The BFI has revealed the lineup of titles it’ll take to the upcoming Cannes Market as a part of its Nice 8 initiative for first and second-time filmmakers.
The listing of options consists of Animol, the debut characteristic from Prime Boy actor Ashley Walters, and Madfabulous from filmmaker Celyn Jones. The BFI will current the options to worldwide consumers in Cannes. The total listing of titles are:
- Animol – director Ashley Walters, author Nick Love
- Ish – director Imran Perretta, writers Imran Perretta, Enda Walsh
- Studying to Breathe Beneath Water – director Rebekah Fortune, author Richard Brabin
- Madfabulous – director Celyn Jones, author Lisa Baker
- Mission – director/author Paul Wright
- On the Sea – director/author Helen Walsh
- Retreat – director/author Ted Evans
- The Son and the Sea – director Stroma Cairns, writers Imogen West, Stroma Cairns
Now in its eighth 12 months, the 2025 Nice 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council. As a part of the scheme, unseen footage from all of the titles can be launched by their filmmakers and screened on-line completely to consumers and pageant programmers from Thursday, 8 Could, and all through the pageant throughout 5 completely different time zones.
Nice 8-selected movies and filmmakers who’ve gone on to search out worldwide important acclaim and business success embody Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun, which turned MUBI’s highest-earning launch within the UK. Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, and Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper.
The Cannes Market runs from Could 13 to 21. Scroll down for a full rundown of the titles.
ANIMOL
UK
Drama
Director: Ashley Walters
Author: Nick Love
Producers: Thomas Hawkins, Pleasure Gharoro-Akpojotor, Nick Love, Ashley Walters
Forged: Tut Nyuot, Vladyslav Baliuk, Stephen Graham, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Sekou Diaby
Manufacturing: Sky, Film4, BFI, Joi Productions, Rogue State Productions, SLNda
Gross sales: Bankside Movies
Synopsis – Animol tells the story of 15-year-old Troy, who’s remanded in custody for a homicide he didn’t commit. Thrown right into a infamous Younger Offenders’ Establishment, he tries to maintain his head down and keep out of bother—however survival isn’t straightforward when everybody desires one thing from you. Amid the chaos, Troy finds an sudden ally in Krystiyan, one other younger inmate struggling to navigate the identical risky world.
A strong and tender coming-of-age drama, Animol explores the shattering of innocence, the grip of tribalism, and the braveness it takes to be your true self within the harshest of environments.
Ashley Walters is a celebrated and award-winning actor, director, producer, and recording artist, recognized for his seismic position inside Black London tradition and the UK leisure business. He first rose to prominence as a part of the pioneering UK Storage collective So Stable Crew, whose No.1 single “21 Seconds” earned them a BRIT Award. His breakthrough appearing position got here in Bullet Boy (2004), incomes him a BIFA for Most Promising Newcomer. Ashley is greatest recognized for his portrayal of Dushane in Prime Boy, a defining collection in British tv, with 5 seasons spanning Channel 4 and Netflix. In 2017, he based his manufacturing firm, SLNda, to champion new expertise and culturally resonant tales, making his directorial debut with the quick movie Boys for Sky. Most lately, Ashley directed on Steven Knight’s A Thousand Blows for Disney+/Hulu and starred in Netflix hits Lacking You and Adolescence, which broke UK viewing information.
ISH
UK
Coming of age
Director: Imran Perretta
Writers: Imran Perretta, Enda Walsh
Producers: Dhiraj Mahey, Bennett McGhee
Forged: Farhan Hasnat, Yahya Kitana, Avin Shah, Sudha Bhuchar, Pleasure Crookes, Arman Mohammed,
Is’haaq Hasan Haque, Hasnain Shah,
Manufacturing: Produced by Primal Photos in affiliation with Residence Crew, Good Chaos. Financiers: BBC Movie, BFI. Further assist: Calculus Media, Out of Order
Gross sales: Movie Constellation
Synopsis –Ish follows two greatest associates, Ish and Maram, on the cusp of being youngsters. In a society the place racial profiling ensures brown boys are continually beneath surveillance, their friendship is ended by a traumatic police stop-and-search. Ish quickly discovers that ‘letting go’ might be the toughest a part of rising up.
