BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival have announced the successful filmmakers who will take part in the inaugural BFI Flare Mentorship programme in partnership with Creative Skillset.
THIS pilot programme offers support to five emerging LGBT filmmakers who will be mentored by a senior figure from the film industry as they develop industry knowledge, professional connections, their passion for cinema and an overview of LGBT features entering the marketplace with a tailored 9 month programme of talks and screenings.
The winning film-maker participants and their specially chosen mentors are:
• Aleem Khan, writer/director, whose short film Three Brothers was BAFTA nominated in 2015 and who is currently working on new feature, After Love.
Mentor: Ben Roberts, Director, BFI Lottery Film Fund
• Claire Kurylowski, whose web-based work, In Real Life, garnered a place in Dazed Digital’s Visionaries series and had its cinema premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of London Short Film Festival
Mentor: Ester Martin Bergsmark, award-winning Swedish filmmaker (Something Must Break, She Male Snails)
• Islay Bell-Webb, writer, an NFTS graduate who co-wrote Slap (directed by Nick Rowland), which was also BAFTA nominated earlier this year
Mentor: Russell T. Davies OBE (Doctor Who and recently Cucumber, Banana and Tofu)
• Rachelle Constant, producer, who is currently a development editor at BBC Continuing Drama and recently produced short film Two Dosas which screened at BFI London Film Festival
Mentors: Mike Goodridge, CEO of Protagonist Pictures, former editor Screen International; and BAFTA-nominated producer Gavin Humphries
• Scout Stuart whose debut feature Mud was selected for initial development with Creative England’s iFeatures
Mentor: Hong Khaou, director of BAFTA-nominated Lilting
Tricia Tuttle, BFI Deputy Head of Festivals, said: “Watching BFI Flare (formerly LLGFF) grow in the last decades, we can see just how much LGBT cinema has matured and emerged from the shadows. This is rich, vibrant work representing the diversity of LGBT experience across the globe. But we were also aware there is still a lot of work to be done to support British filmmakers who are LGBT identified and who may want to tell these stories. We were genuinely impressed by the number of quality applications we received, and blown away by the talent and spirit of our five selected filmmakers. The future of British LGBT cinema looks very bright indeed.”
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