BAFTA Breakthroughs Talk ‘Atomic People,’ ‘Harvest,’ ‘Mr Loverman,’ ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’

The 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough cohort of rising UK talent across film, TV, and gaming, supported by Netflix, has been unveiled, and it represents creatives from across such craft areas as producing, writing, directing, editing, acting, and more.

Among the 20 “must-watch” creatives highlighted in the latest year of the BAFTA Breakthrough initiative are Grand Theft Hamlet writer-director Pinny Grylls, whose feature documentary focuses on two out-of-work actors attempting to mount a production of Hamlet inside the world of Grand Theft Auto that was shot in game, Mr. Loverman series writer and associate producer Nathaniel Price, Scottish Highlands period drama Harvest producer Marie-Elena Dyche, and Megumi “Meg” Inman (Black Box Diaries), the co-director and producer of Atomic Peoplewhich gives voice to survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

THR caught up with them to discuss their hopes for the BAFTA Breakthrough experience, the works that have gotten them into it, and future plans.

Marie-Elena Dyche

Having worked as a producer on such successes as Blue Jean, How to Have Sexand Harveststarring Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling, Rosy McEwen, Frank Dillane, and others, her latest films are Dragonfly and Missionstarring George MacKay and Rosy McEwen, which was selected for the Cannes Great8 showcase 2025.

It sounds like a super-busy year for you, with Harvest and more recently Dragonflystarring Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn…

Absolutely. It’s been a really amazing year. We’re jumping between different screenings and juggling loads of stuff. It’s really fun, and there’s a lot of stuff going on, but I really love that. It’s these types of films that I’m really proud of, particularly Dragonfly. It’s a very simple, kind of wholesome story about connection and loneliness, and we’ve got these amazing actresses who I feel like are at the top of their game, and it’s just come all together in a very simple way, but also just lets them flourish and lets these themes of loneliness and connection just speak for themselves. And I think that’s the reason why it’s been doing so well recently, winning awards and stuff.

Harvest was more of a genre film, but also touched on serious social issues. How do you approach genre?

Harvest was more like trippy, dreamy, and it just looks beautiful and stunning. But at the core of it and its heart, it does have some really important social impact themes. It is about the Highland Clearances [the evictions of many tenants in the ScottishHighlandsand Islands from 1750 to 1860] and about what happens to villages and communities that get moved along and the unfairness of it. I think there are links between all of the projects I’ve done so far in that I want them to be challenging and pushing boundaries. But also, it’s really, really important for me that there is this important human value of social impact, or making people come away with a message, or starting a discussion.

Harvest also featured Rosy McEwen, who starred in Blue Jean. You two must enjoy working together!

It’s really funny. I’ve done two films with her previously, and I’ve got one coming out, on which we’re just in post-production. It’s a film by director Paul Wright, called Mission. I just love working with her. And I think that when you’ve got really interesting subjects and material, actors want that stuff. So it’s really nice to be able to go back to particular actors I have worked with in the past, like Rosy, and be like: “Look, there’s something really special here.”

Is there anything else you can share on Mission?

We have been on a very long post-production journey with it, and so it’s changed and shifted over the course of the process. I’m really excited to finally introduce it into the festival world and get people’s reactions. It’s been another really special project, and working with another wonderful director and an amazing cast.

Pinny Grylls

Last year, Grylls won the BFI Chanel Filmmaker Award for her debut feature Grand Theft Hamleta doc shot entirely inside a video game Grand Theft Autowhich also won the SXSW jury award for best feature doc, and 2 BIFAs, namely the Raindance Maverick honor and the Outstanding Debut Documentary Director honor.

“A deaf filmmaker who learned BSL after losing her hearing in 2016, Grylls has also created documentaries for major UK broadcasters and institutions, including the BBC, Channel 4, The National Theatre, and The Guardian,” BAFTA notes.

How does it feel to be part of the latest BAFTA Breakthrough group?

It’s super exciting. To be honest with you, I thought my career was over about 10 years ago because I lost my hearing. I thought, “My God, how am I going to make films when half of filmmaking is sound-based?” I didn’t go completely deaf, but I’m profoundly deaf in this ear and moderately deaf in that ear. And it happened quite quickly, and I was obviously an adult. I wasn’t born deaf, so it was a shock, and I didn’t know how to navigate that. I thought I was going to get a different job – Uber driver or something. I was really struggling to understand what I was going to do. So to be in this position is extraordinary for me, and really quite unbelievable. It’s a dream come true.

What was the inspiration for Grand Theft Hamlet?

With COVID, we were in a moment of crisis, and we didn’t know how we were going to make films or do theater ever again. So, it was just out of desperation, really. I guess it was like when I lost my hearing, and I thought, what can we do to kind of look at this from a different perspective? My route out of my hearing loss was learning sign language and entering a deaf community, and thinking about myself as that person. My route out of the COVID pandemic was thinking how can we do something really fun and new and innovative and learn a new skill? I learned about gaming for the first time. My husband [Sam Crane] was like, “I’ve always been a stage actor. I just want to try and do this, do classical theater inside Grand Theft Auto.” And we just came together and worked together on this new thing.

Do you have any new ideas you are working on?

Well, I am developing a rom-com coming-of-age drama called Signs of Life. It’s a fiction film, and I want it to be mainstream. It’s about a woman who’s in her 30s, who loses her hearing, and then gets a bit lost, and then finds the deaf community in a Deaf Comedy Club and falls in love with the guy who runs it, and then ends up transforming her life through joining this deaf community. And I guess what I want to do is [address] questions around why sign language wasn’t offered to me when I lost my hearing. Why was I given medical fixes when actually it was the lifeline I needed to bring me back to life? I want to make a film that has an impact on how we see sign language.

