Young@Heart was broadcast nationwide across the USA on PBS on January 12 in its full feature-length version. A total of 525 Public Broadcasting TV stations showed the film at primetime as part of the Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens. The film received major critical acclaim and was picked as ‘Show of the Week’ in many national and regional press outlets. Check out the Young@Heart page on the Independent Lens site.

For the second year running, Stephen Walker has been included in Broadcast Magazine's Hot 100 List as one of the UK's top 12 television directors.

Alex: A Passion For Life has attracted rave reviews from both the national and local press, and it was Pick of the Day in almost every newspaper.

“It's hard to find words to describe how inspiring this film is. You'll just have to watch it.” The Times

“A heart-warming and poignant reminder that life is for living… an extraordinary new film.” Daily Mail

On October 8 at 9pm Channel 4 broadcast Alex: A Passion For Life (watch online here), the sequel to the award-winning A Boy Called Alex, about the Eton musical scholar and cystic fibrosis sufferer Alex Stobbs. In this latest film, Alex faces the biggest musical challenge of his life: to conduct Bach's epic St Matthew Passion with a professional orchestra and some of Britain's top soloists. Along the way we catch up with his hectic life as a first year student at Cambridge University and his struggle to cope with cystic fibrosis, an incurable disease that is gradually destroying his lungs.

Young@Heart has won another two prestigious prizes to add to its tally of 18 awards so far:

• USA: Winner of the DVD Critics Best Non-Fiction Title (2009)
  
• Germany: Winner of the AG Kino-Gilde (German Art House Cinemas) Best Documentary (2009)

After a very successful theatrical release in the US and across Europe in 2008, the movie continues its theatrical run around the globe, with a recent release in Israel and future releases planned for Greece and Thailand.

Alex's book, A Passion for Living (The Amazing Story of a Boy Who Makes Every Day Matter) has been published today, 17 September, by Hodder. It follows his life as a first-year music student at King's College, Cambridge and his preparations to conduct Bach's epic choral work, the St Matthew Passion, while coping with his lung-wasting disease cystic fibrosis. A diary of his daily experiences, the book vivid demonstrates Alex's determination to give his all to his music, set against the exhausting demands of his never-ending medication.

Alex has never let his disease get in the way of his passion for music, and his defiance and good-humour in the face of cystic fibrosis shines through his book. A Passion for Living is the moving and very funny diary of a young musician who will let nothing get in the way of achieving his goals and make every day count.

The documentary Alex: A Passion For Life, which was filmed over the same period of his book, will be broadcast on 8 October 2009 at 9pm on Channel 4.

You can find out more about A Passion for Living on his literary agent's website.

The award-winning documentary Young@Heart will be available on DVD in the UK and Ireland from mid-May. The film is currently completing a six-month run in art house cinemas across the country and continues to receive outstanding reviews from the critics.

Over the past year Young@Heart has been released in cinemas in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, winning 17 film festival awards around the world. Each of these countries will be releasing their own DVDs in the coming months. In the US and Canada, the DVD has already been released by Twentieth Century Fox. There are more details on the Fox Searchlight website. (Buy the DVD from Amazon here.)

The soundtrack of Young@Heart is also available both on CD and as a digital download on iTunes and elsewhere.

Walker George Films are delighted to announce that A Boy Called Alex has been nominated for 3 BAFTA awards: Best Documentary, Best Director (Stephen Walker) and Best Editing (Ben Stark).

The film was also nominated for a Broadcast Award and a Royal Television Society Award in the Best Documentary categories, and won a Royal Television Society Craft Award for Best Photography and Sound.

We are currently in production with The Continuing Adventures of A Boy Called Alex (working title). Following the success of the original film, A Boy Called Alex, Channel 4 have commissioned a sequel about the remarkable young man Alexander Stobbs, a gifted musician suffering from cystic fibrosis.

Alex is now in his first year as a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge University. The new film is due to be broadcast as part of Channel 4’s Cutting Edge season in autumn 2009.

Walker George Films are in development with Working Title on a feature film inspired by the documentary Young@Heart. The screenplay is being written by the American screenwriter Bob Nelson.

Working Title are also in development on the big screen adaptation of Stephen Walker’s New York Times bestselling book, Shockwave, the gripping story of the final three weeks before the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Screenwriter is David Benioff, whose credits include X-Men, Kiterunner and Troy.