BFI Future Film Festival announces events programme for 2023 edition

The BFI unveils highlights of the events programme for 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.

Special guests offering their insight and advice to up-and-coming filmmakers attending the Festival at BFI Southbank this year include actor Daisy Ridley, writer Alice Oseman, producer Rosie Alison, cinematographer Fabian Wagner, Academy Award-winning editor Martin Walsh, filmmakers Camila Hall and Jennifer Tiexeria, Margaret Ratliff and the creative team of BBC Earth’s Antarctica.

Highlights of the online programme, accessible worldwide, include interviews with filmmaker Rian Johnson, producer Jane Tranter and Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion.

This year’s BFI Future Film Festival will include four jam-packed days filled with masterclasses, workshops, screenings, and networking opportunities, with events programmed across three strands: Storytelling, Business of Film and Career Ladder. With a host of industry experts and screen creatives leading the sessions, both online and in-person, the BFI Future Film Festival is the best way for filmmakers aged 16 to 25, across the UK and beyond, to break into the screen industries.

Highlights of the in person programme at BFI Southbank

A highlight of the BFI Future Film Festival events programme, our Hot Spot sessions offer the chance to hear directly from established screen professionals about their careers and tips to break into the industry. This year’s in-person line-up at BFI Southbank includes actor Daisy Ridley, who will join us to talk about her career – from Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy to Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express, as well as Alice Oseman, the author and illustrator of Heartstopper who adapted their own series for television to enormous acclaim on Netflix.

Other highlights of the in-person events programme include a keynote session from Rosie Alison, producer of films including PADDINGTON and the upcoming musical WONKA. A screening of BBC Earth’s Antarctica on the UK’s biggest screen at BFI IMAX is a first for the Future Film Festival. Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, the film will be followed by a Q&A with the creative team.

A pair of panel discussions will focus documentary filmmaking. Ahead of the UK Preview screening of Subject, directors Camila Hall and Jennifer Tiexeria, with Margaret Ratliff (The Staircase), will explore the moral issues surrounding the process, including safeguarding, exploitation and monetary compensation; and film and production executive Hannah Bush-Bailey and a panel of BFI-funded documentarians talking through their creative journeys and giving advice on how to get films made in Made of Truth: Developing Your Short Doc.

How To Fail Well, will welcome filmmakers Charlotte Regan, Jessica Magaye, Luna Carmoon and Theo James Krekis, who will share their stories of transforming personal failure into success; and two Blinkink directors – the BFI Future Film Festival 2022 Best Director Will Wightman and the Sundance 2019 Jury Prize winner Renee Zhan – will discuss their rise from students to award-winning short filmmakers working on content for some of the biggest global brands.

Principal partner Warner Bros. Discovery will host a series called WB100 presents, with special guests including cinematographer Fabian Wagner (House of the Dragon) who will offer insight into the distinctive role of a Warner Bros. Discovery Director of Photography, and Academy Award-winning editor Martin Walsh (Wonder Woman), who will demystify the post-production process alongside Warner Bros. Discovery Pictures’ Tim Grover, VP Post Production, and Karen Elliot, VP Music Production. Other sessions will feature the Warner Bros. locations team, who will take us across the globe from location scouting to setting up unit base; an introduction to the Assistant Directors department, the lynchpin of production and one of the most popular routes for new entrants into the industry; a session on creative careers and the roles on a film set which utilise artistic skill; and an exploration of sound on film.

Elsewhere, BFI NETWORK funded filmmaker Jess Dadds will be joined by Talent Executive Nicole Davis for a discussion on how to make an application for short film funding stand out; the hosts of the Ghibliotheque podcast, Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham, will take us through the fascinating history of the Japanese animation studio with a Z-A of Studio Ghibli; Producer Ioanna Karavela will explain how best to produce a thrilling action scene on a budget, supported by Action Xtreme Development; Andy Snook, Founder and Director of Production at Silk Factory, and BFI Head of Campaigns Nyree Jillings will discuss the best ways to find an audience and market your film; the author of The Freelance Bible, Alison Grade, will give advice on how to find work as a freelancer in the screen industry; discover how films could become more environmentally friendly through the stories they tell with Young Programmers present: Sustainable storytelling; and in The Languages of Cinema: the Key to Code-Switching On-Screen, we welcome filmmakers embracing more than one language in their dialogue to walk us through everything from script writing to translating and accents.

