We're thrilled to share more achievements of our brilliant students, grads and alumni. Please get in touch if you have any news you’d like to share and sign up to our alumni newsletter here to get the updates direct to your inbox.
It’s a pleasure to see the different ways in which our graduates end up working within the film industry. Over the past two years filmmaking alumnus, Harry Bracho (MAF179), has been involved in co-founding Guayaba, a new streaming platform to increase exposure of Latin American cinema. Guayaba includes films made by LFS alumni, seeing our alumni support each other throughout their careers is always incredibly rewarding.
Harry and his team are intending “to reinvent the experience of watching Latin American cinema” and are actively seeking contributions to their crowdfunding campaign.
“This commitment to provide a legal and curated way to see our cinema is a purpose capable of connecting many. This window where the diversity of Latin American cultures, histories and identities converge is simply fascinating.” – Harry Bracho
We’re delighted to hear that Rebecca Marshall’s (MAF169) documentary, The Forest in Me, will be having its world premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in the Fast Forward Competition.
“This endlessly surprising journey offers up images that shake ideas of past, present and future to form a deeply tender vision of humanity and timeless survival on planet Earth.”
Congratulations and best of luck!
A huge well done to Said Zagha (MAS17) who directed the first two episodes of a Netflix Original series called Crashing Eid. The 4-episode family dramedy set in Saudi Arabia hit the top ten charts in about 32 territories and stayed in the top ten lists in the MENA region for over 7 seven weeks. Congratulations on this superb achievement!
"It was my great pleasure directing the first two episodes of “Crashing Eid” for Netflix! There is a new and inspiring artistic movement taking place in Saudi Arabia now and it was my great privilege to be a part of it somehow. I was very lucky to work with such a talented cast of actors, who brought so much life, complexity, and joy to the characters they were playing. Most of all, the heartwarming reception of the series upon its release last November exceeded all expectations, an achievement of which I’ll always be proud." - Said Zagha
Congratulations to Jiajun 'Oscar' Zhang (MAF185) and our brilliant alumni whose debut feature, All, Or Nothing At All, will have its North American premiere at the 53rd edition of New Directors/New Films held at New York’s Lincoln Center for Performing Arts and The Museum of Modern Art.
See the trailer here.
“Shanghai is my hometown, the urban space where I spent most of my life. This city has more than 400 large-scale shopping malls, and the number is still growing every year. Without realizing it, our private living space overlaps with the public space of the shopping malls, and the emotions of people inevitably breed and spread within. When I traveled to other metropolitans around the world and found that there are many urbanites in the world who share similar experiences, I decided to return to Shanghai, go into a giant shopping mall near my home, and make a film there. In a way, this is also a film about "hometown".
“Through our camera lens, actors' bodies, and performances, we express our reflections on urban space and our feelings about the current living conditions. It is a dialog between us filmmakers and the system that has organized these spaces, humans, and objects.” - Jiajun 'Oscar' Zhang
Great news from screenwriter and development producer, Charlotte Ku (MAS17) who graduated from LFS last year, her script The Motorbike Rider was accepted to London Independent Story Prize. Read her interview here. Congratulations, Charlotte!
We're also thrilled to congratulate alumna, Amanda Nell Eu's (MAF170) film Tiger Stripes, recently won Best Narrative Feature at the Sun Valley Film Festival.
Feb MAF Film Screenings
Blue Note screened at Clermont Ferrand Film Festival as part of its tour of notable European Short film Festival, as European Audience Award qualifier, proposed from winning the Audience Award at Tampere Film Festival in 2023.
Travelling east, two LFS films were awarded at Jaipur International FF (India). Congratulations to both teams!
- Waiting for Kalki won Best Short Fiction Award. Writer-Director: Nimay Goswami, DoP: Sahil Kotwani, Composer: Lucas Boetsch.
