Peter Mullan, Shirley Henderson and Kevin McKidd are among the Scottish stars to appear in the first two digital features produced under the country's New Found Films scheme.

Financed by Scottish Television, Grampian Television and Scottish Screen, the three year New Found Land scheme was previously responsible for producing six thirty-minute dramas each year, among them the award-winning Leonard and Solid Geometry, directed by Denis Lawson and starring Ewan McGregor.

This year, the re-titled New Found Films provides backing for two 90-minute features budgeted at £200,000 each which will have their world premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August.

Inspired by Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, Oscar Films' Blinded is described as a "psychological thriller exploring the darker side of human desire."

Written and directed by Eleanor Yule and produced by Oscar Van Heek, it stars Peter Mullan, Anders Berthelsen and Jodhi May.

Gabriel Films' Afterlife tells of an ambitious young journalist forced to consider his family responsibilities when he discovers that his mother is dying. Kevin McKidd, Shirley Henderson and Lindsay Duncan star, Catherine Aitken produces and Alison Peebles directs from a screenplay by Andrea Gibb.

Gibb is fast becoming one of Scotland's most prolific screenwriters. Her screenplay Natural History is currently in production in Glasgow for Pathe Pictures and she is also adapting Louise Welsh's prize-winning crime novel The Cutting Room as a feature for Raindance, Deep Indigo and Four Ways productions.

Filming is expected to take place in Glasgow next year with Robert Carlyle playing a gay auctioneer who uncovers a hidden collection of violent erotic images that prompts a journey through the city's seedy underworld.

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