We're excited to present more incredible achievements from our students, graduates, and alumni. Keep reading to discover their inspiring journeys! If you have any exciting news of your own, we'd love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to reach out! Don’t forget to sign up to our alumni newsletter to receive all the latest updates straight to your inbox.
Huge congratulations to TJ O’Grady-Peyton whose film, Room Taken, has been longlisted for the Oscars Short Film Award! Check out this Variety article where you can read about Colin Farrell becoming one of the film’s Executive Producers and you can watch a Q&A with some of the cast and crew here! Be sure to catch the film on YouTube while it’s up for a limited time. Best of luck with the shortlist vote!
"Room Taken has been one of the most rewarding creative projects I’ve worked on. We set out to tell a story that feels timely and explores important themes, while aiming to create something original, humorous, suspenseful, and emotional. It’s been amazing to see the film resonate with audiences around the world and to gain support from industry figures like our executive producer, Colin Farrell. The recognition the film has received is a true testament to the hard work of the entire team." - TJ O’Grady-Peyton
Colin Farrell shared some beautiful words about the film in the Variety Article: "Room Taken is such a gentle cry to the power of human connection. […] It treats loneliness and grief and the struggle of the immigrant with such a gentle hand, bringing its character and narrative threads together beautifully. The film wears its compassion – along with its heart – on its sleeve with tender performances and a story that stayed with me long after viewing. For these reasons I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of helping Room Taken find as wide an audience as possible.”
Great work Omid Burgin, Elyse Kao and Bassel Abdelaziz, whose screenplay When I Found the Olive Tree, was selected for the Clúster Audiovisual Talent week. Omid and Elyse pitched the film at the event in Barcelona. We’re delighted to see the project is a MA Screenwriting and MA International Film Business collaboration. Congratulations to you all!
Proud to see screenwriting alumnus, Beru Tessema, have the world premiere of his play, Wolves On Road, at The Bush Theatre. Congratulations! "Wolves on Road is a thrilling deep-dive into the mysterious world of cryptocurrency, revealing how ambition and hope can be exploited, no matter the system at play.” Be sure to see it before the end of its run on 21 December.
A big congratulations to filmmaking alumna, Naomi Pacifique, who’s latest film, looking she said I forget, was nominated for the 38th European Film Awards by the jury of International Short Film Festival of Cyprus. The film also premiered in official selection at Locarno Film Festival this year as well as Ghent Film Festival and Tirana Film Festival. Great news and we wish you all the best.
Huge well done to filmmaking alumna, Nizah Elias, who was recently featured in Cinematography World magazine as one to watch! Nizah has been cinematographer and Director of Photography on a number of grad films such as Thread Tension, Passerby, Bona Vacantia and Brothers Keepers. She won the Doug Milsome Best Cinematography Award at British Independent Film Festival 2024 for Thread Tension and has had countless nominations including Best Student Short at Zsigmond Vilmos Film Festival 2024 for Passerby and Best Student Short at Norwich, Bolton, Beeston, London Indian, Tasveer South Asian and New Renaissance Film Festivals for Bona Vacantia It’s a pleasure seeing your incredible work being recognised and celebrated – congratulations!
Congratulations to Orkhan Aghazadeh as his first feature film The Return of the Projectionist has seen huge success. The film won Best Documentary at the Turin Film Festival, and the Young Jury Award (and a Special Mention from the Festival Jury) at the Festival Des Trois Continents in Nantes. It has also won the Documentary Grand Prix at the International Documentary Festival (Korea), and its cinematographer, MA Filmmaking graduate Daniel Guliyev, won the Deutscher Kamerapreis for Best Documentary Cinematography (beating Wim Wenders’ film about Anselm Keifer). A French-German co-production, the film will have a theatrical release in both countries. A superb run of success and may it continue!
Grad Film Highlights
LFS was proud to receive an invitation to the Beijing Film Academy Festival to screen a showcase of recent graduation films, presented by our very own course leader, Charis Coke. The films from the past five years were Sol De Agosto, Summer Shade, Transit, Talking to the River (XIA RI FU BEN), Praeis, Rickshaw, Sparare alle Angurie, Señor, A Blue Memory and screened in competition.
