Isabel Davies, Mia Bays

Source: Screen Scotland/Screen file

Isabel Davis, Mia Bays

A selection of UK film funders will take to the stage at the UK pavilion at Cannes tomorrow (Sunday May 19) to explore their national and international ambitions, how they are working to empower emerging talent in a new media landscape, and their approach to creativity and risk.

Taking part is Mia Bays, director, BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund; Isabel Davis, executive director, Screen Scotland; Ursula Devine, development executive, Northern Ireland Screen’ Shanida Scotland, co-director and global head of film at Doc Society; Lee Walters, chief executive, Ffilm Cymru Wales; and Denitsa Yordanova, Head of UK Global Screen Fund and International Funds.

“For us, risk is one of our stated fund priorities and fundamental to our purpose – so our slate ranges from work by more established filmmakers who still make a strong case for National Lottery funding because of the inherent risk in the project, through to supporting emerging talent, which the market always view as a risk,” said Bays.

“Audience engagement and the market of course factor into our decision making - we do not fund films in a vacuum. We all recognise this is a tough environment, but a cautious marketplace means our role is more important than ever. We also work closely with producers, sales agents and distributors to help the projects we fund reach audiences in the UK and beyond.” 

Santosh

Source: Cannes Film Festival

‘Santosh’

Also taking place at 2pm is the ’storytelling across media: film, TV, interactive formats and games’ panel, featuring John Giwa-Amu, CEO, Good Gate Media; Eline van der Velden, founder and CEO, Particle6; and Neil McPhillips, co-head of Games, Blazing Griffin

There is also a talent talk at 4pm from Sandhya Suri, the writer-director behind Un Certain Regard title Santosh, alongside the film’s UK producer Mike Goodridge of Good Chaos and funder Eva Yates, director of BBC Film.