LOTTERY LEADER
Isabel Davis has been appointed director of the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Funds, overseeing some £20 million ($26.8 million) a year in support for U.K. independent filmmakers. Davis joins the British Film Institute from Screen Scotland, where she has served as executive director for eight years, and begins a five-year fixed-term contract in October.
She succeeds Mia Bays, the outgoing director who has run the fund since 2021 and overseen BAFTA wins for “Kneecap” and “My Father’s Shadow” for outstanding debut in consecutive years, along with a best British short animation win for “Two Black Boys in Paradise.” Before Screen Scotland, Davis spent seven years as the BFI’s head of international, helping broker the organization’s co-production treaties with China and Brazil.
“I’m honored to be stepping into this role,” Davis said, at a moment she called critical for the future of U.K. film. Ben Roberts, BFI chief executive, called her “tenacious when it comes to doing the right thing for U.K. independent film.”
CASTING CALL
The BBC has cast Toheeb Jimoh and Dujonna Gift in the lead roles of “Open Water,” its eight-part adaptation of Caleb Azumah Nelson‘s debut novel, with filming underway in Birmingham and London. Mam Tor Productions, a Banijay U.K. company, and B-Side Productions are making the series for BBC iPlayer and BBC One.
Jimoh, known for “Ted Lasso” and “Industry,” plays Marcus, a retail worker developing a career as a photographer; Gift, making her lead TV debut, plays Effie, a dance student in Dublin. They are joined by a cast including Rhianna Dorris, Nadine Marshall and Sherise Blackman.
“This is a dream project for me,” Jimoh said. Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, called it “a deeply romantic and beautifully observed story.”
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