The Scottish filmmakers heading to Cannes Film Festival

The National

16-05-2025

The Cannes Film Festival has returned for its 78th edition, taking place in France between May 13 and 24.
This year's competition features a film by a Scottish filmmaker – Lynne Ramsay's DIE, MY LOVE, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, will compete for the Palme d'Or, with its world premiere taking place on Saturday.
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With the film and TV landscape in Scotland becoming increasingly volatile, such as with the recent axing of long-running BBC soap River City, filmmakers are heading to Cannes to showcase the best of what Scotland has to offer.
'Scotland is going for the world stage'
Filmmaker Ashley Catherine Dick, director of film production and distribution project Cinora, has only really visited Cannes as a "starry-eyed film enthusiast".
But this year, she said she is coming to it "with the approach of Scotland's position within the screen industry worldwide".
"For the last year I've been running my own project and I've been finding out more about the Scottish screen industry in an effort to help people within it understand it and explore how it can grow," she told The National.
Dick (above) is taking two projects to Cannes. The first is a documentary called Thrawn, which explores Scottish identity and the Scots language.
"It's about that torn apart feeling of pride and embarrassment at the same time, and coming to terms with what it means to be a Scot nowadays," she said.
Her other project is a fiction film based loosely on UFO activity in Falkirk in the 1990s. While it has some backing from the BBC, Dick hopes to get more interest at Cannes so that it can become a bigger production.
Dick said that Scotland had "broken through" in recent years, such as with Charlotte Wells's Aftersun, starring Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio.
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She also pointed towards Ramsey's film in competition, as she said: "There's something significant about her being in the competition. It's a sign that a Scottish person is amongst the best filmmakers in the world right now."
She continued: "Now it feels like we're in a moment where Scotland is taking this turn and trying to go for the world stage, and showcase talent and business to come to Scotland and work with us.
"For a long time we've had productions come but not really work with people in Scotland. They come, they film here, they go home."
Dick said it was incredibly important for Scotland to be represented at Cannes, adding that the industry needed to go in "another direction" in order to survive.
"Since the pandemic, we've realised that the model that we have has never really been sustainable," she said.
"Now that we've faced so many hardships back to back, all of that instability that's been building up for years has finally come to a point where it's difficult to move forward unless we pivot and go in another direction.
"Over the last couple of years within the UK, thousands of people have been leaving TV and film because they can't afford to work in it anymore. The industry is made up of 80% of freelancers. It's come to a point where it's just completely unsustainable.
"If we can turn in a new direction, then maybe we can forge a new future where we don't jeopardise people's careers and lives."
'We can show Scotland isn't just a film location'
Fraser Coull is a writer, director and producer also heading to Cannes. He is taking his short film, Faithful, a fairytale film based on the Scottish folklore tale of the Cù-sìth, the harbinger of death.
"We managed to crowdfund it and shoot it all last year, it's getting some nice reviews and we want to turn it into a feature film," Coull (below) told The National.
(Image: Supplied) (Image: Supplied) He continued: "Cannes is obviously the best of the best, literally everybody from all over the world who wants to make film and loves film and is passionate about film will be there.
"I think it's super important that Scotland has a voice in that. It's important for us to get our Scottish stories, our culture and our fairytales out on a more global scale. We need to be celebrating that."
Coull described the current film and TV landscape in Scotland as "absolutely dire".
"It's all well and good that we've got the likes of Christopher Nolan coming here to film the Odyssey, we had Batgirl, the Flash, Indiana Jones, the Avengers," he said.
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"It's great that they're all coming here and they're getting the benefits of the tax breaks and they're getting to shoot at our lovely locations, but why are we not telling our stories?
"Why are we not telling our films and using our Scottish-based crew and our Scottish-based talent and actors?"
However, Coull said that he was going into Cannes with optimism and that there was work going on to make the industry more sustainable in Scotland.
He said: "It's very easy to shake your stick and say boo to the establishment, but I want to be positive.
"There are things that are happening, but more needs to be done, and I absolutely believe that if we all just work together then there has to be a way.
"Hopefully by going to Cannes, we can show people the value of Scotland and everyone who lives and work there. We can show them that it's not just a film location, it's a rich, cultured country with history and stories going way, way back."