‘How To Have Sex’ Director Molly Manning Walker Joins Cannes La Résidence Program

UK director, writer and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker, who won the Cannes Un Certain Regard prize last year for How To Have Sex, has been selected for the festival’s four-and-a-half month La Résidence program in Paris.

She will be joined by Aditya Ahmad (Indonesia), Daria Kashcheeva (Tajikistan), Danech San (Cambodia), Ernst De Geer (Sweden) and Anastasiia Solonevych (Ukraine).

They follow in the wake of Meltse Van Coillie (Belgium), Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Vietnam/Czech Republic), Hao Zhao (China), Gessica Généus (Haiti), Andrea Slaviček (Croatia), Asmae El Moudir (Morocco) who are currently coming to the end of their residency.

Both intakes will be brought together at the Cannes Film Festival’s 77th edition, running May 14 to 25.

Since its launch in 2000, La Résidence has welcomed 250 directors from around 60 countries including Lucrecia Martel, Kornél Mundruczó, Sebastián Lelio, Antonio Campos, Karim Aïnouz and Jonas Carpignano.

Based in a large flat in Paris’ ninth arrondissement, the program aims to accompany the filmmakers as they write work on their screenplays with one-on-one support as well as through collective sessions with cinema professionals.

Manning Walker is coming off a high-profile 12 months. As well as winning the Un Certain Regard prize, How To Have Sex clinched another twenty awards including the Discovery Award at the European Film Awards and best lead performance at the BIFAS. It was nominated for four BAFTAs.

She was also the cinematographer on Charlotte Regan’s first film Scrapper, which won the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

Ahmad is currently writing his first feature film following award-winning shorts On Stopping The Rain and A Gift.

Prague-based FAMU graduate Kashcheeva made waves with short film Electra, blending stop-motion and live action, which premiered at Cannes last year and won best short in Toronto.

Danech San gained attention with short films A Million Years and  Sunrise In My Mind and is now writing her first feature.

De Geer’s first feature The Hypnosis premiered in the Crystal Globe Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it won three awards.

Solonevych was in the short film competition at Cannes last year with As It Was  (co-directed with Damian Kocur).