“Pillion” filmmaker Harry Righton is one of six international filmmakers selected for the 51st session of the Cannes Film Festival La Residence, a workshop program for emerging directors developing their first or second feature.
Righton, whose debut feature Pillion, starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard screenplay award, will take part in a Paris-based residency from March 16 to July 31 alongside Emma Branderhorst, Joker Hanna, Saule Briuvaite, Mansi Maheshwari and Oliver McGoldrick. During the four-and-a-half month program, filmmakers develop scripts and network with industry professionals.
Based in Amsterdam, Branderhorst built his profile through intimate, character-driven short films such as “Under the Skin,” “Spotless” and “Ma Mère et Moi,” all of which were screened at the Berlinale. She is currently developing her debut feature, This Will Not End Well.
A Chinese-Lebanese-Spanish filmmaker, Hanna is a graduate of New York University’s Graduate Film Program and was the recipient of the Black Family Award, the Ang Lee Scholarship, and the Marcy Bloom Fellowship. His latest short, “Talk Me,” executive produced by Spike Lee, premiered at Cannes last year, won Best Short at TIFF, and later screened at SXSW.
Lithuanian director, screenwriter and editor Bryuvaite rose to prominence with his debut feature Toxic, bowing in Locarno in 2024 and winning the Golden Leopard Award. The film was nominated for the European Discovery Award FIPRESCI at the European Film Awards. Bryuvaite previously co-wrote Lithuania’s 2021 Oscar nominee Isaac.
Maheshwari is an Indian animation filmmaker who cut his graduation short with Bunnyhood, which premiered at Cannes, won third place at La Cinéf, and subsequently screened at Sundance and Clermont-Ferrand.
Rounding out the line-up is Irish filmmaker and doctor McGoldrick, whose short film Three Keenings premiered in Venice in 2024 and won Best Short Film at the Galway Film Freed. His next short, Melter, executive produced by Spike Lee, is in post-production, while his debut feature Barnyard is in development through the Munich Film Up program and La Residence in Cannes.
