DirectorsDigest:14May2026

This week, The Grierson Trust and Norma Percy launch a grant to provide essential finishing costs for documentaries, leading directors sign an open letter calling on the EU to continue supporting cinema, and this year’s lineup of Cannes GREAT 8 feature projects from early-career UK filmmakers is unveiled.

HEADLINES

• This year’s Cannes GREAT 8 showcase of feature films from early-career UK filmmakers highlights projects from directors David Turpin, Rhys Marc Jones, Fateme Ahmadi, Billy Lumby, Ray Panthaki, Bertil Nilsson, Shalini Adnani and Tom Nicoll. (Screen Daily)
• The Film and TV Charity launches the 2026 Looking Glass Survey, calling on the screen industries to help shape its practical support services and programmes to drive systemic change, and work towards an improved workplace wellbeing. (Televisual)
• Guillermo del Toro pledges to donate a third of his personal collection to the BFI National Archive: “[W]hichever young filmmaker comes there, I can guide them through each object so we can have a dialogue across time.” (Screen Daily)
• The Grierson Trust and The Grierson Trust and Norma Percy launch a £10,000-£25,000 grant launch a £10,000-£25,000 grant to provide essential finishing costs for documentaries already in production. (Broadcast)
• Leading directors – including Joachim Trier, Agnieszka Holland and Yorgos Lanthimos – sign an open letter calling on the European Union to continue supporting cinema as part of its proposed AgoraEU programme. (Screen Daily)
• Netflix has invested over £4.45 billion in UK productions since 2020 and created over 50,000 jobs, with £30 million invested since 2021 in training and upskilling UK creatives. (Televisual)
• The Golden Globes updates its awards rules on the use of AI in projects, stating its use “does not automatically disqualify a work from consideration, provided that human creative direction, artistic judgment, and authorship remain primary throughout the production process.” (Screen Daily)

DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING

• Jane Schoenbrun on Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma: “My whole career I’ve been trying to push back against an idea of shallow representation or art that can simplify human experience into an identitarian package.” (Deadline)
• Pierre Salvadori on his Cannes opener The Electric Kiss: “[I]t’s a film that talks about my love for cinema.” (Deadline)

INDUSTRY VOICES

• Sony Pictures Television President Wayne Garvie calls for a BBC and Channel 4 merger, arguing the production sector would benefit from having fewer stronger buyers rather than multiple weak ones. (Broadcast)

CELEBRATING CRAFT

• Peter Jackson receives an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes opening night ceremony. (Variety)