UK mentor scheme received seventeen applications for each place.

Actor-director Kenneth Branagh and writer-director Hossein Amini are among mentors for training programme Guiding Lights, run by Brighton-based cultural agency Lighthouse.

The 15 mentees include directors, writers, producers and, for the first time, exhibitors, as a result of a new partnership with Film Hub South East, part of the BFI Film Audience Network.

They will receive nine months of personal mentoring.

This year there were seventeen applications for each place on the scheme, which requires candidates to demonstrate experience in their field and their potential for the future.

The scheme began in 2006 and is sponsored by Creative Skillset and Studiocanal. Previous years’ mentors include Danny Boyle, Abi Morgan, Lone Scherfig and Julian Fellowes.

Kevin Macdonald, director of The Last King of Scotland, is taking part for the third time this year. He said: “What I really love about [Guiding Lights] is that I learn as much – maybe more – from the mentee as they learn from me.”

Alumni of the Guiding Lights scheme include BAFTA-nominated director Tina Gharavi and have produced over 30 features between them.

 

Full list of mentors and mentees:

Directors:

Michael Pearce - mentor: James Marsh

Elizabeth Stopford - mentor: Kevin MacDonald

Rachel Tunnard - mentor: Sean Durkin

Jack Weatherley - mentor: TBC

Writers:

Joy Wilkinson - mentor: Kenneth Branagh

Line Langebek - mentor: Frank Cottrell Boyce

Thomas Martin - mentor: Hossein Amini

George Kane - mentor: Dan Mazer

Producers:

Paul Fischer - mentor: Alison Owen

Elhum Shakerifar - mentor: Kate Ogborn

Alex Thiele - mentor: Julie Baines

Emily Morgan - mentor: Ed Guiney

Exhibitors:

​Rebecca Marshall - mentor: Ian Christie

Jonathan Hyde - mentor: Helen Dewitt

David Parker - mentor: Mark Dobson

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