France-based Irish British filmmaker Róisín Burns has scooped the Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize for her project Happy Hardcore.

Set against the backdrop of Burns’ native city of Liverpool, the drama revolves around a 17-year-old soldier who deserts his post during the Iraq war.

Happy Hardcore is among ten projects selected for the 12th edition of the Next Step program of Cannes Critics’ Week, which supports the first feature films of directors who previously showed their shorts in the section focused on emerging filmmaking talents.

Burns participated in the 2025 edition of the parallel selection with her short film Wonderwall.

This year’s Next Step Prize jury featured Carole Scotta, founding co-head of Paris-based production, distribution and exhibition company Haut et Court; Rebecca De Pas, programmer for the Rotterdam International Film Festival and curator for the Fondazione Prada Film Fund; Fiorella Moretti, founder and president of sales company Luxbox, and Alexandre Hautecoeur, marketing director at France-based streaming platform Sooner, which is a partner of the program this year.

The Next Step Prize is worth €2,500 and includes an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival.

All ten filmmakers on this year’s edition participated in a one-week workshop last December split between Moulin d’Andé artists residence in Normandy, where advised international consultants, and Paris for a day of meetings with French professionals to present their projects, establish initial contacts, and build connections for future collaborations.

Next Step Prize, worth €2,500 and including an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival.

Since its launch in 2014, Next Step has welcomed 106 filmmakers from 41 different countries.

A total of 45 of the selected projects have been completed, two of which are in Cannes this year: Konstantina Kotzamani’s Titanic Ocean in Un Certain Regard and Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown in competition in this year’s edition of Critics’ Week.