The FOCUS Award offers mentorship opportunities to Black filmmakers and filmmakers of colour who are 16-25 years old. We recognise that Black people, and People of Colour are massively under-represented throughout our industry. The FOCUS Award is designed to foster, nurture and grow diverse talent, as well as open doors.
This year we are offering not just one mentorship opportunity, but two! AND our two winners will also walk away with a prize of £500 to put towards their filmmaking practice. Thank you so much to Gorilla Gorilla! and The Edge Picture Company for sponsoring The FOCUS Award, and making this new monetary addition to the prize possible.
Our mentors, Liz Robinson (Media Zoo), Sara Cooper (Plastic Pictures), Pete Stevenson and Vik Bebbington (The Edge Picture Company) and Dean Beswick (Gorilla Gorilla!) were really excited by the entries, of which we had a record amount this year! They were especially impressed by films that told a story, films that had a really strong concept running through them and films that tried to do something different.
The shortlist is made up of filmmakers that our judges recognised as showing creative vision, storytelling ability and a clear passion for filmmaking.
Meet our shortlist:
Exhale by Adekemi Roluga
Tarone’s Story by Braulio Chimbembe
The Halloween Outfit by Diya Shah
Home Interrogation by Kerell
Taylor vs Beyonce by Louis Utieyin
La Bayk by Raihan Kamal
Don’t take it personal by Tyme-Nevaeh
We will announce our two winners at the EVCOM Clarion Awards ceremony on 3rd July. The five remaining shortlistees will all receive a mentorship session with one of our mentees, where they can ask their questions about the industry and get guidance on their career.
Tickets for the EVCOM Clarion Awards are available here. See you there!