BFI Future Film Festival announces awards nominations and jury for 2023 edition

The BFI announces the Awards Jury and nominations for the programme of fifty-five short films that have been selected to screen as part of the BFI Future Film Festival 2023, the UK’s largest festival for young, emerging filmmakers, which returns from 16 – 19 February. The Festival is presented live and in-person at BFI Southbank, whilst simultaneously offering a wide-ranging online festival accessible to worldwide audiences, and is kindly supported by Principal Partner Warner Bros. Discovery and Main Sponsor Netflix.

The films in this year’s festival are eligible for the BFI Future Film Festival Awards 2023. Three of the ten awards, Best Film, Best Director and Best New Talent (which looks for the filmmaker who shows the most promise), will be judged by the BFI’s esteemed Festival Jury which is chaired by filmmaker Peter Kosminsky and includes actors Kit Connor and Bella Ramsey, writer-director Matthew Jacobs Morgan and critic and author Hanna Flint.

Nominees across nine award categories will be in the running for ten prizes with money totalling more than £12,000, and further mentorships from industry leaders. The winners will be revealed at the BFI Future Film Festival 2023 Awards Ceremony, which will take place in person on 19 February at BFI Southbank and livestreamed on the BFI YouTube channel.

Recently announced speakers for the in-person festival programme include actor Daisy Ridley, writer Alice Oseman, producer Rosie Alison, cinematographer Fabian Wagner, Academy Award-winning editor Martin Walsh, filmmakers Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, Margaret Ratliff and the creative team of BBC Earth’s Antarctica including director Fredi Devas. Newly confirmed speakers for the online programme include filmmaker Rian Johnson, producer Jane Tranter and Jason Kingsley OBE, CEO of Rebellion.

This year’s Festival, which is aimed at aspiring filmmakers aged 16-25, is completely free of charge for those attending online, enabling young people from every corner of the UK, and across the world, to benefit from masterclasses and talks from the best in the business. A variety of festival passes for BFI Southbank are on sale now. A Full Festival Pass, which allows access to two industry events per day and all three of the film programme screenings, will be available for £45. Also available are 4 Industry Event Passes at £30, 2 Industry Event Passes at £15 and an Opening Day Pass, giving access to Thursday’s industry event and shorts film screening, at £10.

The full programme and the schedule for events is available to explore now on the BFI website.

THE NOMINEES

This year’s programme of fifty-five shorts made by young filmmakers aged 16-25 are an extraordinary collection of films that tackle a broad range of subjects, from mental health and the safety of women, to race and sexuality. These films, which will be available to watch at BFI Southbank during the Festival and for free worldwide on the BFI YouTube channel from 16 February – 2 March, all display phenomenal skill and creativity and no doubt feature many future stars of the film industry, both in the UK and internationally.

Best New Talent (supported by Warner Bros. Discovery, judged by the BFI FFF Jury)

Prize: £4,000 + mentoring package

• In HONEYBEE (Emilio Vazquez Reyes, 2021), an undocumented Mexican immigrant in the US receives a heart-warming yet heart-breaking phone call from his daughter across the border.
• PREACH MODERN (Lili Gensetter, 2022) sees a young man on his way to priesthood, but to the surprise of a documentary crew he knows nothing of the concept of celibacy.
• THE AUDITION (David Hubbard, 2020) follows drummer Matty at the biggest audition of his life. He stands out like a sore thumb, before everyone’s voices are swapped with their instruments.
• In UNDERBELLY (Edie Moles, 2022), apprentice butcher Norman tries to support his sister through her severe postpartum depression – with devastating consequences.

Best Film (supported by Chapman Charitable Trust, judged by the BFI FFF Jury)

Prize: £1,000

• BEING HUMAN (Klara Bond, 2021) follows eight people who, in various ways, have a connection. We get a glimpse into their inner thoughts – which can be heavy to carry alone.
• BET FREDRICA (Daylen Oakes, 2022) finds Mary, a single mother, placing an all or nothing bet on the 2009 Grand National for her gifted daughter Millie.
• BY HAND (Rhys Prichard, 2022) sees Oscar and his deaf sister Nia sent to visit their estranged father. Over the space of an afternoon the trio are ripped apart and brought back together in this film surrounding deafness in a family dynamic.
• In UNDERBELLY (Edie Moles, 2022), apprentice butcher Norman tries to support his sister through her severe postpartum depression – with devastating consequences.

Best Director (supported by Triple Exposure, judged by the BFI FFF Jury)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• DARKSIDE (Spencer Zimmerman, 2022) sees astronaut Sam accept an interstellar mission to save the lives of a missing crew on a deep space voyage, abandoning his life on Earth.
• DROP OUT (Ade Femzo, 2022) follows a struggling student who tells his strict African mother that he’s dropped out of school. When it doesn’t go well, he goes back in time to try again.
• MY FATHER’S SON (Charles Whiteley, 2022) sees a traditional gamekeeper’s expectations challenged when his son begins to explore his sexuality.
• WHORE #4 (Florence Winter Hill, 2020) follows an Eastern European actress in London who struggles to come to terms with her casting bracket.

Best Animation (supported by Blinkink, judged by Bart Yates – Blinkink)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• BLACK METAL (Riley Street, 2021) sees a young girl sneak from the house to see a black metal band in concert, forcing her overly religious parents to follow.
• DON’T GO LITTLE DOE (Justin Fargiano, 2022) follows an energetic little doe who unknowingly awakens a massive force of nature. When her enchanted playground turns wild, she must act quickly or meet an unwelcome fate.
• INTERDIMENSIONAL PIZZA PUSHERS (Lije Morgan, 2020) stars Honeybear and Fishlips, who race through dimensions and animation styles to make their pizza deliveries on time.
• In MIGRANTS (Hugo Caby, Antoine Dupriez, Aubin Kubiak, Lucas Lermytte, Zoé Devise, 2020) we witness two polar bears driven into exile due to global warming. They encounter brown bears along their journey, with whom they try to cohabitate.
• PLEASE CLAP (Khalidah McLarty, 2022) follows Mikey the clown, who must confront the complex feelings he has regarding his persona after being fired from his job.

