Finn Halligan, Screen International’s executive editor, reviews and up-to-date talent, is to leave the publication to become director of internati
Finn Halligan, Screen International’s executive editor, reviews and up-to-date talent, is to leave the publication to become director of international programs for Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival.
Halligan will depart Screen at the end of June, after working through Cannes Film Festival, as well as preparing the 2025 edition of Screen’s UK & Ireland Stars of Tomorrow showcase.
Halligan has worked at Screen since 2004, across two spells. She was reviews editor from 2004 to 2010, before leaving to work as a consultant author, editor and critic.
She returned to Screen in 2015, and has run Screen’s reviews operation for the past decade, as both reviews editor and chief film critic.
Under Halligan’s stewardship, Screen has become the only publication to review every feature film at Cannes Film Festival for several years running, as part of hundreds of reviews she commissions and edits every year.
She has also run the successful Stars of Tomorrow showcase since 2011, selecting cohorts of promising film talent. Halligan has led the expansion of the initiative from UK-Ireland, to editions for Arab talent and in Spain as well as the Rising Stars Scotland and Ireland editions.
Over 400 names have been spotlighted during her Stars of Tomorrow tenure, with actors including John Boyega, Vanessa Kirby, Florence Pugh, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal and Marisa Abela; and filmmakers and producers such as Sarah Brocklehurst, Emily Morgan, Daniel Emmerson, Rungano Nyoni, Raine Allen Miller and Akinola Davies Jr.
Screen International editor Matt Mueller said: “Finn’s return to Screen 10 years ago coincided with my own arrival at the publication as editor, and it has been a huge pleasure for me to work alongside her this past decade. I am going to miss our professional partnership, but I also couldn’t be happier for her to take on this exciting new role that is ideally suited to her talents. Red Sea are very lucky to have her!”
Halligan said: “Becoming part of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s dynamic team, who are making such a difference in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia as to how films are made and shown, is an incredible opportunity and I am looking forward to the continuing some themes of my work while also taking on a new challenge. My association with Screen International goes back to when I was a young reporter in Hong Kong in the 1990s, so it will be with some sadness that I leave such a great team and professional family.”
Screen will announce its plans for Halligan’s replacement in due course.
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