FILMMAKERS WITH FLAIR

The third edition of global short film programme, the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, continued to honour up-and-coming cinematic talent, culminating in a ceremony at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. 

Bold new voices in filmmaking were championed as the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards – established by Creo and sponsored by Sony – evolved and expanded, receiving over 11,750 submissions across 158 countries. 

This year’s winners were My Demon (Fiction, Dir: Rossana Montoya, Cin: Mauricio Reyes Serrano); Travelling Home (Non-Fiction, Dir: Juliet Klottrup, Cin: Sam Finney and Juliet Klottrup); Rock, Paper, Scissors (Student, Dir: Franz Böhm, Cin: Sunshine Hsien Yu Niu, Producer Hayder Hoozeer); Select/Or (Future Format, Dir: Bijan Gashti); and Hermanos Casablanca (Animation, Dir: Santiago O’Ryan and José Navarro). 

Having won the Best British Short Film BAFTA, the filmmakers behind Rock, Paper, Scissors – National Film & Television School alumni – were overjoyed to scoop the SFFA Student prize. Based on a true story, the film follows a father and son in a warzone hospital whose hideout becomes compromised (read more about the film on pXX). 

“I want to shout out to all the female filmmakers,” the film’s cinematographer, Sunshine Hsien Yu Niu, told us at the ceremony. “Our voices deserve to be heard and we need more of us.”  

Fiction award winner Juliet Klottrup’s film Travelling Home tells the story of Joe Cannon Snr., an English Romany traveller and retired farrier making his annual pilgrimage to Appleby Fair. “As a self-taught freelancer who didn’t go to film school, having an accolade like this is hugely validating,” she says. “Often I’m a one-woman band out on the mountains, but for this I was fortunate to have cinematographer Sam Finney shooting alongside me.” 

Non-Fiction nominee, Stefan Pollak’s work also stood out. His film ALT Jay focused on Jay Southern – who has multiple disabilities – and his non-disabled identical twin and their work in sport. “The film explores their bond and aims to improve representation, inclusion and accessibility for disabled people taking part in sport,” says Pollak. “I worked with amazing DP, Steven Pook, who’s made many sport documentaries and supplied his Sony Burano which we also used with the FX6 for additional interview coverage.” 

Also shining bright in Non-Fiction was director/cinematographer Kieran Hodges and water cinematographer Eduardo Vento work on Justice Brothers – a surf film shot on the Sony A7S III about local Ghanaian surf entrepreneur Justice Kwofe who started a local surf school with his friends. “A small camera set-up gave us a lot of freedom and flexibility; it was all about a small team, compact kit and connecting with the subject,” says Hodges.  

“We wanted to put this place on the map, connect with this community and tell this story of these amazing people,” adds Vento. “Getting the opportunity to bring their energy to the screen in LA made it even more worthwhile.” 

When Big People Lie was amongst the Student standout nominees, directed by Gianfranco Fernandez-Ruiz and lensed by Miko Malkhayan ACG. In the film, an eight-year-old – hurt by his mother’s lies about his biological father’s wherabouts – must choose between outing her to US immigration authorities or lying to save her sham marriage that’s been keeping their family afloat. 

“It’s set in a world that’s grounded but with a lot of magical realism,” says Fernandez-Ruiz. “We wanted to tell the story by staying in the subjectivity of an eight-year-old and never breaking away to what the adults understand and what that world looks like.” 

Malkhayan’s cinematography needed to reflect elements of Fernandez-Ruiz’s personal story and memories: “I was also thankful to Gianfranco for how much he wanted us to experiment with colour, especially in the underwater scenes.”  

Leo Wright’s stop-motion film, The Big Bad Wolf, made at Aardman Animations studios in Bristol, was among the Animation nominees offering stiff competition. The project taught Wright about “controlling lighting frame by frame, motion control and making an efficient film. Animation is time-consuming so it’s important to slim down your story to the essence of what is meant to be there”. 

Alongside cash prizes and Sony equipment, winners and shortlisted filmmakers enjoyed a four-day industry programme featuring workshops, screenings, and mentorship at Sony Pictures Studios, developing their craft and connecting them with global industry leaders. 

Unique opportunities

Creatives and filmmakers also invited by the global Sony teams had the opportunity to shoot with Sony’s latest release, the FX2 full-frame Cinema Line camera, and share feedback with engineers. Filmmaker Andreas Abb found the session “a privilege and unique chance to talk to the people who work on the gear we use every day and share our views so they are crafted in the way we need them to be”. 

As well as watching nominees’ films and networking with their creators, the group attended a masterclass from DP Salvatore Totino ASC AIC; a tour of Sony’s Digital Media Production Centre (DMPC) and of Sony Pictures Lot in Culver City, complete with state-of-the-art virtual production studio; and learnt about Hollywood Makeup School’s techniques and work. 

Filmmaker Lucy Galliford enjoyed “watching the incredible nominated films and thinking how I could incorporate the techniques and bring in more of a narrative approach to the cinematic travel work I do”. Travel photographer and filmmaker Luke Jackson-Clark found the event equally inspiring, relishing the opportunity to unite with other European creators with unique perspectives. “It’s also inspired me to enter with one of the other filmmakers on the trip, Jacob Nordin,” he told us. “We work on similar projects, so our plan is to collaborate to create something special and submit it next year.” 

Denis Barbas, who mainly shoots travel and documentary projects, found the in-depth session on colour grading and colour science at the DMPC fascinating as “it’s an important area filmmakers experience at some point and which I struggled with in the past and taught myself, so it would have been amazing to have that insight back then”. 

Sony Future Filmmaker Awards is on the lookout for more shooting stars, so if you want to learn more about the event and how to submit your production, visit sonyfuturefilmmakerawards.com.  

“Have confidence in your storytelling and your voice,” winning producer Hayder Hoozeer (Rock, Paper, Scissors) advises anyone entering. “These awards are made to give people an opportunity to elevate their creative perspective and talent.”