Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives
BAFTA Breakthrough is the arts charity’s flagship new talent initiative supported by Netflix, offering a year-round program of support and professional development opportunities
Today, BAFTA announces the 2024 BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, featuring 43 ‘must-watch’ creatives working in film, games and television, from across the UK, US and India. BAFTA Breakthrough is the arts charity’s flagship talent initiative supported by Netflix, providing a springboard to creatives spanning craft specialisms from costume design, production, casting, editing and games design, to performance, directing, composing and cinematography.
Jane Millichip, BAFTA CEO, said: “BAFTA Breakthrough, now in its 11th year, spotlights a host of emerging and talented ‘must-watch’ creative practitioners working across film, games and television. This year we have an amazing roster of casting directors, producers, writers, performers, lead artists, cinematographers, lead developers, and more. We urge the industry to take note. A huge thank you to Netflix, whose support makes BAFTA Breakthrough possible.”
Courtney LaBarge Bell, Executive Director of BAFTA North America said: “Each year the BAFTA Breakthrough USA cohort represents some of the most exciting and brilliant voices working across film, TV and games and this year is no exception. We at BAFTA believe in the work of these distinctive and immensely talented creators and we are honored to be their champions for the next year and beyond. We’re grateful to play a small part in supporting them in what will surely be long, illustrious careers.”
This year’s Breakthrough UK cohort was selected by five specialist sub-committees comprising industry figures from the world of film, television, craft and tech, unscripted and games with BAFTA and Netflix representatives. In the US, a jury of leading cross-industry figures including producer Kerstin Emhoff and actor John David Washington selected this year’s cohort. The Breakthrough India jury was chaired by film producer and Breakthrough India ambassador Guneet Monga Kapoor, and also featured leading cross-industry figures including Vice President of Content, Netflix India, Monika Shergill and filmmaker Sushmit Ghosh.
Anne Mensah, Vice President, UK Content at Netflix said: “We are so proud to support the exceptional group of creatives who make up BAFTA Breakthrough. Breakthrough is brilliant at unearthing fresh voices, spotlighting talent and providing the support needed to help creatives reach their full potential.”
Guneet Monga Kapoor, Film Producer and Ambassador for BAFTA Breakthrough in India, said: “A massive congratulations to this year’s nine India Breakthroughs, who demonstrate once again that there is no shortage of creative talent in India. It was extremely difficult to narrow down the pool of talented candidates. I can’t wait to see how this year’s cohort harness BAFTA Breakthrough’s opportunities to hone their craft!”
BAFTA Breakthrough is celebrating its 11th anniversary this year. As an incubator for the industry’s future change-makers, BAFTA Breakthrough nurtures and encourages peer-to-peer network building. The programme also taps into BAFTA’s unique global academy of 12,500 creatives through curating a host of one-to-one meetings with established practitioners. Over 1,500 meetings for Breakthroughs have been set up to-date. These have included Cillian Murphy, Paul Rudd, Emma Thompson, Danny Boyle, Paul Greengrass, Barry Jenkins, Martin McDonagh, Abi Morgan, Lesley Manville and Brad Pitt, among many others.
BAFTA Breakthrough today counts 290 people among its alumni, including Ambika Mod, Bella Ramsey, Rose Ayling-Ellis, George Robinson, Rina Yang, Paapa Essiedu, Josh O’Connor, Jessie Buckley, Vivian Oparah and Letitia Wright. Many go on to build very successful careers in the screen arts, creating games, TV shows and features that achieve national and international industry acclaim, including BAFTA nominations and wins.
Awarded to those in the midst, or on the cusp, of their breakthrough moment, the year-long initiative includes one-to-one meetings and career guidance, full voting membership, access to BAFTA events and screenings, as well as networking events, both in the UK and internationally.
The full list of this year’s Breakthrough cohort is as follows:
UK BREAKTHROUGHS (21):
● Alice Russell, Director – If the Streets Were on Fire
● Beth Park, Lead Performance Director – Black Myth: Wukong
● Clair Titley, Director – The Contestant
● Cobbie Yates, Costume Designer – Layla
● Daf James, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer/Musical Director – Lost Boys & Fairies
● Fred Hoffman, Art Director – Paper Trail
● Georgina Hurcombe, Creator/Producer/Director – Pop Paper City
● Harry Gilbert, Casting Director – G’wed
● Jennifer English, Performer – Baldur’s Gate 3
● Kyla Harris*, Lead Performer/Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
● Lauren Sequeira, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – Domino Day
● Lee Getty*, Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
● Loran Dunn, Producer – Hoard
● Luna Carmoon, Writer/Director – Hoard
● Luned Tonderai, Series Director – Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star
● Mawaan Rizwan, Performer/Writer/Creator/Executive Producer – Juice
● Otto Baxter, Writer/Director/Performer – The Puppet Asylum
● Poulomi Basu, Creator/Director/Writer/Art Director – MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero
● Rochelle Newman, Producer – White Nanny Black Child
● Shahnaz Dulaimy, Editor – Top Boy
● Sophie Knowles, Lead Artist – Viewfinder
*applied as a team
US BREAKTHROUGHS (13):
● Angela Walker Patton**, Director – Daughters
● Elaine Gómez, Creative Director – Blink Land
● Erica Tremblay, Writer/Director – Fancy Dance
● Hanna Park, Editor – Bottoms
● Jih-E Peng, Cinematographer – Girls Will Be Girls
● Joy Ngiaw, Composer – WondLa
● Juliana Hoffpauir, Costume Designer – Hit Man
● Karrie Shirou Shao, Game Writer/Lead Designer – Pacific Drive
● Nafisa Kaptownwala, Casting Director – Dìdi
● Natalie Rae**, Director – Daughters
● Nava Mau, Performer – Baby Reindeer
● Nicole He, Creative Director – The Crush House
● Sean Wang, Writer/Director – Dìdi
**applied as a team
INDIA BREAKTHROUGHS (9):
● Abhinav Chokhavatia, Game Producer – Down and Out
● Christo Tomy, Director – Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case
● Deepa Bhatia, Writer/Director/Producer – First Act
● Dhiman Karmakar, Sound Designer/Production Sound Mixer – Amar Singh Chamkila
● Jaydeep Sarkar, Showrunner/Series Director/Executive Producer – Rainbow Rishta
● Monisha Thyagarajan, Series Producer – The Hunt for Veerappan
● Neeraj Kumar, Producer/Lead Developer – Artifice: War Tactics
● Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Writer/Director/Performer – Aachar & Co.
● Varun Grover, Writer/Director – All India Rank
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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