We’ve come to the end of the first term of 2023 already and the year is flying by with a huge amount of work incredibly impressive achievements from our students and grads. Read on to see what’s been happening over the last month.
Let us know if we’ve missed anything. We’re always keen to hear about alumni achievements and what you might be working on now.
We’ve loved seeing the success of Ka Ki Wong. After being selected for the Apicharpong Weerasethakul Lab and filming in the Amazon last year, Ka Ki was most recently selected as one of the 30 shortlisted filmmakers at the Sony Future Filmmaker awards. Ka Ki was selected in the fiction category for Fire Room and travelled to LA for the ceremony.
The screenplay by MA Screenwriting grad, Richard Brabin has been announced by Bankside Films. Learning To Breathe Under Water will star Rory Kinnear and Maria Bakalova, to be directed by Rebekah Fortune. The feature is currently in pre-production and follows a grieving widower and his son whose lives are uplifted by the arrival of a Bulgarian au pair Read more about it here.
Writer, filmmaker and founder of Fat Red Bird, Gaelle Mourre recently spoke about her work creating A History of a Painting, a virtual reality animated series. The educational entertainment series shows the stories and artists behind iconic works of art. Watch the trailer for the most recent episode; narrated by Cerys Matthews, this episode explores the extraordinary story of Artemisia Gentileschi. Watch the trailer here.
It’s been fascinating to hear about current International Film Business student, Liu Yudong and his sustainability project for Odyssey 2023, an annual Chinese film festival in the UK. The theme for the festival this year is sustainability and as a result Liu has been looking into the carbon footprint of the industry as a whole and considering the responsibility on filmmakers to address this. His work has been incorporated into the festival this year and he’s continuing to contribute to a broader sustainability mission. Find out more on the Odyssey 2023 website.
LFS alumni came together on the short, So What Did We Learn Today, Georgina. Written and directed by Franco Volpi, the film was made further alumni including Anastasia Savinova, Lucas Boetsch, Jackie Teboul, Alisa Tritenko, Anne Madeleine Mancosu, Markela Kontaratou, Tamas Apor Meder, Mengyao Zhang, Lara Zeidan, Zeta Spyrati and Norbert Strehle. The film is an official selection for Crystal Palace International Film Festival and it's brilliant to see former students working together beyond LFS.
For those in London we would encourage you to check out the window display exhibition at Rodic Davidson Architects where the work of Blerta Kambo is currently on display. The Unfinished House on display from 29th March – 23rd May, documents the characters of the curious structures of unfinished houses that feature across the Albanian landscape. View the work at 1 Pied Bull Yard, London, WC1A 2AE.
It was brilliant to hear from Screenwriting graduate, Miguel Felício Magalhã, whose latest film, The Perfect Gift, a stop-motion animation short film, is now being produced by Fantasmagorie Studio. The film is directed by another alumnus, Paolo Carbone and is being produced with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The film won the first prize fund from the competition “Contributi Selettivi”.
Well done to Ariq Anam Khan who has been awarded the UK Study Alumni award for Culture and Creativity from British Council Bangladesh. The achievement recognises that Ariq is a leader in the field and has used his experience of studying at a UK university to make a positive contribution to the community, industry and country.
Grad Film Highlights March 2023
Wonderful news for grad film Blue Note (Dir: Pavel Andonov, Production Designer Abigail Quinlan,) collected three awards at Tampere FF. Prize Of The Youth Jury, the Tampere Student Award and finally the Nominee For The European Short Film Audience Award! This means the film will tour major European Fests into 2024. Huge Congratulations! Black comedy Sucking Diesel also screened at the Festival too and congrats to Wri-Dir: Sam McGrath.
Congrats to the team of Vox Populi which screened at 27th Sofia International Film Festival (Bulgaria). Wri-Dir: Tyanita Gancheva. Little Fantasies had its UK premiere at Manchester Intl FF (Wri-Dir: Alissa Autschbach, Editor: Peter Hogenson, DoP: Mara Vodinelic).
Your Guardian screened at Fest International FF Belgrade, and then went to the UK where it picked up 'Best Screenplay and Audience Award' at Watersprite Film Festival 2023 Congratulations! Dir: Mirjana Vlaovic, Producer: Anastasia Savinova.
Horror film Unbidden scared audiences at Crystal Palace FF (UK). (Wri-Dir: Andrés Rothschild, Prod: Spandana Patanaik, Art Dir: Hannah Owen, DoP: Aditya Sharma)
A Circle is doing the rounds and will be screening at Sguardi Altrove Female Film Festival 2023 (Italy). Dir: Mariya Lukavska. One Last Laugh (Wri-Dir: Gavin O’Herlihy), Prod Mirjana Vlaovic, DoP Syed Muhammad Raza, PD Adema Tatisheva, Editor Peter Hogensen) screened at Short Sweet FF.
LFS Archive film It's Ugly Head (1974) screened BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2023 (UK) as part of the retrospective of this esteemed alumni, remembering Ron Peck.
We were thrilled to see Chinese Cinema Project screened a selection of shorts with Q&As in March including Walls (Dir: Zhao Jing) and A Firecracker Story (Dir: Hao Zhizi) at the Garden Cinema in Covent Garden, London.
Photo Credits (top to bottom)
History of a Painting - Episode 2: The Light in the Shadow
Odyssey 2023
Poster from So What Did We Learn Today, Georgina (Dir: Franco Volpi)
Ariq Anam Khan at the UK Study Alumni awards
Little Fantasies (Wri/Dir: Alissa Autschbach)
One Last Laugh (Wri/Dir: Gavin O’Herlihy)