Our fabulous students and alumni continue to turn their dreams into realities with every new film and screenplay they create. Continue reading to learn about their excellent success stories and see what they say about their accomplishments. 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.
We couldn’t be prouder of filmmaking alumni Cem Demirer and Sebastian Lojo. Their film Noksan won the Canal+ Award for Short Film in Semaine de la Critique at Cannes 2024. Noksan (Absent) was written and directed by Cem Demirer, with Sebastián Lojo as cinematographer. Cem and Sebastian collected their award in Cannes, congratulations to you both and the team!
“I am grateful for this achievement and the opportunity to delve into filmmaking since graduating. I will continue my filmmaking journey, exploring new horizons, and telling stories that resonate.” - Cem Demirer
Screenwriting alumnus, Chloe Hudson, has been taking part in CANNESERIES Unlimited, a writing residency that aims to develop the next generation of series writers. We wish you all the best with this wonderful opportunity!
“I’m so so grateful to be supported by Talent Unlimited while I develop out my new series. I think the fact that one of us will come out of this with a development deal really speaks to Canal+’s commitment to support emerging writers. And it’s the first all-female cohort! So, it feels extra special. You’d think with the premise, it could end up being all elbows and competition, but it hasn’t been like that at all. We’re all feeding back on each other’s projects and I’m sure we’ll be cracking out the champers at the end of the final pitch!” – Chloe Hudson
Pierre Alain Giraud won an award at the 77th Festival de Cannes Immersive Competition for Best Immersive Work – well done! Their film, Colored, is an XR immersive experience directed by Pierre and Stéphane Foenkinos based on Tania de Montaigne’s book Noire. The augmented reality film tells the story of Claudette Colvin, who, at 15 years old, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1950s segregated America. Truly inspiring!
"’Colored’ has been an incredible human and technical adventure. Adapted from Tania de Montaigne's book 'Noire', which first brought to light the forgotten heroine Claudette Colvin, I directed this project alongside Stéphane Foenkinos and produced it with Novaya, a company we founded specifically to produce technologies and content for immersive storytelling.
“The result is a unique blend of cinema, theatre, and art installation. Being recognized at the Cannes Festival for imagining a new way of storytelling, and for making this particular story stronger in that way, was a dream come true and a profound honour. The influence of my years at the LFS is certainly present, as we never stopped trying new ways of telling stories, and this particular excitement now drives all the projects I work on.” - Pierre-Alain Giraud
Filmmaking alumna, Mimi Vlaovic, has formed a new film festival in Belgrade called Female Characters in Front and Behind The Camera (Ženski likovi ispred i iza kamere). Mimi shared that her film festival “is devoted to spreading awareness about the strong patriarchal influences that are still leading the Serbian film industry, and showing the films with authentic female perspectives instead.” Incredibly empowering stuff!
The film festival will be screening LFS films and will also host panels and workshops that explore the festival’s focus. Mimi recently completed an agreement with the Yugoslav Film Archive (Serbia’s BFI) where the festival took place on 2nd and 3rd June 2024. Brilliant news, congrats!
Wonderful news from filmmaking alumnus, Zhiyi Wang, whose short film, Spring 23, recently won the Grand Prize at the 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. The International Jury at Oberhausen said the film won “for being able to be both humanistic and subtly political, for its precise cinematography and editing, for its mixture of tragedy and humour”. Spring 23 was also awarded the FIPRESCI Award and received a fantastic review from the International Federation of Film Critics. Congratulations!
“The creation of this film stemmed from some long-held emotions and a sudden availability of time. We completed the film with a minimalist crew structure, consisting of only four people, including the lead actor. This marks our second collaboration in this manner; the first was my graduation film at LFS, Some Manifestations of the South. The deep trust and familiarity among us have been the greatest assets in completing both films.
“Spring 23 has been receiving selections from several other film festivals, including the upcoming Festival du Film Court en Plein Air de Grenoble (July) and Dokufest (August). We are also awaiting final decisions from a few other festivals. Meanwhile, I have already begun work on my new projects, including a short film to be shot in China soon and my first feature film, which will be filmed in Bulgaria this winter. I look forward to sharing more good news with you in the future.” – Zhiyi Wang
Congratulations to screenwriting alumna, Jaclyn Bethany (writer-director), and filmmaking alumna, Irene Gomez-Emilsson (DoP), whose latest film, Tell That To The Winter Sea premiered at Curzon Soho in May. There was also a screening and Q&A at Genesis Cinema this month. Be sure to watch this space for an exclusive interview with Jaclyn and Irene discussing their incredible achievement. “An all-female cast drama which explores and celebrates the deep complexity of femininity and female relationships.” Watch the trailer here.
