UK film-makers such as Molly Manning Walker, Charlotte Regan and Luna Carmoon are part of a new wave taking top awards at the film festivals
You haven’t imagined it. What started out as a trickle of fresh talent into the British film industry just a few years ago has gathered momentum into a fully fledged new wave. First features from British film-makers have triumphed at international film festivals (in addition to Molly Manning Walker’s Cannes win, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper took a top prize at Sundance and Luna Carmoon’s Hoard hauled home three awards from Venice), and they have also found engaged and receptive audiences in cinemas. Recent box office successes include Charlotte Wells’s indie phenomenon Aftersun and Scrapper, which fought its corner impressively against the Barbenheimer juggernaut.
So what’s behind it all? Certainly, a push to diversify the range of voices within the industry has had a considerable effect, with women and people of colour taking centre stage and telling distinctive and personal stories. And kudos is due to the BFI and BBC films in particular for their support of new, diverse talent. But it’s more than that. The wildly disparate first features of the past 24 months have one thing in common: they embrace risk. It’s as though somewhere along the line there was a collective decision to stop chasing the commercial safe bet; a rejection of cinema as a formulaic product, script-doctored into oblivion. Instead of second-guessing audience whims, film-makers have made the movies they want to make – movies that proudly retain their sharp edges and difficult themes. Long may it continue. Wendy Ide
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