The British Film Institute has announced the eight feature films selected for this year’s “Great 8” initiative at the Cannes Marché du Film, featuring a new generation of UK directors making their first or second films. The initiative, now in its eighth year, pairs rising talent with international buyers and programmers through curated screenings and digital showcases.
One of the high-profile selections is Animol, the debut feature from Top Boy actor Ashley Walters. Written by Nick Love and produced by Walters alongside Sky, Film4, the BFI, and Joi Productions, the film stars Tut Nyuot and Stephen Graham. It follows 15-year-old Troy, who is incarcerated for a murder he didn’t commit. Inside a notorious Young Offenders’ Institution, he forms a bond with another inmate, Krystiyan, as the pressure of survival escalates. Walters, known for his music career with So Solid Crew and his breakout role in Bullet Boy, brings his own production label SLNda into the project.
Imran Perretta presents Ish, a coming-of-age story focused on friendship fractured by racial profiling. Perretta, whose visual art has been featured in galleries including Tate and the Arts Council’s collection, wrote the script with Enda Walsh. The film is backed by BBC Film and BFI, and stars Farhan Hasnat and Yahya Kitana. The film explores a moment of disruption in the lives of two boys and its aftermath in a society shaped by surveillance and marginalization.
Rebekah Fortune’s Learning to Breathe Under Water combines visual imagination with emotional weight. The story centers on Leo, an eight-year-old whose father, a withdrawn artist, sculpts a mythical shark that crashes into their home—an unspoken metaphor for personal loss. Maria Bakalova and Rory Kinnear lead a cast that navigates grief through surreal imagery and emotional confrontation. The project is supported by co-production partners across the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
In Madfabulous, director Celyn Jones draws inspiration from real-life aristocrat Henry Paget, whose flair and extravagance shocked 1890s Britain. Callum Scott Howells plays the flamboyant heir whose lavish lifestyle and defiance of social decorum causes upheaval among his family and peers. The film features Rupert Everett and Siobhán McSweeney and is produced by Mad as Birds. Jones, a BAFTA Cymru-winning actor, shifts his focus toward directing in this solo debut.
BAFTA-winner Paul Wright returns with Mission, a film that traces the psychological unraveling of Dylan, played by George MacKay. Estranged from his sister and driven to test the limits of emotional intensity, Dylan’s journey is both euphoric and harrowing. Producers include Kate Byers and Alex Thiele, with support from BBC Film and Screen Scotland. Wright’s earlier work, For Those in Peril, debuted at Cannes and remains a benchmark of his introspective style.
Helen Walsh’s On the Sea tells the story of Jack, a mussel raker in North Wales whose domestic routine is disrupted when his son resists joining the family business. When a deckhand named Daniel enters their community, Jack must reckon with emotions and choices he has long buried. The cast includes Barry Ward, Liz White, and Celyn Jones. Walsh, known for her award-winning novels and work on Channel 4’s The Gathering, directs her second feature.
In Retreat, director Ted Evans expands on his earlier short film to examine life within an isolated Deaf community. When Eva arrives, she disrupts the peaceful order, leading protagonist Matt to question his assumptions and the secrets beneath their enclosed world. Featuring a predominantly Deaf cast, the film is produced by The Fold and 104 Films, with support from BBC Film and Creative UK. Evans brings personal experience as a Deaf director to the production.
The Son and the Sea, directed by Stroma Cairns, follows Jonah, a young man spiraling through personal setbacks. Pressured into visiting a relative on the northeast coast of Scotland, he meets Charlie, a Deaf man entangled in family complications of his own. Together with Jonah’s friend Lee, the trio find shared space beyond language. Cairns, a BAFTA winner and former director on the TV series Mood, draws on her Scottish heritage and her own experience with hearing loss.
The selected films will be introduced through digital screenings beginning May 8 across five global time zones, with in-person presentations during the Cannes Market from May 13 to 21. The program is coordinated by the BFI and the British Council with support from BBC Film and Film4.