Henry Golding, Barry Keoghan Titles Among 'Great 8' Cannes Lineup From U.K.

The eight films from up-and-coming U.K. directors will be promoted to buyers and festival programmers at a special reception.

The British Film Institute, together with the British Council, BBC Films and Film4, has unveiled the eight new U.K. features from up-and-coming British talent that will get a special push at Cannes.

The "Great 8" — all now in postproduction and including titles featuring names such as Crazy Rich Asians breakout Henry Golding and Dunkirk star Barry Keoghan — will be promoted during a reception on May 14 to international buyers and festival programmers.

“The quality of emerging U.K. film talent is incredibly high, and Great 8 gives us a strong platform to talk about some of the U.K.’s most promising new films and filmmakers," said BFI deputy CEO Ben Roberts. "We’re delighted with how well it has been welcomed by international buyers, programmers and the wider industry, and I think this year’s lineup is the best yet.”

See the full list of "Great 8" films below.

Calm With Horses

Marking the feature directorial debut of Nick Rowland (Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee for his short Out of Sight, BAFTA nominee for Slap), Calm With Horses is a thriller about an ex-boxer and the feared enforcer for a drug-dealing Irish family. Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan and Niamh Alger star.

Production companies: DMC Film/Element Pictures/Film4/Screen Ireland

Sales: Altitude Films Sales

Days of the Bagnold Summer

From Simon Bird, best known as the star of the hit TV comedy series The Inbetweeners and its two spinoff films, this adaptation of Joff Winterhart's graphic novel is coming-of-age comedy about a Metallica-loving boy forced to spend a summer with his mother. Starring Monica Dolan, Earl Cave, Rob Brydon, Alice Lowe and Tamsin Greig, the film also features original music by indie band Belle & Sebastian.

Production companies: Stigma Films/Pont Neuf/Quickfire/Storyhouse/Trigger Films

Sales: Altitude Films Sales

Lynn + Lucy

After winning the Illy Prize for best short film in Cannes' Directors' Fortnight for both 2012's The Curse and 2015's Rate Me, writer and director Fyzal Boulifa's debut feature tells the story of lifelong best friends, neither of whom have ventured far from where they grow up. Roxanne Scrimshaw and Nichola Burley star.

Production companies: BBC Films/BFI Film Fund/Lipsync/Charades/Rosetta Productions/Sixteen Films/Vixens

Sales: Charades

Make Up

Writer and director Claire Oakley follows up four short films with a psychological thriller feature about a woman who moves in with her boyfriend in a remote holiday park, only to make an unsettling discovery that ushers a sense of unease into their caravan and lures her into a spiral of obsession. Molly Windsor, Joseph Quinn and Stefanie Martini star.

Production companies: Quiddity Films/Creative England/BFI Film Fund/BBC Films

Sales: Protagonist Pictures

Monsoon

Hong Khaou's debut feature Lilting, starring Ben Whishaw, bowed at Sundance in 2014 and landed him BAFTA and BIFA nominations. With Monsoon, he tells the story of a British Vietnamese man who returns to his birth country for the first time in over 30 years in search of a place to scatter his parents’ ashes. Henry Golding, Parker Sawyers, Molly Harris and David Tran star.

Production companies: BBC Films/BFI Film Fund/Moonspun Films/Sharphouse

Sales: Protagonist Pictures and Paradigm Talent Agency

Perfect 10

Scottish director Eva Riley makes her feature debut with a drama about a 15-year-old gymnast whose life is turned upside down when her older half-brother — whom she never knew existed — comes to stay. Frankie Box, Alfie Deegan, Sharlene Whyte and Will Ash star.

Production companies: Creative England/BBC Films/BFI Film Fund/Moffen Media Limited/The Bureau/Ngauruhoe

Sales: The Bureau

Saint Maud

This psychological thriller from Rose Glass — whose graduate short film Room 55 screened at SXSW — tells the story of a lonely young woman who starts work as a live-in nurse to a glamorous ex-dancer, now dying and unable to walk. Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Turlough Convery, Lily Frazer and Lily Knight star.

Production companies: Escape Plan Productions/Film4/BFI Film Fund

Sales: Protagonist Pictures

Wildfire

Cathy Brady — a European Film Award nominee for her short Morning — makes her feature debut with a drama about two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has been missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is reignited. Carlo Cresto-Dina, Charles Steel and David Collins star.

Production companies: BFI Film Fund/Screen Ireland/Film4/Northern Ireland Screen/Great Point Media/Sulcata Productions/Wellcome Trust/Tempesta Film UK/Cowboy Films/Samson Films

Sales: Great Point Media