The latest hot projects from former Screen Stars Of Tomorrow

Production wrapped in March on Bring Them Down, the debut feature of Chris Andrews (2019 Star of Tomorrow) about the last son of a shepherding family drawn into a conflict with a rival farmer and his son. Christopher Abbott leads the cast opposite Barry Keoghan (2015 SoT), with Mubi financing alongside Screen Ireland.

Keoghan recently appeared in another Mubi title, Bird, from director Andrea Arnold — a Star in the first edition in 2004! The film debuted in Cannes Competition in May, with the festival also launching Santosh from Sandhya Suri (2023 SoT) and On Becoming A Guinea Fowl from Rungano Nyoni (2017 SoT), both in Un Certain Regard.

Writer/director Harry Lighton (2018 SoT) is shooting debut feature Pillion this summer. Adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’ novel Box Hill, it will star Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard in a romance between a shy young man and the leader of a kinky, queer motorbike club.

Pillion is one of several current projects from former Stars with BBC Film, including new untitled features from Remi Weekes (2017 SoT), Raine Allen-Miller (2021 SoT), Akinola Davies Jr (2020 SoT), Aleem Khan   (2015 SoT), Charlotte Regan (2020 SoT), Mahalia Belo (2012 SoT) and Thomas Hardiman (2021 SoT).

Harris Dickinson (2017 SoT) will star opposite Nicole Kidman in Halina Reijn’s crime thriller Babygirl, playing an intern who begins an illicit affair with an older CEO. Dickinson will also make his feature directing debut this year, produced through his newly launched production brand Devisio Pictures; it is another BBC Film project.

Chosen for Stars in 2020 as a producer, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor shot her feature-directing debut Dreamers in April, produced by Emily Morgan (2015 SoT), starring Ronke Adekoluejo (2023 SoT) and developed by BBC Film and the BFI. The story centres on a woman trapped without papers in a detention centre, who learns that finding freedom sometimes means doing the wrong things.

Calm With Horses filmmaker Nick Rowland (2015 SoT) has wrapped next featureShe Rides Shotgun, a crime thriller based on Jordan Harper’s novel, about a recently released prisoner who must go on the run with the 11-year-old daughter he hardly knows. Taron Egerton (2014 SoT) stars in the US feature.

After series One Day was a hit on Net­flix in February, leads Leo Woodall (2023 SoT) and Ambika Mod (2022 SoT) are both at work. Woodall is filming the fourth Bridget Jones film Mad About The Boy for a 2025 release and wrapped thriller Nuremberg in February alongside Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek and Richard E Grant. Mod has been shooting Disney+ series Playdate for Eva Husson, with Holliday Grainger   (2009 SoT) and Jim Sturgess — lead in the 2011 One Day feature — among the cast.

With season three of Heartstopper arriving on Netflix in October, Kit Connor (2023 SoT) has been in demand for Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare, currently in production; voicing an orphan goose in DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, releasing in September; and on Broadway, where he will make his debut in musical Romeo + Juliet opposite Rachel Zegler.

Having won Bafta’s Rising Star award this year, Mia McKenna-Bruce (2023 SoT) will lead the cast of Netflix’s Agatha Christie adaptationThe Seven Dials Mystery, from Broadchurch creator Chris Chibnall and starring Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman.

Rosy McEwen (2022 SoT) and Thalissa Teixeira (2021 SoT) are among the cast of Harvest, from Chevalier  director Athina Rachel Tsangari. It shot last autumn, backed by BBC Film and Screen Scotland and produced by the UK’s Sixteen Films.

Headlining Doctor Who has kept him busy, but Ncuti Gatwa (2020 SoT) also has a key role in Jay Roach’s The Roses, written by Tony McNamara and starring 2004 Star Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman.

After debut feature Black Dog, writer/director/producer George Jaques (2022 SoT) is in pre-production for Sunny Dancer, about a teenager in cancer remission attending a summer camp, for Ken Petrie’s 27 Ten and Embankment Films. Bella Ramsey (2021 SoT) leads the cast, alongside Louis Partridge (2022 SoT) and Ruby Stokes (2023 SoT).

Partridge is also in a stacked ensemble cast for Noah Baumbach’s untitled Netflix film with George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, and has Apple TV+ series Disclaimer from Alfonso Cuaron and starring Cate Blanchett. Ramsey will lead Bruce Goodison’s Girl Next Door, playing real-life UK terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to a 7/7 London bomber and is currently a wanted suspect known as the White Widow.

Screen also remembers Chance Perdomo (2019 SoT) who sadly died in a motorbike accident in March aged 27. Perdomo broke through in Net­flix seriesThe Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and had further credits in Prime Video’s Gen V and the After film series.

• Stars of Tomorrow one-to-one: Jim Wilson, Elizabeth Rufai & Abiola Rufai-Awojide

• Stars of Tomorrow one-to-one: directors Thea Sharrock & Abdou Cissé