April/May MAF Grad Film Highlights
We are hugely proud to share that Grad Film Praeis had its world premiere at La Cinef in Cannes in May! A huge congratulations to the cast and crew on this significant achievement. We hope the cast and crew had a fantastic time! (Wri/Dir Dovydas Drakas, Prod. Design Anastasiya Mykhaylova, DOP LFS Alum Tamas A Meder, Producer Jing Zhao (LFS Alum) Camera Assistant Jinghui Jing)
This month we are so proud to announce that we have two LFS Grad films screening at Oscar Qualifier Palm Springs 2024 – Scorched Earth (premiere Locarno FF) (Writer-Director: Markella Kontaratou, Editor: Mengyao Zhang, Producer Chen-Ling Liu (Jaina) DoP: Tamas A Meder), and also Saving Art (US premiere Slamdance) (Writer-Dir-Editor: Remi Moses, Prod: Victor Nauwynck, DoP: Pui Man Leung, Prod.Design: Anastasiya Mykhaylova, Art.Dir: Elitsa Marielle) will be screening at this long-established festival. Congratulations!
Wonderful news as Kimaya was awarded Best Student Film at Manchester Film Festival (UK). Congratulations to the team! (Writer-Dir: Manasi Bedekar, Assistant Dir: Tom Chambers, Script Sup: Alexander Emborg)
Political film Thread Tension continues a successful run, screening at Vienna Shorts (Austria) in late May and and Film Audit (USA) The film was also awarded Best Student Short Film at Porto Femme Festival (Portugal), in May. (Writer-Dir: Ruby Mastrodimos, Prod: Oliver Staton, Harry Hayton Iles, Editor: Benjamin Sivo, Sound Design: Ruby Mastrodimos, Costume Design: Anastasiya Mykhaylova)
Continuing a great festival run, Sparare alle Angurie has acceptances at: Kino Otok - Isola Cinema International Film Festival 2024 (Slovenia), Huesca International Film Festival 2024 (Spain), Figari International Short Film Fest 2024 (Italy) and notably Chinese premiere at prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival 2024 (China). It also screened at the 17th Bangladesh International and Independent Film Festival 2024 Well done! (Writer-Director-Editor: Antonio Donato, Prod: Patrick Verlin, DoP: Sahil Kotwani, Prod.Design: Anastasiya Mykhaylova)
Sharks in Cowlyn Bay screened at BAFTA qualifier Carmarthen Bay Film Festival (UK). (Writer-Director: Jonathan Williams, Prod: Siddharth Menon, DoP: Maxwell Cutting, Production Designer: Ben Packwood, Editor: Tom Chambers)
‘Sharks’ also screened at the The Romford Film Festival 2024 (UK) along with Saving Art.
Saving Art also picked up Best Student Film at Shared Visions Film Festival (UK).
This year's edition of the wonderful Fastnet Film Festival (Ireland) included four LFS films:
Sketches on her Skin (Writer-Dir: Chenlei Pan, Prod: Qiankun Zhou, DoP: Cem Türedi, Prod.Designer: Zhiru Xie, Sound Recordist: Alexandra Brandl, Editor: Siyu Ma, Art Dir: Getian Han, Yun Yang)
Waiting for Kalki (Writer-Director: Nimay Goswami, DoP: Sahil Kotwani, Composer: Lucas Boetsch),
Thread Tension (credits above) and finally Rickshaw (Writer-Dir: Raphael Hernandez, Prod: Anastasia Savinova, Raphael Hernandez, Jaina Liu, Spandana Patanaik, Editor: Mengyao Zhang, DoP: Eng Teck Ng).
We are excited to share that Pune Short Film Festival (India) will be screening four LFS films in June this year Picnic Area (Writer-Director: Daiqi Liu, Producer: Zheng Wei, Prod Design: Zhiru Xie, Art Dir: Lu Lu), Treadmill (Writer-Dir: Pierluigi Campa, Prod: Nabil Muzayyin, DoP: Aadit Kumar Sharma, Editor: Benjamin Sivo, Art Director: Tzu Ting Huang) and Happy Graduation (Writer-Director: Robert Harold, Prod: Spandana Patanaik, Assistant Dir: Nathan M. Legger, Co-Prod: Nathan M. Legger, Editor: Florian Kasperski, Production Managers: Siddharth Menon, Emma Schilders, Siddhanth Srikanth, Nathaniel Boyles).
