Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, How To Have Sex is a vibrant and authentic depiction of the agonies, ecstasies and ride-or-die glory of young female friendship, from rising British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker, who wrote and directed the film.
The Story
Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday, drinking, clubbing and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. As they dance their way across the sun-drenched streets of Malia, they find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent and self-discovery. Captured with luminous visuals and a pitch-perfect soundtrack, Manning Walker’s directorial debut paints a painfully familiar portrait of young adulthood, and how first sexual experiences should – or shouldn’t – play out.
Molly Manning-Walker – Writer/Director
Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021, Molly Manning Walker trained at NFTS in England and holds an MA in Cinematography. Her previous work as a cinematographer includes shooting Charlotte Regan’s debut feature Scrapper and the multi-BAFTA-nominated Mood. Molly’s directing debut was the short film Good Thanks, You? which premiered at the 59th edition of Semaine De la Critique Cannes and went on to play at many festivals. Molly also won the Next Step prize at Cannes 2022 for the How to Have Sex script.
Mia McKenna-Bruce – Tara
Rising star Mia McKenna-Bruce has garnered praise for her roles across television and film, and with several exciting projects over the past year, she is firmly established as an up-and- coming actor to watch. Roles include ‘Mia Karp’ in Vampire Academy, ‘Mary Elliot’, the younger sister of Dakota Johnson’s ‘Anne Elliot’ in Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. She also appeared as ‘Lily’ in the independent film Kindling. In 2017, Mia was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for ‘Performance of the Year’ for her role of ‘Tee Taylor’ in the BBC’s television series The Dumping Ground, a spin-off of the British hit series The Story of Tracy Beaker. Other notable television credits include ‘Bree’ in BBC and Netflix’s Get Even, ‘Marilka’ in Netflix’s The Witcher starring Henry Cavill, Cleaning Up and Vera for ITV. Film credits include ‘Linda’ in comedy feature Last Train to Christmas opposite Michael Sheen for SKY Cinema, The Rebels, and she made her debut as ‘Ashley Tyler’, Milla Jovovich‘s on screen daughter, in Sci-Fi thriller The Fourth Kind.
Watch How to Have Sex Will Be (2023) Teaser
Lara Peake – Skye
Lara appeared in the BBC adaptation of Nicôle Lecky’s play Mood (formerly Superhoe) in which she played the central role opposite Lecky. Lara is currently filming the role of Daisee in the Disney + adaptation of Gilly Cooper’s Rivals. At 15, Lara was cast opposite George Mackay in Duane Hopkins’ independent feature Bypass, and her performance earned her a spot on the 2015 BIFA Most Promising Newcomer list. Lara has also appeared in coming-of-age feature Spaceship, Channel 4’s BAFTA nominated miniseries, Born To Kill, How To Talk To Girls At Parties with Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, Final Score, opposite Pierce Brosnan and Dave Bautista, Netflix’s The English Game and HBO’s Brave New Worlds.
Samuel Bottomley – Paddy
Samuel was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s BAFTA TV Awards for Channel 4’s Somewhere Boy and most recently has been seen in Am I Being Unreasonable? and Ladhood. He starred opposite Tim Roth in feature film Sundown and in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie alongside Sarah Lancashire, Richard E. Grant and Max Harwood and leads Amazon feature Get Duked! He also starred in the three-hander film The Last Right alongside Michael Huisman and Niamh Algar, winner of the Cork Film Festival Audience award. Sam’s first role was in Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur, with Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman.
Shaun Thomas – Badger
Shaun was discovered by Amy Hubbard and cast in a leading role in Clio Barnard’s BAFTA nominated film The Selfish Giant (2013). They worked together again on Ali and Ava (2021) in which he starred opposite Claire Rushbrook and Adeel Akhtar. Other film work includes Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016) and The Brothers Grimsby (2016). On television Shaun will next be seen in ITV thriller The Long Shadow directed by Lewis Arnold. Shaun starred in three seasons of BBC comedy Ladhood (2019-2022) and the BBC drama Four Lives (2022).
