The UK industry gathered at the Cannes UK pavilion yesterday (May 16) to celebrate the work of the eight projects taking part in this year’s Cannes Great 8 showcase.
Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, Sean Dunn’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path were among the eight titles taking part, with filmmakers taking to the stage to discuss their projects.
Scroll down to see the full line-up
The only documentary in this year’s line-up is Witches, from Elizabeth Sankey, in which the filmmaker explores the unexpected connections between perinatal mental health illness and the history and portrayal of witches in western society.
“The film is about my own experience of maternal mental health issues after the birth of my son, and lots of other lovely women who had similar experiences,” said Sankey. “It was incredibly difficult because I thought, I’m just really boring. Nobody’s gonna want to know about me. It took Mubi who we made the film with to say, ‘You have to tell your story, that’s the whole point of why we’re doing this.’ It was a therapeutic journey.”
Andrews spoke about piecing together a debut feature with a starry cast in Bring Them Down. “It’s always terrifying the first day, because it’s the first day. We had quite a long gestation period. Chris Abbott had to learn Irish, so we spoke about the character a lot and did a lot of work, same with Barry, he was attached for quite a long time. He got nominated for an Oscar on day two [of the shoot].”
Elliott’s The Salt Path also includes a big name cast, with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. “You never really know when you cast your actors,” she said. When she met Isaacs, “I met him for a drink, it lasted about two hours and we didn’t stop talking,” which matched the “young, childish” side of his character in the film.
In Anderson, “I needed an actress who would be completely unvain, and she was prepared to go the whole hog.”
Now in its seventh year, the 2024 Great 8 showcase is funded and produced by the BFI and the British Council, with support from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland campaign, BBC Film and Film4. In preparation for Cannes, unseen footage from all of the titles were screened online to buyers and festival programmers ahead of Cannes. All of the features are available to buyers during the market.
With 2022 and 2023 editions taking place online, 2024 marks the return of the showcase with a physical format in Cannes.
Among the attendees at the Great 8 celebration were the British Council’s director of film Briony Hanson who introduced the films and filmmakers; minister of state at the cabinet office Lucy Neville-Rolfe, who welcomed international festival attendees; Film4’s head of creative Farhana Bhula; BFI CEO Ben Roberts; BFI deputy CEO Harriet Finney; Andrew Smith from Pinewood Group; Hannah Oussedik from the British Embassy in Paris; Bafta CEO Jane Millichip; Bafta North America chair Joyce Pierpoline; Edinburgh film festival director Paul Ridd; producer at Number 9 Films, Elizabeth Karlsen; NFTS head Lizzie Francke; and representatives from UK sales agents Bankside Films and Metro International.
Great 8 2024 line-up
Brides (UK-It)
Dir. Nadia Fall
Scr. Suhayla El-Bushra
Prods. Nicky Bentham, Marica Stocchi
Prod cos. Neon Films, Rosamont, BFI, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Bankside Films, MIC, FVG Audiovisual Fund and ieie productions.
Cast: Ebada Hassan, Safiyya Ingar, Yusra Warsama, Cemre Ebuzziya, Aziz Capkurt
Sales: Bankside Films
Bring Them Down (UK-Ire-Belg)
Dir-scr. Christopher Andrews
Prods. Ivana MacKinnon, Jacob Swan Hyam, Ruth Treacy , Julianne Forde , Jean-Yves Roubin, Cassandre Warnauts
Prod cos. Wild Swim, Tailored Films, Screen Ireland, MUBI, Frakas Productions. Supported by the UK Global Screen Fund
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Colm Meaney, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready
Sales: Charades
The Fall OF Sir Douglas Weatherford (UK)
Dir-scr. Sean Dunn
Prods. Scott Macaulay, Jennifer Monks, Alex Polunin
Prod cos. BBC Film, BBC Scotland, BFI, Screen Scotland, Ossian Pictures, Come Into the Fold, Forensic Films
Cast: Peter Mullan, Gayle Rankin, Jakob Oftebro, Sid Sagar, Lewis MacDougall
Sales: Charades
On Falling (UK-Port)
Dir. Laura Carreira
Prods. Jack Thomas O’Brien, Mario Patrocinio
Prod cos. BBC Film, BFI, Screen Scotland, Sixteen Films, BRO Cinema, ICA, Goodfellas
Cast: Joana Santos, Inês Vaz, Piotr Sikora, Jake McGarry, Neil Leiper
Sales: Goodfellas
The Salt Path(UK)
Dir. Marianne Elliott
Scr. Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Prods. Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Lloyd Levin, Beatriz Levin
Prod cos. Number 9 Films, Shadowplay Features with the support of BBC Film, Rocket Science, Lipsync
Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs
Sales: Rocket Science
Sunlight (UK)
Dir. Nina Conti
Scrs. Shenoah Allen, Nina Conti
Prods. Sam Parker, Will Machin, Keagan Karnes, Tabitha McDonald
Prod cos. Anyway Content, Metro International, Inspirado
Cast: Nina Conti, Shenoah Allen, Bill Wise
Sales: Metro International
Surviving Earth (UK)
Dir-scr. Thea Gajić
Prods. Aleksandra Bilić, Sophie Reynolds
Cast: Slavko Sobin, Olive Gray, Stuart Martin, Peter Coonan, Toni Gojanović, Ann Ogbomo
Prod cos. My Accomplice, Sona Films, BFI, Film4
Sales: Bankside
Witches (UK) – documentary
Dir-scr. Elizabeth Sankey
Prods. Manon Ardisson, Chiara Ventura, Jeremy Warmsley
Prod cos. Ardimages UK, Montgomery Avenue, Mubi, Garden Studios
Sales: Mubi
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