Grad Film alumni Joecar Hanna and Oliver McGoldrick where selected as two of six filmmakers to join the 51st session of La Résidence of the Festival de Cannes.
La Résidence welcomes each year, in the heart of Paris, six young filmmakers selected to take part in two sessions lasting four and a half months, with the aim of helping them develop and write the screenplay for their first or second feature film. Since its creation, La Résidence has supported more than 250 filmmakers from around sixty countries.
Joecar Hanna is a Spanish filmmaker of Chinese-Lebanese descent who before moving to NYC, worked as a professional editor on many feature films and a TV series. During his time in the NYU Grad Film program he received the Black Family Prize and the Ang Lee Scholarship, and was selected for the Marcie Bloom Fellowship (Sony Pictures Classics). His short Deliver Me premiered at SXSW 2023 and was acquired by Canal+. His second short Talk Me, executive-produced by Spike Lee, premiered at Cannes 2025, won Best Short at TIFF, and premiered in the U.S at SXSW 2026. As an actor, he made his feature debut in Lump by Alex Rockwell, a film that received and award at the Warsaw Film Festival. Joecar will make his debut feature in the U.S. in Fall 2026 and will develop his second feature at the Cannes Residence 2026.
Oliver McGoldrick is an Irish filmmaker and doctor based between New York City and County Down, Northern Ireland. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2017, before earning his MFA in Film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a BAFTA North America Scholar and an alum of the Film at Lincoln Center Artists Academy. His previous short, Three Keenings, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024, screened at over 50 festivals worldwide and won best short film at the Galway Film Fleadh. His next short, Melter, executive produced by Spike Lee, is currently in post-production. He is in development for his debut feature Barnyard, through the Munich Film Up Program and La Residence du Festival de Cannes.
Read more at Festival de Cannes.