Imran Perretta is a author, director, visible artist and composer from London. Attaining important acclaim on this planet of latest artwork, his sound and transferring picture work has been carried out and proven at galleries and festivals internationally and is included in various private and non-private artwork collections together with the Tate and the Arts Council England. Imran’s most up-to-date movie work The Destructors toured main establishments throughout the UK. Following the debut of The Destructors, Imran was named a Turner Prize Bursary winner in 2020. His present exhibition, A Riot In Three Acts is at present on tour and contains a new suite of music for string quartet, A Requiem for the Dispossessed, and carried out by the Manchester Camerata. Along with the Turner Prize Bursary, Imran was named a Jarman Award nominee in 2019, and was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Basis Artist Award in 2023.
Studying to Breathe Beneath Water
UK/Eire/Netherlands
Drama
Director: Rebekah Fortune
Author: Richard Brabin
Forged: Rory Kinnear, Maria Bakalova, Ezra Carlisle
Producers: Jack Tarling, Patrick O’Neill
Forged: Zubin Varla, Sudha Bhuchar, Sarag Arya, Robert Ryan
Manufacturing: A Shudder Movies and Wildcard manufacturing in co-production with KeyFilm & One Wave Movies and in affiliation with Eiru Movies. Financiers: Display Eire, UK World Display Fund, Ffilm Cymru Wales, WRAP Fund, Netherlands Movie Fund, Dias Feld, Finite Movies, Bankside Movies and Three Level Capital.
Gross sales: Bankside Movies
Synopsis – Leo is eight, curious, sensible and filled with creativeness. His greatest good friend is a large shark—half sculpture, half fantasy—that crashed by means of the roof of his home one evening when his dad, Peter, gave form to what he couldn’t say out loud.
Leo’s world is filled with questions: why do grown-ups act so unusually? The place did Mum go 5 years in the past? And can Dad ever come down from the clouds—or at the very least bear in mind to do the procuring? Peter’s both buried in huge, bonkers artwork initiatives or barely talking, so Leo daydreams vividly and shares his secrets and techniques with the shark, who may simply be listening however can’t converse again.
Then Anya bursts into their lives: a spirited au pair along with her personal inquiries to shatter the silence and solutions extra trustworthy than Leo has ever heard earlier than. Her fearless heat and power brings again color to their world and uplifts their lives.
Rebekah Fortune is an autistic director based mostly in Tamworth, at present in submit on her second characteristic, Studying To Breathe Beneath Water, which stars BAFTA-nominated Rory Kinnear and Oscar®-nominated Maria Bakalova, produced by Kneecap producers Jack Tarling and Patrick O’Neill.
Rebekah’s micro- funds debut characteristic Simply Charlie was launched to important acclaim in 2017 receiving many awards together with the Viewers Award at Edinburgh Worldwide Movie Competition and the Cannes Movie Competition Ecrans Junior Award, and was nominated for 2 BIFAs. Simply Charlie secured distribution worldwide. Her portfolio of quick movies has gained quite a few Oscar® and BAFTA qualifying festivals. She has mentored for BFI Community, sat on the BAFTA quick movie jury, and is an alumni of Community@LFF, Edinburgh Expertise Lab, BIFA springboard, Display Yorkshire Flex and Breaking By way of the Lens, together with being a finalist for the Academy Gold Fellowship. Moreover, Rebekah works extensively with younger actors with Disabilities.
MADFABULOUS
Wales/UK
Different interval drama
Director: Celyn Jones
Author: Lisa Baker
Producers: Sean Marley, Nadia Jaynes
Forged: Callum Scott Howells, Ruby Stokes, Rupert Everett, Paul Rhys, Siobhán McSweeney
Manufacturing: Mad as Birds, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Inventive Wales
Gross sales: Sean Marley sean@madasbirdsfilms.com
Synopsis – A riotous, uncompromising celebration of otherness impressed by the unlikely British aristocrat who theatrically bankrupted his property, lived quick and died younger.
