page_title: Billy Elliot
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Billy Elliot / Plot
caption_attribution_description: English: Jamie Bell at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California.
context_page_description: Billy Elliot is a 2000 British dance drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Lee Hall. Set in County Durham, England during the 1984–85 miners' strike, the film is about a working-class boy who discovers his passion for ballet, despite his father's objection and the negative stereotype associated with being a male ballet dancer. The film stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, Gary Lewis as his father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher.
  Adapted from a play called Dancer by Lee Hall, development on the film began in 1999. Around 2,000 boys were considered for the role of Billy before Bell was eventually chosen for the role. Filming began in the North of England in August 1999. Greg Brenman and Jon Finn served as producers, while Stephen Warbeck composed the film's score. Billy Elliot is a co-production between BBC Films, Tiger Aspect Pictures and Working Title Films.
  The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, and then began a wider theatrical release on 29 September 2000 by Universal Pictures.
context_section_description: In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony, both coal miners out on strike (the latter being the union delegate), and also his maternal grandmother, who has Alzheimer's disease and once aspired to be a professional dancer.
  
  Billy's father sends him to the gym to learn boxing, but Billy dislikes the sport. He happens to see a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio is being used temporarily as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unbeknownst to Jackie, Billy joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet classes. But, passionate about dancing, Billy secretly continues his lessons with the help of his dance teacher, Sandra Wilkinson.
  Sandra believes that Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a clash between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Sandra tells Jackie about the missed opportunity, but fearing that Billy will be considered to be gay, both Jackie and Tony are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.
  Over Christmas, Billy learns his best friend, Michael, is gay. Billy is supportive of his friend. Later, Jackie catches Billy dancing in the gym and realises his son is truly gifted; he resolves to do whatever it takes to help Billy attain his dream. Sandra tries to persuade Jackie to let her pay for the audition, but he replies that Billy is his son and he does not need charity. Jackie attempts to cross the picket line to pay for the trip to London, but Tony stops him. Instead, his fellow miners and the neighbourhood raise some money and Jackie pawns Billy's mother's jewellery to cover the cost, and Jackie takes him to London to audition.
  Although very nervous, Billy performs well, but he punches another boy in frustration at the audition, and fears that he has ruined his chances of attaining his dream. He is rebuked by the review board and, when asked what it feels like when he is dancing, struggles for words, eventually describing it as being "like electricity". Seemingly rejected, Billy returns home with his father. Sometime later, the Royal Ballet School sends him a letter of acceptance, coinciding with the end of the miners' strike, and Billy leaves home for London.
  In 1998, 25-year-old Billy takes the stage to perform the Swan in Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, as Jackie, Tony, and Michael watch from the audience; Billy's father is visibly moved by his performance.
caption: Jamie Bell (pictured in 2015) received acclaim for his performance as Billy.
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