Big Fridge International Film Festival 2024 had two LFS winners in their programme! Thread Tension won Best Horror Short Film and Best Actress (Writer-Dir: Ruby Mastrodimos, Prod: Oliver Staton, Harry Hayton Iles, Editor: Benjamin Sivo, Costume Design: Anastasiya Mykhaylovas) and Sharks in Colwyn Bay won Best Student Short Film. Congrats to the team as grad film Your Guardian was shortlisted for the 1.4 awards (UK), held on May 1 at the Barbican. (Director: Mirjana Vlaovic, Producer: Anastasia Savinova.
In May Treadmill screened at Gulf of Naples film festival (Italy) and Tokyo international Short Film Festival (Japan). Congratulations to the team! (Writer-Director: Antonella Spirito, Prod: Nathan Legger, DoP: Bo Giesen)
Waiting for Kalki was part of Lift-Off Global Network First Time showcase.
Great to see awards being won in India as Kimaya received Best Director (Student) at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival and Striped brought home Best Screenplay (Student). (Writer-Director: Spandana Patanaik, DoP: Aditya Sharma, Prod: Nathan Legger, Prod.Manager: Siddhanth Srikanth, Prod.Desig: Izadora Schoninger).
Broken Hearts won Best Student Film at the Hastings Rock Film festival (UK) and screened at 19th Sunscreen Film Festival 2024. Well done everyone! (Writer-Director: Julie Magnaudet, Producer: Nathan Legger, DoP: Bo Giesen, Editor: Tsz Wai Ling)
The House that Stood has been picking up more laurels as the film scooped the following awards at Riverside Film Festival (USA): Best Student Film, Audience Award for Best Student Film, and President’s Award. It also brought home the Audience Award for Best Film at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival (USA). (Writer-Director: Antonella Spirito, Prod: Nathan Legger, DoP: Bo Giesen) Congratulations to all!
Her Portrait premiered at 56th Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival 2024 (USA). (Writer-Dir: Chuqiao Pan, Co-Prod: Qian Yang, Yunqiu Wang).
Un Día was part of Nouveaux Regards Film Festival (Guadeloupe). (Writer-Director: Nathan Legger, Prod: Nathan Legger, Spandana Patanaik, Co-Prod: Julie Magnaudet, DoP: Lucas Boetsch, Editor: Florian Kasperski)
A Forest was accepted to London Independent Film Festival (UK). (Writer-Dir: Cameron Stewart, Prod: Anastasia Savinova, DoP: Michael Marren, Sound Rec: Ruijing Bu, Prod.Design: Gabriela Nemésio Nobre, Editor: Antonio Donato)
Beeston Film Festival 2024 included two LFS films: Rickshaw (Writer-Director: Raphael Hernandez, Producer: Anastasia Savinova, Raphael Hernandez, Jaina Liu, Spandana Patanaik, Editor: Mengyao Zhang, DoP: Eng Teck Ng) and Thread Tension.
Well done to the team of Grad film Salt was part of The Independent Days Intl FF (IDIF) (Germany). (Writer-Dir: Zhijie Jade Cao, Producer: Siddhanth Srikanth, Emma Schilders, DoP: Wenxuan Xu, Prod Designer: Getian Han, Costume Designer: Zhiqi Wang, Editor: Nan Gao)
And last but certainly not least, parental drama Lacerate was accepted to 8th 20minmax Intl SFF (Germany) and 19th Festival de films européens de Paris (France). (Writer-Director-Editor: James Menelaus Rush, Producer: Patrick Verlin) Congrats to the teams!
Photo credits (top to bottom)
Still from Noksan (director: Cem Demirer)
Photo of Cem Demirer and Sebastian Lojo at Cannes
BTS from Fight by Cornelia Metlicar (writer-director: Chloe Hudson)
Still from Colored (directors: Pierre-Alain Giraud and Stéphane Foenkinos)
Poster for Female Characters in Front and Behind The Camera Film Festival (Ženski likovi ispred i iza kamere)
Spring 23 poster (writer-director: Zhiyi Wang)
Tell That To The Winter Sea poster (director: Jaclyn Bethany)
Still from Sketches on her Skin (Writer-Dir: Chenlei Pan)
The House that Stood poster (Writer-Director: Antonella Spirito)