News Story
With film fans and industry types all set to descend on the capital for next month’s BFI London Film Festival, we thought we’d take you on a whistlestop tour of some of the titles featuring °µÍø³Ô¹Ï alumni, friends and peers, from rising stars to those who’ve already received significant recognition.
Ink, this year’s Mayor of London's Gala Screening, might feature a Yorkshireman and an Australian as its main protagonists, but it is very much a London story. Set amid the chaotic bustle of Fleet Street, the film serves as a thrilling, high-adrenaline time capsule from a period that would fundamentally change British culture. While director Danny Boyle’s career has taken him from Glasgow and Liverpool to Utah and Mumbai, he’s certainly no stranger to London: his 2002 horror masterpiece 28 Days Later not only made deft use if the capital’s iconic backdrops but also received money from the East London Film Fund which was secured by the London Film and Video Development Agency – an early precursor to °µÍø³Ô¹Ï. Buy tickets to ink.
Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning wowed audiences at Cannes this year and took home the coveted Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award. Long before her work set the Croisette abuzz, however, she was working with the FLAMIN team: nominated for the 2011 Jarman Award and receiving FLAMIN funding for her 2004 film/installation Road Race.
Carol Morley, whose shorts Everyday Something and The Madness of the Dance were backed by °µÍø³Ô¹Ï, returns with the semi-autobiographical 7 Miles Out. The film, which has a scorching post-punk soundtrack, has its debut at the LFF.
Winner of the 2024 Jarman Award, Maryam Tafakory presents Shab-Nameh: Women of Iran’s Forgotten Left, a life film performance which explores erased histories of women’s political resistance in Iran. Other FLAMIN alumni featuring at the festival include Hope Strickland, Patrick Hough, Sadia Pineda Hameed, Onyeka Igwe, Beatrice Gibson, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawler
Two short films in the Festival’s ‘I See Myself’ strand were supported by °µÍø³Ô¹Ï via BFI NETWORK, made possible through National Lottery funding. Remi R.M. Moses' Hindsight and Kristina Pringle's In Dreaming feature in this exciting, carefully curated package of shorts. Calvin Demba's The Animals also screens as part of the strand, which follows his previous BFI NETWORK-supported short, Baby Dolls. Elsewhere, in the ‘Altered States’ strand, Elham Ehsas’ Forgotten Spaceman is being shown. Elham previously made There Will Come Soft Rains which was funded by °µÍø³Ô¹Ï and Climate Spring as part of the inaugural The Hot House: Shorts programme.