‘Pillion’ Director Harry Lighton Set For Cannes La Résidence Program
UK director Harry Lighton, who made waves last Cannes with debut feature Pillion, has been unveiled as one of six emerging directors selected for the 51st session of the Cannes Film Festival’s La Résidence program.
He is joined by Emma Branderhorst, Joecar Hanna, Saulé Bliuvaité, Mansi Maheshwari and Oliver McGoldrick in the session running from March 16 to July 31, 2026.
“Getting a spot in La Résidence is beyond exciting. Other filmmakers I know who’ve done it rave about it. It means I can block out five months to knuckle down to writing my next script and getting to do that in Paris… are you kidding me?! Magnifique. I hope to come away with a script, some new filmmaker pals, and a Parisian husband,” Lighton said in a release revealing his cohort of participants.
Starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, Pillion made a strong impression when it premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard last year and won the award for Best Screenplay.
The film went on to achieve both critical and commercial success, winning Best British Independent Film at the BIFAs, and receiving three BAFTA nominations. His short film Wren Boys had previously been nominated for Best British Short Film at the 2018 BAFTAs.
Amsterdam-based filmmaker Branderhorst is known for intimate, character-driven stories that explore social dynamics from a distinctly female perspective. Her short films Under the Skin, Spotless, Ma Mère et Moi were selected for the Berlinale, with Spotless winning a Crystal Bear in 2022.
Alongside her fiction work, she also directed the Cannes Lions Grand Prix winning short Piece of Me, and regularly makes narrative-driven commercials across Europe. She works in a naturalistic, performance-led style, revealing emotion between the lines. She is currently developing her debut feature This Will Not End Well.
Hanna is a Spanish filmmaker of Chinese and Lebanese descent who before moving to New York, worked as a professional editor on feature films and a TV series. During his time in the NYU Grad Film program he received the Black Family Prize and the Ang Lee Scholarship, and was selected for the Marcie Bloom Fellowship (Sony Pictures Classics).
His short Deliver Me premiered at SXSW 2023 and was acquired by Canal+. His second short Talk Me, was executive-produced by Spike Lee, premiered at Cannes 2025, won Best Short at TIFF, and premiered in the U.S at SXSW 2026.
As an actor, he made his feature debut in Lump by Alex Rockwell, a film that received an award at the Warsaw Film Festival. Joecar will make his debut feature in the U.S. later this year and will develop his second feature at the Cannes Residence 2026.
Bliuvaitė is a Lithuanian film director, screenwriter, and editor. She graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2018 and began her filmmaking career with several short films, while also co-writing Isaac, Lithuania’s submission for the 2021 Academy Award for Best International Feature.
Her debut feature Toxic premiered in the International Competition at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Golden Leopard. Since its debut, Toxic has been screened at around 100 film festivals worldwide, garnered numerous international accolades, and was nominated for the European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI at the European Film Awards.
Maheshwari is an Indian animation director whose work blends humour with emotionally grounded storytelling. She began in fashion, using clothing to tell stories, before pursuing narrative more directly through an MA in Animation Direction at the National Film and Television School, UK.
Her graduation short film Bunnyhood premiered at Cannes, winning third prize in La Cinef Selection competition, and later screened at Sundance and Clermont-Ferrand. Drawing from personal memory, her films explore family, reunions, and the quiet chaos of human connection through warmth, absurdity, and character-driven storytelling.
McGoldrick is an Irish filmmaker and doctor based between New York City and County Down, Northern Ireland. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2017, before earning his MFA in Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a BAFTA North America Scholar and an alum of the Film at Lincoln Center Artists Academy.
His previous short Three Keenings premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, screened at over 50 festivals worldwide and won best short film at the Galway Film Fleadh. His next short, Melter, executive produced by Spike Lee, is currently in post-production. He is in development for his debut feature Barnyard, through the Munich Film Up Program and La Résidence.
Under the La Résidence program, the participants live together in the festival’s residence in Paris where they benefit from a personalized screenwriting program and a collective program of meetings with film professionals.
La Résidence welcomes 12 emerging filmmakers every year, split between two sessions lasting four and a half months, with the aim of helping them develop and write the screenplay for their first or second feature film.
Since its creation, La Résidence has supported more than 250 filmmakers from around 60 countries, including Lucrecia Martel (Argentina), Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania), Amat Escalante and Michel Franco (Mexico), László Nemes (Hungary), Lukas Dhont (Belgium), Nadine Labaki (Lebanon), Nadav Lapid (Israel), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (Croatia), Carla Simón (Spain), Karim Aïnouz (Brazil), Rungano Nyoni (Zambia), Payal Kapadia (India), and Chiang Wei (Singapore).