When the flamboyant Henry Paget arrives in Eighteen Nineties North Wales from France to say his aristocratic inheritance, his theatrical aptitude and defiant eccentricities ship shockwaves by means of the upper-class elite, a lot to the amusement of the native townspeople. Alongside his spirited cousin Lily and constant butler Gelert, Henry tries to carve out his personal id because the Fifth Marquess, whereas contending with the chilly ambition of his calculating cousin Neville and the looming risk of the ruthless Lord Penrhyn. Collectively, Henry and Lily navigate suffocating traditions, scheming kinfolk, and the lengthy shadow forged by Henry’s estranged father.
Madfabulous is impressed by Henry Paget, the fifth Marquis of Anglesey, who smashed society’s notions of sophistication, gender and decorum, squandering a multimillion fortune earlier than his premature demise. They left nothing behind however love… and a very good story.
Celyn Jones is a critically acclaimed, award-winning actor and BAFTA-nominated author from Wales, in addition to Inventive Director of manufacturing firm Mad as Birds. The Instances praised him as “the powerhouse author/performer behind the best Dylan Thomas biopic but.” He gained a BAFTA Cymru Award in 2019 for his portrayal of a real-life serial killer in Manhunt, however lately has centered more and more on writing and directing.
Jones wrote and co-directed The Almond and the Seahorse, by which he additionally stars reverse Insurgent Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg; the movie premiered on the Zurich and Dinard movie festivals, profitable the Particular Jury Prize. Madfabulous marks his debut as a solo director.
mission
UK
Drama thriller
Director/author: Paul Wright
Producers: Kate Byers, Alex Thiele, Linn Waite, Marie-Elena Dyche, Lowri Roberts
Forged: George Mackay, Rosy McEwen
Manufacturing: Early Day Movies, 65 Wilding Movies, Meraki Movies, Rapt, BBC Movie, Display Scotland, Ffilm Cymru Wales
Gross sales: Blue Finch Movies
Synopsis – Mission is a punk exploration of the psyche which follows alienated Dylan (George MacKay) as he throws off the shackles of his solitary life in an try to expertise the highs and lows of existence at its most excessive. Estranged from his sister Claire (Rosy McEwen), he embarks on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery that proves each inspiring and terrifying.
Paul Wright is a critically acclaimed BAFTA profitable Scottish author/director whose work has performed internationally at festivals corresponding to Cannes, Berlin and Locarno. An NFTS graduate, his quick movies have acquired worldwide acclaim and awards, together with profitable the BAFTA for Finest Quick Movie, The Leopard of Tomorrow Award at Locarno, and screened in quite a few status movie festivals worldwide. His characteristic debut For These In Peril premiered within the Cannes Critics’ Week, gained the BAFTA Scotland Finest Movie award and the BIFA Douglas Hickox Award for Directorial Debut. Paul was additionally nominated for the BAFTA Award for Excellent Debut by a British Author/Director. He has most lately accomplished Arcadia, a provocative and poetic documentary. The movie screened at quite a few festivals together with BFI London Movie Competition, Glasgow Movie Competition, and MOMA in New York, earlier than being launched theatrically nationwide to important acclaim.
on the ocean
UK
Drama
Director/author: Helen Walsh
Producers: David Moores, David A Hughes; Govt Producers: Mike Goodridge, Chris Clark
Forged: Barry Ward, Lorne MacFadyen, Liz White, Henry Lawfull, Celyn Jones
Manufacturing: Crimson Union Movies
Accessible for gross sales: David Moores dmoores@redunionfilms.com, Mike Goodridge mike@goodchaos.co.uk
Synopsis – Jack has been married to Maggie for over half his life. He works as a Hand Raker on the mussel beds in North Wales alongside his youthful brother, Dyfan, and Dyfan’s three sons. Jack has all the time assumed that his personal boy, Tom, will be part of the household enterprise on leaving college however Tom’s resistance to observe in his footsteps creates familial pressure. Tensions are additional infected by the arrival of an itinerant deckhand, Daniel, who makes recognized his emotions for Jack. On this distant, rural group the place life revolves round Church and fishery, Jack is confronted with an inconceivable dilemma. On The Sea is an exquisite, sensual and at occasions, tragic exploration of masculinity, place and need.