Additionally, Deputy Course Leader Sue Austen travelled to represent LFS at the Munich Film Schools Fest with Jing Zhao where her grad film Dou (Writer-Director and Producer: Jing Zhao) screened in competition and won the Prix Interculturel 2024.
Congratulations to Praeis (Cannes La Cinef 2024) for winning the University Short Film Award at the last edition of the prestigious Hamptons International Film Festival (US). The film also obtained a Special mention at the European Film Festival Scanorama in Vilnius (Lithuania). Writer-Dir: Dovydas Draksas, Producer: Jing Zhao, Production Designer: Anastasiya Mykhaylova, DoP: Tamás Apor Méder, Editor: Dovydas Draksas, Camera Assistant: Yinghui Jing.
Huge congratulations also to Festival favorite Sparare alle Angurie which won the Grand Prix du Festival de Brest at the 39th Brest European Short Film Festival (France). The film also screened at International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino! (Poland), Passaggi d'Autore (Sardinia, Italy) and Corto Condorello in Rome (Italy), 22nd edition of Filmfest Düsseldorf (Germany) and finally over to Tangier International Film Festival 2024 (Morocco). Sparare alle Augurie is also now available to audiences via stream on Arte channel too to do check it out and share! Writer-Dir-Editor: Antonio Donato, Prod: Patrick Verlin, DoP: Sahil Kotwani, Prod. Designer: Anastasiya Mykhaylova.
Also, huge congrats to the creative team of satirical comedy The Farm for winning the audience prize (Prix du Public Europe). Writer-Director: Leo House, Producers: Victor Nauwynck, Nathan Legger. Well done to everyone!
Outside Of Time will be screened at the 32nd International Film Festival Energa CameraImage as part of the Talent Demo Showcase selection! (Poland) Writer-Director: Elitsa Marielle, Camera Assistant: Yanting Chen, Editor: Aymée Hamon.
Two LFS grad films screened at HollyShorts Film Festival London. Well done to Rickshaw (Wri-Dir: Raphael Hernandez, Prod: Anastasia Savinova, Jaina Liu, Spandana Patanaik, Editor: Mengyao Zhang, DoP: Eng Teck Ng) and Matterhorn (Wri-Dir: Anne Madeleine Mancosu, Prod: Florian Kasperski, Spandana Patanaik, Production Manager: Julie Magnaudet, Ass Dir: Maya Wills, DoP: Fyras Slaiman).
Ten Days was screened at the last edition of the North East International Film Festival in Belfast (UK). Writer-Director: Anastasia Savinova, DoP: Norbert Strehle, Producer: Alisa Tritenko, Anastasia Savinova, Editor: Razvan Barseti.
Poet screened at the Macau International Short Film Festival (China). Writer-Dir: Kun Sun, Co-Producer: Xianhe Wang, Producer: Haoyuxuan Liu.
Continuing a great Festival run, Thread Tension was screened at Oscar Qualifier Bogoshorts in Bogotà (Colombia). Writer-Director: Ruby Mastrodimos, Prod. Oliver Staton, Editor: Benjamin Sivo, Producer: Henry Hayton Iles.
Saving Art scooped the Producers Choice Award at the Earls Court International Film Festival (UK). Writer-Director-Editor: Remi Moses, Prod: Victor Nauwynck, DoP: Pui Man Leung, Prod Designer: Anastasiya Mykhaylova, Art Director: Elitsa Marielle.
Congratulations to Sanjoli Malani, director of short film Chai Coffi for winning the Best Female Director award at the Byg Syn International Film Festival (UK). Writer-Director: Sanjoli Malani, Producer: Sanjoli Malani, Associate Producer: Siddhanth Srikanth, Visual Effects: Semyon Voinov.
The London Lift-Off Film Festival hosted the screening of two LFS film this year: 16 (Writer-Director: Ryan Kochberg, DoP: Ryan Kochberg, Assistant Dir: Thomas Prinz at the Hidden Film Festival Worldwide 2024) and Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite. The latter has also screened at the last edition of San Francisco Indie Fest (US). Writer-Director: Kelly Diapère, Prod. Jules Thin, Assistant Director: Jules Thin, Co-Producer: Amanda Salvati, Kelly Diapère, DoP: Lucas Boetsch.
