Fund contributing productions announced in Cannes line-up

Three productions that contributed to the Film Skills Fund have been selected to play in this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The festival, now in its 77^th edition, will take over the coastal French town for 10 days and welcome the global industry to its shores from 14 – 25 May.

Playing as part of the main competition is Fund contributor Kinds of Kindness, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest project, hot on the heels of the Oscar-winning Poor Things, a fellow Fund contributor. He returns with that film’s lead actress, Emma Stone, who will star alongside Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley.

British director Andrea Arnold will also have her latest film, Bird, playing in the festival’s main competition. The film stars Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski and tells the story of 12-year-old Bailey, who lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in north Kent. In addition to contributing to the Film Skills Fund, the production welcomed seven trainees onto set from ScreenSkills’ landmark new entrant initiative, Film Trainee Finder, where those looking to start their screen career journeys are provided with paid production placements alongside tailored training and networking opportunities.

Santosh, director Sandhya Suri’s debut narrative feature, will screen as part of the festival’s Un Certain Regard strand. The Hindi-language film follows the titular character as her inspector is pulled into a new investigation in northern India.

By contributing to the Fund each production has enabled investment across the UK and helped support the nation’s screen workforce. We thank each of them for their contribution and wish them the best of luck for their screenings at Cannes.