Time to shine the spotlight on our students, graduates and alumni! Continue reading to learn about their latest achievements. Have an exciting achievement of your own? Then don’t hesitate to get in touch because we want to hear all about it! Don’t forget, you can sign up to our alumni newsletter to get the updates direct to your inbox.
Congratulations Jing Wen whose film Air Lily recently received a Top Three honour at the NewHer Workshop of the 16th Beijing International Film Festival. We’re also proud to see that this is a shared achievement with fellow alumni Winfred Wang (producer), Siwei Zhu (assistant director), Longhua Yang (sound recordist & sound designer), and Siyu Ma (editor) all contributing to the project. We love to see continued collaboration amongst the LFS community!
The project began its journey earlier this year when it was selected for the NewHer Workshop, where Jing developed the film for the feature project. It was later shortlisted as a finalist in the feature project section, and the concept film has now received this special recognition.
NewHer is a meaningful platform supporting women filmmakers in China, and it has been a great honour to develop and present the project there while receiving encouragement from filmmakers and mentors I deeply admire. I’m very grateful for all the support I’ve received during my time at LFS.Jing Wen
We’re thrilled to celebrate two alumni films selected for Quinzaine des Cinéastes 2026, Oh Boys by Antonio Donato and MADRUGADA by Sebastian Lojo. In both productions, LFS alumni were behind the scenes as part of the crew. Congratulations to all involved!
Well done to Rachel Walsh-Williams whose screenplay BÁNSOLAS was selected for the Lottie List (which celebrates screenplays of outstanding achievement) as well as won the Best Screenplay award at the British Animation Film Festival 2026.
Announce another major milestone for Carla Simón, who will lead the Short Films and La Cinef Jury at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. Carla’s film Romería was officially selected for Cannes last year, confirming her status in European auteur cinema. Joining Carla on the jury are actress and visual artist Park Ji-Min, writer, director and producer Ali Asgari, director and actor Salim Kechiouche and writer, director Magnus von Horn. They will be awarding the Short Film Palme d’or and the three La Cinef prizes dedicated to student films. Congratulations!
Rachel Walsh-Williams
Oh Boys, dir: Antonio Donato
Carla Simón
Congratulations Nicole Woodford on Incarnation being selected for this year’s BIFAN NAFF Project Market in South Korea which is part of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. Nicole has been writing and developing the feature film screenplay in the MAS programme and will pitch the screenplay for development grants and potential co-producers with her producer Anthony Chen. Best of luck!
Adding an extra sweet cherry on top, Nicole’s feature film Last Shadow At First Light has been selected as the closing film for Women Without Borders Film Festival where she will take part in a special Q&A. Well done!
We’re delighted to share screenwriting alumna, Zoé Mahfouz, recently had her debut full-length book published, ADHD in D Minor: A Collection of Short Stories, and has already received a 5-star reader review!
ADHD IN D MINOR is a high-speed, television-flavoured mixtape of sketches, manifestos, character monologues, rage letters, and love notes that orbit the unhinged core of a mind too fast for traditional structure.
Zoé’s screenplay POTATO, POTAHTO, which she worked on during her time at London Film School, was also nominated at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, a Canadian Screen Award qualifying event. Double congrats!
Masashi Kawamata’s debut feature OUT had its world premiere at LA Independent Filmmakers Showcase where it closed the festival. We recently sat down with Masashi and his co-writer and producer, Nicholas Zabaly, where we discussed the exciting process behind making the film. Follow the link to learn about their exciting adventure and discover pearls of wisdom you can apply to your own filmmaking journey.
Para Los Contrincantes (For the Opponents) produced by Augusto Matte won the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes – huge congratulations! Read more about it here!
“In the tough neighbourhood of Tepito, a young boy chases the great Mexican dream: to become a boxing champion.”
Thrilled to see Zhannat Alshanova’s debut feature film Becoming will have its UK premiere at SXSW London. Congrats!
Finally, it’s a pleasure to report more success from Emilia Cotella (writer-dirctor) and John Mathis (director) debut feature, The Devil Whispered My Name, which will be screening at the Raindance Film Festival this June and is nominated for Best Horror Feature Film. Secure your seat here!
The film is based on the feature screenplay Emilia wrote during the MA Screenwriting programme, and has been doing really well on the festival circuit. So far, it has screened at seven festivals, including Screamfest Horror Film Festival and BARS. The film has also received several awards, including Best National Film at Terror Córdoba and Best International Actress at BARS.
Emilia and John also signed with Reel Suspects, who are representing the film in Europe and North America, the film is currently playing theatrically in Argentina. Congratulations!
Grad Film Highlights
After its Premiere at Berlinale Generations this year, Abracadabra (wri-dir: Amay Mehrishi) screened at the Kurzfilm Film Festival – Hamburg (Germany).
Continuing a great festival run A Winter Mirage (wri-dir-editor: Guoju Wang) screens at Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS (Latvia) and Sehsuchte International Student Film Festival (Germany, Grenzland Int Film Festival and finally Yerevan Short Film Festival (Armenia)!
Grad films are selected in festivals all around the UK including the following!
Different Faces (wri-dir: Gregory Randolph) won Best Student Short Award at Wolverhampton Film Festival, and friendship drama Final Call (wri-dir: Chien Han Lai) screened at Romford Film Festival.
British Urban Film Festival will be screening two zeitgeisty films in London: A Little Bit of Glitter (wri-dir: Siddart Menon), and Divine Intervention (dir: Ravenna Tran, wri: Rebecca Ozer)
Over in Wales, Vithura (wri-dir: Joseph Dominic) screened at BAFTA qualifier Carmarthen Bay Film Festival.
Sunderland Short Film Festival showed two LFS films, fun genre comedy Zombie? (wri-dir: Gregory Hackel-Johnson), and Napoleonic animation Falling Short (wri-dir: Aleksandra Wellisz).
London Independent Film Festival selected two fab films, Splinters (wri-dir: Leo Finnan) and wonderfully creepy horror Pandora (wri-dir: Isabelle Kirk).
Congratulations to A Little Bit of Glitter (dir: Sid Menon) for winning the Best UK Student Short Film at One Fluid Night LGBTQIA+ (London).
Over in Nottingham, Beeston Film Festival selected two grad films, The Rounds (wri-dir: Asa Gartland), and My Friend Song Zhi (dir: Xia Fan).
A selection of LFS grad films screened at the British and Irish Film Festival in Nimes, France, as part of an LFS showcase. They were Saving Art (dir: Remi Mitchell), Lapel, (dir: Nicolas Seaton), The Farm, (wri-dir: Leo Villares) and I See Good in Your Eyes (dir: Harvey Planer).
With screenings around the world, Big Bang (wri-dir: Han Zhu) screened in USA at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2026. Melodies of Life (wri-dir: Xinyu Chen) screened for its world premiere at the Beijing International Film Festival.
Pune Short Film Festival (India) will be screening two LFS films: Sugarcane Burning (wri-dir: Tashing Singh) and Try Running Now (wri-dir: Hritik Punjab).
Finally two LFS productions have recently been featured in British Cinematographer Magazine: Cyclops (wri-dir: Stefanos Papageorgiou) and Sugar Apples in Monsoon (wri-dir: Mriganka Goswami).
Feature image credit: Air Lily BTS, photographer: @mingqiji6