- Coming of Age received a Special Jury Mention Short Fiction (student). Writer-Director: Zhao Wu, Prod: Jiayin Bao, Editor: Longhua Yang, Prod. Design: Ziyan Gao)
Workplace horror grad film Thread Tension screened at FINAL Girls Berlin. Congrats to Wri/Dir Ruby Mastrodimos, Prod Oliver Staton/Henry Iles, Editor Benjamin Sivo, Design Anastasia Mykhaylova.
Your Guardian was awarded Best Screenwriting and Best Student Film at Cornwall IFF (UK). Congratulations! The film continues a long and successful run and will be also screening at Cambria FF of Romance, Love and Rom-Coms (USA). Director: Mirjana Vlaovic, Producer: Anastasia Savinova.
Matterhorn screened at Alpenfest Film Award (Austria) and received Best Film and Best Actress Awards, also at Montreal Women’s Film Festival picking up Best Student Film. Congrats to Wri/Dir Anne Mancosu, Producers Florian Kaperski and Spandana Patanaik, DoP Fyras Slaiman
Runaway Killers screened at spooky Atlanta After Dark Film Festival. Wri/Dir Nacho Martin, Prod Tom Chambers, PD Jonathan Williams.
A fantastic four grad films screened at the London Director Awards 2024 (UK) this quarter. Kimaya (Dir:Manasi Bedekar, Assist.Dir: Tom Chambers, Script Supervisor: Alexander Emborg), Coming of Age (Wri-Dir: Zhao Wu, Prod: Jiayin Bao, Editor: Longhua Yang, Prod. Design: Ziyan Gao) and Little Fantasies winning Honorable Mention Best Female Director, (Dir: Alissa Autschbach, Editor: Peter Hogenson, DoP: Mara Vodinelic). Saving Art screened and won an honorable mention for Best Director Student Film Award.
Ariane's Baby screened at Budapest Movie Awards (Hungary). Writer-Director: Mahee Merica, Prod: Mathilde Jouaud, Mahee Merica & Chen-Ling Liu, DoP: Sheherezade El Moumni Berdai, alsing with Runway Killers.
Scorched Earth screened at Indie-Lincs Film Festival 2024. (UK) Writer-Director: Markella Kontaratou, Editor: Mengyao Zhang, Producer Chen-Ling Liu (Jaina) DoP: Taamas A Meder.
Saving Art won the “Jury’s Choice” award at The South London Film Festival.(UK) Well done to cast and crew!
Per Aspera will be part of Lancaster International Film Festival 2024 (UK). Writer-Director: Yue Zhu, Prod-Editor: Michelle Griffin, DoP: Alexander Emborg.
Broken Hearts (Writer-Dir: Julie Magnaudet, Prod: Nathan Legger, DoP: Bo Giesen, Editor: Tsz Wai Ling) and Ariane's Baby (Dir Mahee Merica, Prod: Mathilde Jouaud, Mahee Merica & Chen-Ling Liu, DoP: Sheherezade El Moumni Berdai) will be screening in the US at Short sweet film festival 2024 (USA).
Lunatics screened online at the Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival. Writer-Dir: Florian Kasperski, Prod: Nathan Legger, DoP: Raphael Hernandez, Editor: Robert Harold, Sound Design: Lu Lu, Composer: Lucas Boetsch.
Also, LFS Archive film from 1971, a classic of queer cinema by legendary filmmaker Bill Douglas, Come Dancing, will be screening on Arte Channel in France and Germany as part of a Bill Douglas season. Check it out if you’re in those regions of Europe.
Also from our back catalogue, Absurd, romantic and comedy film The Chairs (2018 - Dir Orkhan Aghazadeh) will soon be screening on THIS IS SHORT, channel (a collaboration between the European Short Network, Oberhausen, Uppsala, IndieLisboa, Go Short, Shortwaves and Vienna Short FF). Check out the platform to view a prestigious selection of short films.
Photo Credits (top to bottom)
Still from Leidi (writer-director: Simón Mesa Soto)
Harry Bracho photo by Arash Fatahi
The Forest in Me (writer-director: Rebecca Marshall) - Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Fast Forward Competition