UK’s Great 8 Cannes buyers’ showcase reveals 2022 line-up:

Cannes premieres Aftersun, sold by Charades, and Enys Men, sold by Protagonist Pictures, are among the titles selected for year’s Great 8, the annual Cannes buyers’ showcase of UK films from emerging directors.

The other six titles are all in post-production.

Now in its fifth edition, the 2022 Great 8 showcase is funded and run by the BFI and the British Council, in partnership with BBC Film and Film4.

Unseen footage from all of the titles will be introduced by their filmmakers and screened on May 12 exclusively to buyers and festival programmers during the online-only showcase, and made available across five different time zones. All of the features will be available to buyers during Cannes.

Among this year’s line-up is Charlotte Wells’ debut Aftersun, which plays in Critics’ Week, and stars Paul Mescal and newcomer Francesca Corio. The film follows a woman as she reflects on her relationship with her father through watching home video footage.

Mark Jenkin’s Enys Men plays in Directors’ Fortnight. The horror is set in 1973 on a Cornish island, where a solitary wildlife volunteer’s reality starts to take a twisted turn.

Further titles include Screen Star of Tomorrow Moin Hussain’s debut feature Birchanger Green, which unravels around a man living a lonely life who starts to believe he descends from an alien race, which is being sold by Bankside Films, and Palestinian-UK director Basil Khalil’s first feature, A Gaza Weekend, set amid a viral epidemic which consumes Israel, leaving Gaza the safest place in the region. It is being sold by Protagonist Pictures.

Great8 2022 line-up
Aftersun (UK)
Dir-scr: Charlotte Wells
Prods: Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak
Prod cos: Pastel, Unified Theory, BBC Film, BFI, Screen Scotland, Tango
Sales: Charades

Birchanger Green (UK)
Dir-scr: Moin Hussain
Prods: Michelle Stein
Cast: Faraz Ayub, Natalie Gavin, Claire Rushbrook, Simon Nagra, Steve Oram, Jeff Mirza
Prod cos: Escape Films, Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire
Sales: Bankside Films

Blue Jean (UK)
Dir-scr: Georgia Oakley
Prod: Hélène Sifre
Cast: Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday
Prod cos: Kleio Films, BBC Film, BFI
Sales: Film Constellation

Enys Men (UK)
Dir-scr: Mark Jenkin
Prod: Denzil Monk
Cast: Mary Woodvine, Edward Rowe, Flo Crowe, John Woodvine
Prod cos: Bosena, Film4, Sound/Image Cinema Lab
Sales: Protagonist Pictures

A Gaza Weekend (UK-Palestine)
Dir: Basil Khalil
Scrs: Basil Khalil, Daniel Chan
Prod: Amina Dasmal
Cast: Loai Noufi, Stephen Mangan, Mouna Hawa, Maria Zreik, Adam Bakri
Prod cos: BFI, Film4, Alcove Filmed Entertainment, Twickenham Studios, Faiza Saleh Ambah, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture
Sales: Protagonist Pictures

Kensuke’s Kingdom (UK-Lux-Fr)
Dirs: Kirk Hendry, Neil Boyle
Scr: Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Prods: Camilla Deakin, Ruth Fielding, Stephen Roelants, Sarah Radclyffe, Barnaby Spurrier, Adrian Politowski, Martin Metz, Jean Labadie, Anne-Laure Labadie
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy, Raffey Cassidy, Aaron MacGregor, Ken Wanatabe
Prod cos: BFI, Align, Lupus Films, Kensuke’s Kingdom, Jigsaw Films, Melusine Productions, Le Pacte, Bumpybox, Film Fund Luxembourg, Ffilm Cymru Wales
Sales: Bankside Films

Scrapper (UK)
Dir-scr: Charlotte Regan
Prod: Theo Barrowclough
Cast: Harris Dickinson, Olivia Brady, Lola Campbell, Ambreen Razia, Alin Uzun
Prod cos: DMC Film, BFI, BBC Film, Great Point Media
Sales: Charades

Sweet Sue (UK)
Dir-scr: Leo Leigh
Prods: Scott O’Donnell, Andy Brunskill, Tim Nash
Cast: Maggie O’Neill, Tony Pitts, Harry Trevaldwyn
Prod cos: Somesuch, Sums Film & Media, BBC Film
Sales: HanWay Films

View this article at Screen Daily.