UK training body ArtsEd (Arts Educational Schools London) is launching a new initiative to screen 16 short films starring their final year acting students, in both LA and London this summer.

It is the first time a UK acting course has screened films to industry experts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Choreographer Gillian Lynne CBE and actor Robert Lindsay have also been appointed as ArtsEd’s new patrons. They will work alongside its president Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The two screenings will take place at BAFTA, London on June 27 and Soho House LA on July 20.

ArtsEd alumni Chris Spyrides was in Phil Haine’s short film I Am Lonely which won the National Film Board of Canada’s online competition at the Cannes Film Festival.