Helen Walsh’s debut novel Brass gained the Betty Trask Award and was essentially the most extensively reviewed e book of 2004. Natasha Walters, writing in Vogue, known as it, “Some of the placing coming of age tales I’ve ever learn.” Her second novel As soon as Upon a Time in England gained the Somerset Maugham Prize and The Lemon Grove, her most up-to-date, was a critically acclaimed best-seller that she is at present adapting for TV.
Helen wrote and directed her debut characteristic, The Violators in 2016 and was awarded BAFTA’s Breakthrough New Director. Her latest Channel 4 present, The Gathering (2024), which she created and wrote was the recipient of three RTS Awards. On The Sea, is her sophomore characteristic and can be launched in 2025.
RETREAT
UK
Thriller
Director/author: Ted Evans
Producers: Michelle Stein, Jennifer Monks, Alex Usborne
Forged: Anne Zander, James Boyle, Sophie Stone,Ace Mahbaz, Anna Seymour
Manufacturing: BFI, BBC Movie and Inventive UK current a The Fold and 104 Movies Manufacturing
Gross sales: XYZ Movies
Synopsis – Raised in an remoted deaf group, cracks start to seem in Matt’s seemingly idyllic world when the arrival of enigmatic outsider Eva forces him to query the realities of his id. Is Matt ready to find what lies beneath the floor of his supposedly utopian group and the prices demanded to take care of it?
Ted Evans is a writer-director is from Hackney, East London and communicates in each spoken English and British Signal Language. In 2012 he co-wrote and directed two movies for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony – Look Up and Fowl Gherl. Evans acquired worldwide and important approval for his award-winning shorts, The Finish and Retreat, the latter of which he has tailored as his debut characteristic movie, with manufacturing firm The Fold supported by the BFI and BBC Movie. He directed a documentary, that includes Rose Ayling-Ellis, Indicators for Change, which aired on BBC1 after being showcased at Sheffield Doc Fest (2023) and netted him an Rising Expertise: Factual BAFTA nomination. In 2018 he was chosen as a part of Inventive England’s CE50 and his most up-to-date quick movie To Know Him was nominated for Finest Quick Movie at BIFA 2018.
THE SON AND THE SEA
UK
Drama
Director: Stroma Cairns
Writers: Imogen West, Stroma Cairns
Producers: Imogen West, Kelly Peck
Forged Jonah West, Stanley Brock, Connor Tompkins, Grant Lindsay
Manufacturing: BBC Movie, In The Firm Of, Studio Cloy, Second Movie Group, Creativity Media, Creativity Capital
Accessible for Gross sales: Kelly Peck, kelly@studiocloy.com, Imogen West, imogen imogen@inthecompanyof.co
Synopsis – Jonah (26) charismatically ADHD, is a man-child who retains on slipping, while his greatest mate, Lee (26), nimbly climbs each ladder. After hitting yet one more bump and beneath stress to see his great-aunt, who’s misplaced to dementia, Jonah contrives that he and Lee go go to, hoping it may additionally supply respite from himself and the mess he’s creating. Although the north-east coast of Scotland wasn’t fairly what Lee envisioned, it holds a sure wildness and marvel. There, they meet Charlie (26), who’s profoundly Deaf and trying to wash up after his shady twin brother. By way of a growing friendship that surpasses their language limitations, the three boys type a connection that encourages them to step out of their boyhood, uncover the braveness to be weak, and that pleasure is feasible regardless of loss.
Stroma Cairns is a BAFTA-winning director based mostly in London. The Son and the Sea can be her debut characteristic. The movie is an ode to her Scottish roots, her brother and his father/musician Gavin Clark. The movie options music by Gavin Clark and the rating is by Toydrum (former UNKLE members). Stroma directed the second block of the BAFTA profitable TV collection Temper. She was chosen for BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew mentoring programme. Beforehand, her quick movie If You Knew premiered at Sheffield DocFest, and went on to obtain the Jury’s Particular Commendation award on the BFI London Movie Competition. It was additionally named Finest Quick Movie at Open Metropolis Doc Competition and was shortlisted for a Grierson award. The movie was impressed by her personal listening to loss and portrays a day within the lifetime of two teenage twins who’re profoundly Deaf.