Nathaniel Price

Price’s eight-part adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Mr. Lovermanstarring Lennie James, aired on the BBC in 2024 to critical acclaim. His earlier credits include Noughts & Crosses for the BBC Tin Star seasons 2 and 3 for Sky, and The Outlaws season 2 and 3 for the BBC and Amazon.

According to BAFTA, he has “a number of television dramas in development – ​​adaptations and originals,” and he is working on feature screenplays.

What’s your hope for the BAFTA Breakthrough experience?

It’s like a huge honor and privilege to be selected. I’ve watched the past participants of the program with keen interest over the years and seen some of the fantastic projects and things they’ve done. And so to be included in that is a real honor. Having the opportunity to speak to people who’ve been there and done it, and just trying to take things, maybe their process or their experience, and utilizing it in your own career, is just a fantastic opportunity.

Is there anybody whose brain you would love to pick?

I’m a huge fan of [screenwriter] Peter Straughan. I think Wolf Hall is one of the best things that’s ever been on TV. He’s a master of his craft, a brilliant writer, so he would be at the top of the list, along with Michaela Cole. I think she is a fearless storyteller, and I just really admire her career and her tenacity and just the confidence that she has in her storytelling ability and how she subverts expectations and stereotypes.

Mr. Loverman has been so well received. Did you ever have doubts that you were the right person to adapt this story about a man (played by Lennie James) whose marriage collapses after a decades-long affair with his male best friend is revealed for TV?

I did, actually. I’m quite a slow reader, but I read the book really quickly when it first came to me, and I just love the world, I love the characters. It’s exactly the type of story that I want to tell. It’s challenging, it has complex characters, and it’s a beautiful story. At the same time, I was like, “This is not my lived experience. So am I the right person to tell the story?” That was a big conversation that I had, first of all, with my agent and then the production company, and we came to a collective decision that I was the right person because of other aspects of my life, such as becoming a father and all these other things that connected me to this world. It was this fantastic writing opportunity, it was also a chance for me to meet diverse people. It was such a life-changing experience for me.

Are you working on anything new?

I’ve got a film with Idris Elba that’s currently filming for Apple TV in the US It’s an adaptation of the Neil LaBute play This Is How It Goes. Idris is starring and directing, so that’s exciting. And also have another film, Khadijahthat Ashley Walters is set to direct. It’s about a young female jockey, the first hijabi female jockey to win a race in Europe. It’s a really, really exciting story. She’s from Brixton, South London, and, yeah. It’s just a really beautiful underdog story.

Megumi Inman

The documentary director has earned plaudits for Atomic People and the BAFTA-nominated Black Box Diarieswhich tells the story of the face of Japan’s #MeToo movement, among others. She is currently working on a feature documentary film about the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident for HBO.

How does it feel to be included in BAFTA Breakthrough?

It was a real shock. It’s really wonderful and exciting. I was so pleasantly surprised, because working in this industry, you don’t have a company that’s supporting you as a free freelance director. You’re really on your own, just moving from project to project. To be recognized by BAFTA, one of the most prestigious film organizations in the world, just took my breath away.

What kind of themes and narratives interest you u? I have seen Atomic People and Black Box Diariesboth of which tell stories about Japan.

Yes, both are Japanese stories that are known in Japan, but aren’t that well known outside of Japan. I’m mixed British-Japanese and am fluent in both languages ​​and was brought up in both. So, for this part of my career, I’ve really felt like using that to my advantage, using my understanding of both cultures and languages ​​to bring out those Japanese stories. That has been my mission. Atomic Peoplein many ways, is a historical, very pure documentary about the experiences of people who survived the atomic bomb. But again, it is something that’s not that discussed or talked about or understood out in the west, strangely. Black Box Diaries is a more modern story about an incredibly brave young woman who was raped and then goes to investigate her own rape, because no one else in her country is going to do it for her or is going to support her. So, again, it’s a film that touches on society in Japan today and how women are treated today, and what sexual abuse means in Japan. They’re extremely important topics that relate to and tie into each other.

Has Black Box Diaries been screened in Japan?

It’s been a controversial film, but finally, it’s going to be shown in Japan in December, so we’re all very excited for its success.

You have an HBO project in the works. What can you tell us about it?

Yes, the current project I’m working on is for HBO, but it’s about the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident that happened in 2011, so it’s another extremely harrowing, serious story, which has so many different levels of understanding that are needed. But what I would really like to get out of this Breakthrough program the most is maybe branching out of just telling Japanese stories. I’m just as British as I am Japanese, so I would like to use this as an opportunity to tell even broader, wider stories as well.

Do you ever think about potentially doing fiction?

I absolutely love fiction filmmaking. And I think what’s so interesting about the documentary space right now is that there’s a lot of fiction and documentary merging and bringing together the best elements of both. Essentially, it’s storytelling. Documentary is so powerful because you’re right there talking to the person who experienced that thing. It’s so direct. But then what fiction can do is help you really bring the emotion. And it’s not just facts that you’re trying to tell in a story, it’s feelings. And so I would love to work across genres, and steal and borrow from other genres, whether it’s gaming or fiction, film or comedy or music. You got to be a magpie and sort of borrow things from everywhere to tell your story in the best way.