Other sessions will include a Pitching Masterclass, offering the chance to learn about the process of pitching and commissioning from NOWNESS, one of the leading creators of digital video; an improv filmmaking session, curated by the BFI Film Academy Young Programmers, which will show how to make a short film from nothing but a few suggestions, as a filmmaker and team of actors put together scenes based on prompts and ideas from the audience; Long Live the Cliché – an exploration of how popular tropes in television came about and how to use them correctly; and a two-hour workshop, Practical Introduction to the World of Virtual Production, brought to you by Mo-Sys Academy and its team of virtual production tutors who have been utilising this cutting edge technology for years in both film and broadcast applications.

Across the festival, BFI Southbank will also be home to a marketplace with over twenty companies offering advice to young creatives and answering questions about the industry. Networking drinks and a movie quiz hosted by the BFI Film Academy Young Programmers will also be highlights during the four day events programme.

Highlights of the online programme, available globally for free

Highlights of the BFI Future Film Festival 2023 online programme include three Hot Spot interviews. Rian Johnson, the filmmaker behind Glass Onion, Knives Out and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, will join us on Sunday 19^th February to talk about his career with host Amon Warmann, film and TV critic and Contributing Editor at Empire Magazine. Jane Tranter (His Dark Materials), one of the most successful and celebrated television producers in the UK, will also join us for a virtual interview, while film critic and broadcaster Ali Plumb will interview Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion – one of the largest truly independent game developers. Other special guests will include Nottingham-based documentarian Sharon Walia, discussing breaking barriers for regional creatives in the UK; a talk with personal branding expert Marielle Legair on how to become a recognisable face in the industry; and Director of Photographer Fedor Lyass (Hardcore Henry) who will explain how to shoot action on a budget – using only a GoPro Camera, supported by Action Xtreme Development.

Further highlights of the online programme include Fighting to be Heard: Queer Filmmaking in Adversity – a panel discussion supported by the London School of English, asking how filmmakers working in oppressive regimes can be supported; a session led by Ridley Scott Creative Group Black Dog Films bringing together experts from across the screen industry to talk about all things pitch; tips and tricks on how to writ­e the most significant portion of your screenplay – the dialogue; a brief history of film posters, and tips on how to create your own, curated by the BFI Film Academy Young Programmers; a session demystifying digital deliverables, and how to supply them for festivals, streaming platforms and more; and a range of professionals who will take us through the process of how our favourite video games were created.

Principal partner Warner Bros. Discovery will also host a series of insightful and beneficial online WB100 presents sessions, which will include: specific advice about how to get your first job in Film and TV, from the people doing the hiring; practical advice, tips, tricks and what not to do when you start work on a film set; and insight into the myriad of routes and avenues into film and what roles they embody. Furthermore, established filmmakers in the, often complex and confusing, producing world will be revealing their routes into film, what their day-to-day entails and the multifaceted work they undertake to bring film to life.

As part of the BFI Film Academy SCENE series, young filmmakers will be interviewed live on the BFI Film Academy Instagram channel across the festival, hosted by the BFI Film Academy Young Programmers, providing an opportunity for filmmakers to promote their work and answer questions. Young Programmers Lunchtime Live will also be reporting every lunchtime to let audiences know what’s happening, chat with filmmakers and industry figures and preview what’s coming up both in person at BFI Southbank and online worldwide.

Free Short Films available to watch during the BFI Future Film Festival

The extensive events programme complements a film programme of fifty-five short films by emerging filmmakers aged 16-25, all of which will be available to watch globally on the BFI YouTube channel from 16 February – 2 March as well as at BFI Southbank during the Festival.

All of the films screening throughout this year’s Festival will be in contention for the prestigious BFI Future Film Festival Awards. The nominees will be announced soon, along with a jury of industry experts who will judge each category. Award-nominees across ten categories will be in the running for prize money and mentorships from industry leaders.

The BFI Future Film Festival 2023 Awards Ceremony, supported by Netflix, will take place in-person at BFI Southbank on Sunday 19 February and will also be live streamed on the BFI YouTube channel. The awards recognise, celebrate, and reward some of the talented young filmmakers from this year’s festival across 10 different categories including Best Director, Best Film and Best New Talent. Recipients of the awards will receive prizes including financial aid and mentoring support, generously offered by this year’s partners.

A variety of festival passes for BFI Southbank will be on sale from Thursday 26^th February. 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.