Cannes Market Dailies

The pioneering initiative was launched to support female filmmakers bring their projects 
from a working title to the big screen

Breaking Through The Lens, the ground-breaking pitching initiative that helps to connect female directors to top tier film investors hosted their second edition at The Member's Club, La Plage 45 at the Cannes Film Festival today. The ten shortlisted feature films in development participated in the event to pitch to industry leaders to secure funding.

The initiative was launched in 2018 by filmmakers Daphne Schmon, Emily Carlton and Elpida Stathatou with the aim of addressing the imbalance at the top levels of the film industry and several of the projects from the inaugural event have since moved into production.

Daphne Schmon, Breaking Through The Lens Founder, said: “We are thrilled to be hosting our second edition of Breaking Through The Lens which was conceived to provide a platform to highlight exciting projects from female filmmakers and support them with the crucial funding and access to industry professionals from around the world that can help them take their scripts-to-screen. Each of the shortlisted projects from these extremely talent filmmakers that pitched today in Cannes are extraordinary and I’m confident they will secure the finance they need to bring these stories to audiences around the world.”

 The 10 shortlisted projects are: 

• A Life Electric directed by Michaela Moir.

   

• Binarang directed by Maritte Go.

   

• Carbon directed by Priscilla Anany.

   

• Clara Sola directed by Nathalie Alvarez Mesen.

   

• Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor directed by Shelley Thompson.

   

• Finding Satoshi directed by Emily James.

   

• Heatstroke directed by Nina Menkes.

   

• Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace directed by Olivia Hetreed.

   

• Sirens directed by Rita Baghdadi.

   

• The Good Iranian directed by Tina Gharavi.

For more information about the selected projects: https://breakingthroughthelens.co.uk/

About Breaking Through The Lens

Breaking Through The Lens is a pitching initiative launched in 2018 by filmmakers Daphne Schmon, Emily Carlton and Elpida Stathatou to help connect female-identifying directors to top tier film investors. The program is focused on practical actions and is a direct response to what the organisers, themselves female filmmakers, have encountered as barriers to their progress - access to finance.