Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award Honoring Harry Lighton

Special preview screening of the new film Pillion followed by Q&A with filmmaker Harry Lighton. 

The Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award was established in 2023 to celebrate the bold and innovative film artists who represent the future of cinema. Our 2026 honoree is writer-director Harry Lighton, who will join us for a special preview screening of his electrifying debut feature, Pillion. 

Hilarious, subversive and sexy, Pillion is an acclaimed and surprisingly tender love starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård in fearless performances as a mild young man and his leather-clad lover. The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and has won critical raves, including a Best Adapted Screenplay prize at the 2025 Gotham Awards and a Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination for Best First-Time Theatrical Feature Film. 

After the screening, Lighton will participate in a Q&A and be presented with The Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award. 

Pillion opens at the Coolidge on Friday, February 13. 

ABOUT PILLION 

Wallflower Colin (Harry Melling) leads a humdrum existence until he meets the impossibly handsome Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a mysterious biker he is soon desperately devoted to. As Colin submits to Ray and enters an exciting new world of desire, he must decide the limits of his devotion. 

ABOUT HARRY LIGHTON 

Harry Lighton is a British writer-director based in London. In 2017, he co-wrote and directed short film Wren Boys, which went on to be nominated for Best British Short at the 2018 BAFTAs. It was also nominated for a BIFA, won Best UK Short at the UK Film Festival, and had its US Premiere at Sundance. In recent years Harry has worked in various capacities with director Oliver Hermanus, on Living (director’s assistant), Sky/AMC series Mary & George (directing 2nd unit) and an upcoming biopic of Alexander McQueen (writer).