Best Documentary (supported by Netflix, judged by Jonny Taylor – Netflix)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• CONCRETE ANGELS (Maria Strozynska & Rafael Contreras, 2021) is a documentary about three Dublin skater girls touching on femininity, their backgrounds and their relationship with skateboarding.
• EVERYTHING MUST GO (Alisha Liu, 2022) is an animated documentary exploring the culture and people of American yard sales using real audio from around Los Angeles County.
• PACING THE POOL (Radheya Jegatheva, 2021) offers a glimpse into the extraordinary life of Richard Pace, who finds that healing waters have helped him rise above his physical and mental stresses.
• In PLAY ON: FOOTBALL’S CLIMATE STORY (Tom Zaranko-Carver, 2022) we see how climate change is affecting the beautiful game through two British towns and their clubs.
• STILL (Alex Shipman, 2022) is an experimental documentary using real testimonies from women on their experiences of being in night clubs, visualised through interpretive dance.

Best Experimental Film (supported by Black Dog Films, judged by Martin Roker – Black Dog Films)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• AS ABOVE (Kemi Anna Adeeko, 2022) is a love letter to Blackness, which celebrates Black love, Black beauty and Black glory through authentic relationships.
• CANNED (Clemente Lohr, 2022) follows a mid-20s raver, desperately searching for something hidden in her flat, while her friend attempts to teach her the meaning of love.
• COUNTRY LIFE (Luis Hindman, 2022) is a playful, tongue-in-cheek film about not wanting to leave your bedroom.
• HER FIGHT (Phoebe Stapleton, 2021) is an experimental short which blends movement, symbolism and dynamic imagery to examine the safety of women and girls in public spaces.
• TIPPING POINT (Marta Vitola, 2022) is an experimental dance film exploring the cycles of pointless productivity, our reliance on resources and the need to self-realise.

Best Micro Short (supported by BFI NETWORK, judged by BFI NETWORK team)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• In EN-ROUTE (Daniel Daniel, 2021), things get Uber weird when a taxi app starts to glitch with hilarious results.
• FLOOR 43 (Sophya Kebets, 2022) sees an office cleaner practice her bossa nova moves during her usual late-night shift on a particularly unusual night.
• IF HER WORLD ENDS (Zinha, 2022) is a micro-documentary that asks how the intimate need for Reproductive Justice is threatened by the USA’s restriction of abortion rights.
• SAFE (Aleah Scott, 2021) examines the first-hand true accounts of young women who have experienced sexual assault and harassment, and the long-term effects of such violations.
• In STUNT TROUBLE (Kit Warner, 2022), a naive robot looking to break into the film industry encounters the formidable force of the ‘OCD-27’ stunt coordinator robot at an audition.

Best International Film (supported by The London School of English, judged by Timothy Blake – The London School of English)

Main Prize: £1,000, Special Mention: £750

• AFTER CLOSING (Carley Byers, USA 2022) finds a waitress whisked into disco chaos as she tries to get a house full of eccentric customers to leave after the diner’s scheduled closing time.
• BEING HUMAN (Klara Bond, Sweden 2021) follows eight people who, in various ways, have a connection. We get a glimpse into their inner thoughts – which can be heavy to carry alone.
• In BUSAN, 1999 (Thomas Percy Kim, South Korea/USA 2022) a pregnant Korean-American woman returns to Korea and her mother. They bathe and scrub each other, hoping to heal past wounds.
• DARKSIDE (Spencer Zimmerman, Canada 2022) sees astronaut Sam accept an interstellar mission to save the lives of a missing crew on a deep space voyage, abandoning his life on Earth.
• GOD KNOWS (Mone Frogg, Norway 2022) asks what if your dog had problems of their own? This is an absurd comedy about wanting to be loved, and not being able to help as a friend.
• In HONEYBEE (Emilio Vazquez Reyes, USA 2021), an undocumented Mexican immigrant in the US receives a heart-warming yet heart-breaking phone call from his daughter across the border.
• THE MURDERER (Joaquín García, Uruguay 2021) sees a painter plunging into an intense and hasty introspection, which drives him to murder the cause of his creative plateau.
• OKOSHKO (Georgy Krasnokutskiy, Russia 2021) follows a young boy from a far-away town in the middle of nowhere, who stumbles on a capitalistic fragment which he sees as a window to a better life.

Best Writer (supported by Action Xtreme, judged by Chee Keong Cheung – Action Xtreme)

Prize: £1,000 + mentoring package

• In BUSAN, 1999 (Thomas Percy Kim, 2022) a pregnant Korean-American woman returns to Korea and her mother. They bathe and scrub each other, hoping to heal past wounds.
• In HALF (Jacob Roberts, 2022), bisexual, half-Jewish Jonah comes out to his girlfriend, launching a tragicomic exploration of love and religion in New York City.
• HOMEBIRD (Caleb J. Roberts, 2022)sees an emotionally reclusive father struggle to reconnect with his estranged gay son during a night at the seafront amusements.
• In MODEL OF LIFE (Sascha LO, 2022) an insecure life model is desperate to be someone’s muse. But when a budding artist chooses her for his latest subject, she is not pleased.
• THE AUDITION (David Hubbard, 2022) follows drummer Matty at the biggest audition of his life. He stands out like a sore thumb, before everyone’s voices are swapped with their instruments.