Congratulations to The House That Stood for winning the Best Screenwriter award at Calella Film Festival (Spain). The film will be also screened at the 14th edition of Foggia FIlm Festival (Italy) and at the recent Dingoo Film Festival (Australia). Writer-Director: Antonella Spirito, Producer: Nathan Legger, DOP: Bo Giesen.
Poet screened at the next edition of the Bejing International Short Film Festival (China). Writer-Dir: Kun Sun, Co-Producer: Xianhe Wang, Producer: Haoyuxuan Liu.
Salt will be screened at the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival (Canada). Writer-Director: Zhijie Cao, Producers: Siddhanth Srikanth, Emma Schilders, DOP: Wenxuan Xu, Assistant Director: Ming Huang, Production Designer: Getian Han, Editor: Nan Gao.
Wonderful film comedy The Bull has kicked off its festival run and screened at Pöff Shorts Tallinn (Estonia), at the next edition of European Film Festival Scanorama in Vilnius (Lituania) and at the Leuven International Short Film Festival (Belgium). Writer-Director: Victor Nauwynck, Producer: Siddharth Bala Kumar, Editor: Tsz Wai Ling, Production Designer: Anastasiya Mykhaylova.
The Penitential Act is screening at the North East International Film Festival (UK). Writer-Director: Ben Packwood, DOP: Yanxiang Qiu, Production Designer: Elitsa Marielle, Editor: Alexander Emborg, Production Manager: Megha Bhaduri, Assistant Director: Joseph Dominic.
Congratulations to Invocation for winning Best International Short Fiction Award the Night Award at the London Breeze Film Festival! Writer-Director: Lu Lu, Producer: Zhao Wu, Producer: Jiayin Bao, DOP: Yue Pan, Production Designer: Ziyan Gao, Editor: Zheng Wei. Well done!
Congratulations also to Broken Hearts that scooped the award for Best international Film Festival at Disappear Here Film Festival (Ireland). Writer-Director: Julie Magnaudet, Prod: Nathan Legger, DoP: Bo Giesen, Editor: Tsz Wai Ling.
Sparare alle Angurie also won the SIAE Award for Best Project in Development at the Unbox Short Film days (Italy). Writer-Dir-Editor: Antonio Donato, Prod: Patrick Verlin, DoP: Sahil Kotwani, Prod. Designer: Anastasiya Mykhaylova. Bravi tutti.
Bafta qualifying Norwich Film Festival 2024 (UK) screened two films produced by the LFS Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite (Writer-Director: Kelly Diapère, Producer: Jules Thin, Assistant Director: Jules Thin, Co-Producer: Amanda Salvati, Amanda Kelly Diapère, DoP: Lucas Boetsch) and Horse in a Blue Tuxedo (Writer-Director: Holden Boyles, DoP: Moritz Lips, Producer: Juan Antonio Barroso Lopez)
Places We Knew screened at the next edition of Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2024 (US). It was also screened at the last edition of the Tokyo International Short Film Festival (Japan). Writer-Director: Oliver Staton, Producer: Nathan Legger, Oliver Staton.
Nostalgia will be screened at the next edition of the Cornwall Film Festival 2024 in the Best Student Short Films Program. Writer-Director: Boyuan Li, Producers: Ming Huang, Boyuan Li, Editors: Ming Huang, Boyuan Li.
Cotton Something will be screened at the REEL East Texas Film Festival (US). Writer-Director: Hollye Swinehart, Co-Producers: Hollye Swinehart, Oliver Staton, Editor: Marta Malvestiti, DOP: Ruari Chambers, Assistant Director: Victor Nauwynck.
Ariane's Baby will be screened at the 16th edition of Underground Cinema Award (Ireland). Writer-Director: Mahee Merica, Producer: Mathilde Jouaud.
Photo credits (top to bottom)
Room Taken, director: TJ O'Grady-Peyton
Omid Burgin and Elyse Kao at Clúster Audiovisual Talent week, photographer: Lihong Zheng
Wolves On Road at The Bush Theatre, director: Daniel Bailey, photographer: Helen Murray
looking she said I forget, writer-director: Naomi Pacifique
Nizah Elias
The Return of the Projectionist, director: Orkhan Aghazadeh
Charis Coke, Frank Fang, Serena Su and Harry Zhang at Beijing Film Academy
Jing Zhao at Filmschoolfest Munich photography by Ronny Hein