living in Glasgow. The film was produced by

Quick Off The Mark Productions Quick Off The Mark Productions was a film & television production company operating in Glasgow, Scotland from 9 October 2009 to 7 June 2016. It was possibly best known for the films ''In Search of La Che'' and '' The Greyness of Autumn''. Hist ...

and marked the directorial debut for

Chris Quick Chris Quick (born 2 August 1988) is a Scottish editor and producer of independent films. His editing credits includes ''Autumn Never Dies'', ''In Search of La Che'', ''Mountain'' and ''The Greyness of Autumn'' which also marked his directorial ...

Plot

Danny McGuire is an ostrich who works for a call centre selling loft insulation. His life seems to be relatively stable with a decent job and a girlfriend of many years. However, on the first day of autumn, Dannys life is turned upside down when he learns that his job is being outsourced to India. That very same night, his girlfriend tells him that she has met another man and is leaving him. Distraught by the events of the day, Danny turns to his flatmate Nelson (a cornflake eating monkey) at the local pub but their conversation is cut short when a fight breaks about between the pub landlord Barry and Nelson. Danny slips away unnoticed from the bar and heads home to drown his sorrows. Upon his way home, Danny unexpectedly walks into the path of a mugger who holds him at knifepoint demanding his shoes. Despite attempts to inform the mugger that he has no shoes, Danny is knocked out by a punch to the face. After reflecting on recent events over a bottle of whiskey, Danny soon comes to realise that he can't escape the vicious cycle known as 'The Greyness of Autumn' and realises that society will never accept him for being different and that Danny could only be free if he ended his life.

Main cast

Duncan Airlie James Duncan Airlie James (born Duncan Campbell; 23 May 1961) is the uncle to Yoshi Takahashi and is a Scottish actor best known for his roles in ''Tomb Raider'' and '' ID2: Shadwell Army''. He is a former heavyweight kickboxer and was the first Sc ...

as Danny McGuire (Voice) *Amy E Watson as Katie *Steven Patrick as Mr Jenkins *

as Nelson (Voice) *Neil Francis as Barry *

Andrew O'Donnell Andrew O'Donnell is a Scottish actor and was a co-founder of the Glasgow Filmmakers Alliance. He served as the director of the organisation from its conception before stepping down from the role on 30 June 2019.his age is currently 42. As an ac ...

as Jimmy Guinness *Euan Cuthbertson as The Interviewer *Dave Cullen-Wills as The Mugger *Tom Moriarty as Mr Harrison *David R. Montgomery as The Restaurant Manager *David Marshall as Kyle * Andy S. McEwan as The Office Worker

Release and reception

The film was released on 28 December 2012 and had its first public screening in April 2013 at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

where it was shown alongside ''The Priest with Two Guns'' by Rodney Reynolds. Both films coincidentally had

in the leading role. Throughout 2013, the film appeared at a number of festivals in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

including the Edinburgh Short Film Festival and the

Deep Fried Film Festival The Deep Fried Film Festival is an independent Film Festival that takes place every July in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Origins Festival director, Martin Greechan, conceived the Deep Fried Film Festival in 2005. Martin was teaching a full-time media co ...

. Internationally, the film was screened in various countries including the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where it featured in the Big Little Comedy Festival. It was also shown at the Dublin Short Film & Music Festival in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. ''The Greyness of Autumn'' received highly positive reviews from critics. In the

, MovieScramble said: The London Film Review and ScreenCritix both gave the film 4 out of 5 stars with Edmond Guy adding: Internationally, the film received high praise with Mark Bell of

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first ...

in the

saying: Canadian review site Pretty Clever Films wrote: In 2014, the film returned to the festival circuit appearing in the Southern Colorado Film Festival and the

Portobello Film Festival The Portobello Film Festival is an independent international film festival based in London, which annually premiers over 700 new films, including feature films, features, short films, shorts, documentaries, music films, and animation. Additionall ...

. In November, the film screened at the Barossa Film Festival in South Australia. In 2015, the film returned to Australia for the People of Passion Festival where it picked up the Best Short Comedy accolade.

Awards

Eurovision

In 2013, the producers of the film considered a bid for the character Nelson to represent the United Kingdom at the 2014 edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. A support page was launched on Facebook but eventually no song materialised and the bid was abandoned.

Autumn Never Dies

On 12 December 2014, it was announced on the website of

that writing had begun on a possible sequel to ''The Greyness of Autumn'' entitled ''

Autumn Never Dies ''Autumn Never Dies'' is a 2020 short comedy film directed by Chris Quick. It stars Duncan Airlie James and Nicollete McKeown and is the sequel to 2012 short film ''The Greyness of Autumn''. The film was written and produced by Andy S. McEwan and C ...

''. A crowd funding campaign was launched on Kickstarter on 17 August 2015 to raise funds for the production and lasted for 30 days. The campaign successfully raised £1,505 from 44 backers including former ''

Gamesmaster ''GamesMaster'' is a British television programme which originally aired on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998. In 2021, it returned for a new series on YouTube and E4. It was the first UK television programme dedicated to video games. Dominik Diam ...

'' host

Dominik Diamond Paul Dominik Diamond (born 31 December 1969) is a Scottish television and radio presenter and newspaper columnist. He is best known as the original presenter of Channel 4's video gaming programme '' GamesMaster'', as host of ''The Dominik Diamon ...

.Dominik Diamond Twitter Status
/ref> The film released in 2020.

References

External links

*
British Film Council Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greyness of Autumn, The 2012 short films Films set in Glasgow Films shot in Scotland Scottish films 2012 films 2012 independent films English-language Scottish films Puppet films British black comedy films Quick Off The Mark Productions films British independent films 2012 black comedy films British drama films 2012 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films