The second feature from writer-director Eliza Hittman, Beach Rats concerns Brooklyn teenager Frankie, who, unbeknown to his family, his macho boardwalk-dwelling friends and a potential new girlfriend, is navigating an interest in cruising with older gay men he meets online.

It’s rare for an actor’s first feature film role to involve them being the focus of every scene, and British newcomer Harris Dickinson is a revelation as Frankie. “I thought I was ready to take on a lead role in a feature and be able to carry it on my shoulders,” he says of the project’s demands. “And I think I was, but it was inevitably still daunting with the pressure that came with that.”

Full interview for the BFI