ScreenSkills has again partnered with Screen International to present its Stars of Tomorrow, a showcase of the UK and Ireland’s most hotly-tipped talent behind-the-camera as well as on screen.
This year’s list, unveiled today, includes several Stars previously supported by ScreenSkills through programmes over the last decade including successful alumni of the iFeatures development lab, supported by the ScreenSkills Film Skills Fund, as well as the producers Tom Wood and Rienkje Attoh.
Rienkje, an independent film producer, was supported to earn experience in television drama on Noughts + Crosses thanks to the High-end TV Skills Fund Make a Move programme, while Tom became a producer with help from two programmes run by ScreenSkills when known as Creative Skillset. Debut filmmakers Charlotte Regan and Naqqash Khalid have benefited from the iFeatures initiative run by Creative England.
This year’s Stars of Tomorrow will take part in an online event on 5 October that will see several in-conversations hosted by Screen’s Fionnuala Halligan and Matt Mueller. The initiative is sponsored by Amazon Prime Video with ScreenSkills as a supporting partner.
Gareth Ellis-Unwin, ScreenSkills Head of Film and Animation, said: “Stars of Tomorrow is a fantastic celebration of talent, but it is clear that talent can be nurtured and is not just in-built. It has been a difficult year for our industry, but it remains vital we continue to create opportunities for people from a wide variety of backgrounds to get in and develop their screen careers. We congratulate all of this year’s Stars and are a proud partner with Screen International on this initiative.”
Screen International editor Matt Mueller said: “This year’s UK and Ireland Stars of Tomorrow cohort feels very special indeed, as diverse and representative this year as we have always strived to make it. In this unusual year, it felt more important than ever to shine this spotlight on emerging UK and Irish talent, and we’re proud of the selection and excited to see the strides they take in their careers.”
Each year Screen pairs up some of the stars with a mentor in their field to give them the opportunity to ask questions of an experienced professional, which are recorded and published on the magazine’s website. This year, 2020 Stars of Tomorrow actor Paul Mescal, casting director Aisha Bywaters and producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor have been paired with, respectively, Maxine Peake, Armando Iannucci and producer Mark Herbert (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, This Is England, Four Lions).
This year’s Stars of Tomorrow are:
Producers:
- Rienkje Attoh (Noughts + Crosses)
- Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (Blue Story)
- Tom Wood (Sudden Light, Timestalker)
Writer directors:
- Akinola Davies Jr (Welcome To Nollywood)
- Colum Eastwood (Black Medicine)
- Ella Glendining (Is There Anybody Out There?)
- Naqqash Khalid (Stock)
- Jayisha Patel (Circle, Notes To My Father)
- Adam Patterson, Declan Lawn (The Salisbury Poisonings)
- Charlotte Regan (Standby, Scrapper)
Writers:
- Matilda Ibini (The Unexpected Expert, Caring)
- Courttia Newland (Small Axe)
Heads of department:
- Aisha Bywaters (casting director)
- Sinéad Kidao (costume designer)
- Kate McCullough (cinematographer)
- Bethany Swan (hair and make-up designer)
- Ruben Woodin Dechamps (cinematographer)
Actors:
- Helen Behan (The Virtues, Wildfire)
- Anya Chalotra (The Witcher)
- Sheyi Cole (Small Axe)
- Emma Corrin (The Crown)
- Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People)
- Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education)
- Max Harwood (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie)
- Conrad Khan (County Lines, The Huntsman: Winter’s War)
- Paul Mescal (Normal People, The Lost Daughter)
- Yasmin Monet Prince (Nocturnal, Hanna)
- Dónall Ó Héalai (Arracht, Foscadh)
- Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education, Emma)
- Jack Rowan (Born To Kill, Noughts + Crosses)
- Amarah-Jae St Aubyn (Small Axe)
- Micheal Ward (Top Boy, Blue Story)
Find out here why ScreenSkills supports Stars of Tomorrow