13 February 2016
Newsdesk
This month the hugely popular BFI Future Film Festival returns to BFI Southbank for the ninth year, running from 17-21 February 2015.
A highlight of this year’s expanded programme will be a session dedicated to The James Bay Film Project, revealing how the award-winning singer-songwriter James Bay is helping to support emerging filmmakers via a collaboration through global platform Talenthouse. The Creative Invite was launched last year and sought submissions from filmmakers from all over the world, who were invited to submit a 1-2 minute trailer for a short narrative film inspired by James Bay’s debut album Chaos And The Calm. The selected filmmaker Patrick Lawrence, has been commissioned to turn his trailer for Lionheart into a 10-15 minute narrative short film which will premiere at the festival on Sunday 21 February. Other festival highlights include masterclasses with director Sarah Gavron (Suffragette, Brick Lane), Costume Designer Jane Petrie (’71, Fish Tank) and Editor Jinx Godfrey (The Theory of Everything).
The festival is open to 16-25 year olds, and aimed at those aspiring to develop careers in the film and creative industries. The festival is programmed around three key areas: ‘Storytelling’, Production and Craft Skills’ and ‘The Business of Film’, and offers young people a unique opportunity to obtain access to members of the industry alongside a wealth of talks, masterclasses and networking events. Each day of the festival from Thursday 18 onwards will be kicked off by an inspirational key note speech from four women working in the film industry. These will include Appropriate Behaviour writer-director-actor Desiree Akhavan, artist and director Jenn Nkiru, producer Faye Ward (Jane Eyre, Tamara Drewe) as well as producer Sarah Brocklehurst. These key note speeches are presented in partnership with Women in Film and TV, Underwire, BFI Film Academy and Birds Eye View and are designed to provoke and inspire attendees before the day ahead.
The 2016 festival has received over 1,400 submissions, the largest ever number since the festival launched in 2007, and 75 films have been selected for screening over the course of the festival. This year the festival is expanding from three to five days of events and workshops to meet ever increasing demand, and offer attendees the chance to attend as many sessions as possible. The first day of the festival will be free of charge to mark this expansion as well as to provide a taster for first time attendees. The festival is open to everyone aged 16-25, with ticket prices (from £10 per day), kept to a minimum so that everyone has a chance to attend. This year’s Future Film Awards is bigger and better than ever – with ten awards, including prizes for Best Short, Best Micro-Short (up to 90 seconds) and Best Experimental Short, all be given out in a dedicated awards ceremony on the final day of the festival. Each award winner will also be in the running for one of two BFI RAW awards, each with £5,000 prize money to support their career or to make a new short film. In addition to the prize money each RAW award winner will have access to a year of mentoring and guidance from industry experts.
Ticker holders will have access to Creative Skillset’s The Hiive Festival Delegate Lounge, where individuals can join the swarm and meet fellow filmmakers. During lunch there will be meet and greet sessions offering a great opportunity to meet film industry professionals. Throughout the course of the festival, attendees will also be privy to a wide range of organisations and opportunities to help develop their skills and careers within the film and creative industries. These will include the BFI Film Academy, who will be able to let attendees know about opportunities available across the UK and hear from previous BFI Film Academy alumni, and Euroscript who will run daily surgeries, offering advice on scripts and film ideas.
