Clio Barnard wins Wellcome fellowship

The Selfish Giant and The Arbor director Clio Barnard has been awarded the inaugural Wellcome Trust and BFI Screenwriting Fellowship, launched in association with Film4.

Barnard has been awarded the Fellowship “in recognition of her original, enquiring and visionary screenwriting”.

She will receive £30,000 ($50,000) and gain access to medical experts associated with the Wellcome Trust, a charitable foundation dedicated to health. She will also have behind-the-scenes access to museum the Wellcome Collection and visit the Trust’s research centres in the UK and internationally, including the option to have a brain scan at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL.

According to Wellcome, the director has expressed “a keen interest in exploring the implications of key developments at the frontline of science and medicine, in particular the impact of trauma on children.”

“This is an incredibly generous and unique opportunity to mainline inspiration,” said Barnard.

“It’s a unique opportunity to access cutting edge research as well as the Wellcome archives; a unique opportunity to immerse myself in past, present and future…the freedom to explore and experiment, to see what emerges, to alter my view of the world and beyond; a unique opportunity to switch between the minute details and rigours of research and to stand back to try and see the big picture. I can’t wait.”

The Selfish Giant is nominated for six BIFAs and received the Europa Cinemas Label Prize for Best European Film after debuting at Cannes.