Projects and talent announced for LFF Works-in-Progress showcase

Nine new UK feature films and documentaries will be presented at Picturehouse Central on Saturday 12 October in the fifth edition of the BFI London Film Festival in Partnership with American Express Works-in-Progress Showcase.

The selection of these films still in production or post-production offers an opportunity to discover fiction and documentary features from emerging directors at their debut or second feature stage as well as more established filmmakers.   

This showcase is a key part of the festival’s UK Talent Days, in partnership with the British Council, a weekend of events and activities designed to spotlight the diversity of UK talent and to foster international networking and business opportunities for filmmakers and companies supporting the films.   

The showcase event screens exclusive extracts from each project introduced by their filmmakers to an invited audience of international buyers as well as UK sales agents and festival programmers, reflecting the increasing international reach of the Festival followed by a networking event with the filmmakers and invited industry guests.  The projects are either in production or post-production. The online package will also be available online for one week from 12 October via a secure platform to a wider pool of invited international industry professionals.   

The Works-in-Progress showcase continues to support featured projects break into the market for domestic and international audiences. From last year’s showcase, Jack King’s The Ceremony premiered at last month’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, winning the Sean Connery award, and Mark Warmington’s Harder than the Rock premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest and will be released this October. Alex Helfrecht’s A Winter’s Journey was acquired for international distribution by Sony Classics, shortly before the LFF Showcase. 

From the 2022 showcase, Girl, written and directed by Adura Onashile premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival; Hoard, written and directed by Luna Carmoon, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival; and SCALA!!!, the documentary by filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall, had its world premiere at the 2023 Cinema Ritrovato followed by the UK premiere at the BFI LFF 2023.  From the 2021 showcase, Dionne Edwards’s Pretty Red Dress had its world premiere at LFF 2022 and Thomas Hardimann’s Medusa Deluxe premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival followed by the LFF.  Previous showcase titles which have enjoyed releases include Malachi Smyth’s The Score, Stacey Gregg’s Here Before, Lee-Haven Jones’s The Feast and 8 Bar — The Evolution of Grime, directed by Ewen Spencer.    

“The BFI London Film Festival Works-in-Progress showcase offers an energising forum for creative discovery and connecting filmmakers with sales agents, distributors and festival programmers,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director. “We are delighted to welcome each of the filmmaking teams to the festival and thank them for generously sharing these exciting projects with UK and international colleagues.” 

The in-person showcase will take place on Saturday 12 October as part of the festival’s UK Talent Days focus to support and promote UK talent. Working in partnership with the British Council, the LFF will provide a series of opportunities for UK talent from across the screen sectors to network and meet with invited international buyers, commissioners, producers and programmers. In addition, the annual Buyers & Sellers event returns as an in-person fixture at which international sales agents can meet with UK buyers, and NETWORK@LFF will host masterclasses and events for 15 trailblazing UK-based writers, directors and producers to learn from leading international filmmakers and industry executives at the Festival.   

Documentary 

Directors/writers: Giulio Gobbetti, Jan Stöckel; Producers: Giada Mazzoleni, Giulio Gobbetti, Jan Stöckel; Cast:  Andy Morris, David Breakspear. Production company: Paguro Film.

 Giulio Gobbetti is a UK-based director and editor. He has directed several short documentaries and his latest project, Neptune, screened in Giornate degli Autori at the 79th Venice Film Festival. Jan Stöckel is a director and cinematographer. With a background in visual anthropology, he directed several observational documentaries. Ancora is his most recent short. In a co-directing partnership, Giulio and Jan made the documentary No Island Like Home, which was selected for the Visions du Réel Media Library and the Sheffield Doc/Player and then had a successful festival run.  

Andy is a racial equality campaigner and Dave is a criminal justice reform activist. Both have spent long years behind bars ‒ Dave has been entangled in the prison system since the age of 10, while Andy served 13 years due to a controversial piece of legislation.  

The film begins on the day they walk out of prison, capturing their challenging journey toward rehabilitation. With strict conditions to meet and constant scrutiny, one misstep could land them back in jail.   The law demands that they “be of good behaviour,” but the definition of “good” is often vague and elusive.  Through moments of joy, frustration, and despair, Andy and Dave show us the complexities of starting anew as the film looks at what it truly means to reclaim one’s life after incarceration.  

Fiction 

Director: Richard Bracewell; Writers: Patrick Dalton, Richard Bracewell; Producers: Richard Bracewell, Patrick Dalton, Tom Wood; Director of Photography: Tansy Simpson; Cast: Ramy Ben Fredj, Ethaniel Davy, Graham Fellows, Amelie Pyecroft Davies, Laurence Rickard. Production company: Nodge Films.

Richard Bracewell is a British independent filmmaker based in Norwich. His first feature was The Gigolos, a semi-improvised comedy starring Anna Massey and Susannah York shot on 16mm short ends. The film premiered at the AFI Fest and was acquired by BFI Distribution. Richard developed and directed Bill, the family comedy about Shakespeare starring the cast of Horrible Histories, supported by BBC Film and the BFI. Chicken Town reunites him with Laurence Rickard, co-writer of Bill and creator of the hit TV series Ghosts. Richard has taught filmmaking at Norwich University of the Arts and has employed ten of his graduates on the production of Chicken Town.  

In a dead-end town in the East of England a young man (Jayce) is released from prison after serving time for a crime he didn’t commit. He returns home looking for answers only to become embroiled in a scheme to sell a crop of cannabis grown by an elderly neighbour on his allotment. Jayce and his gamer friend Paula form an unlikely alliance with the old man, selling the weed to a dealer.  

But this attracts the attention of two local dimwit hoodlums who notice a dent in their trade and kidnap the trio. Jayce learns that he was framed by Lee, his childhood friend and the hoodlums’ boss. Overcome with remorse, Lee switches sides and frees Jayce.  

Jayce rides into the sunset on his dream motorbike. He leaves behind a new ‘family’ in the shape of Paula, Lee and the old man.  

Documentary  

Director: Sarah Elizabeth Drummond; Producers: Reece Cargan, Karen O’Hare; Executive Producer: John Archer; Director of Photography: Martyn Gough; Production companies: Randan/Hopscotch; supported by Screen Scotland.

Sarah Elizabeth Drummond is a writer/director with a focus on LGBTQ+ stories and founder of film production studio, Anthro Bricolage.  Her debut short documentary, Stonewall Postal Action Network (2023) won the East London LGBTQ Film Festival Documentary Award and was also selected for the Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Cambridge 42nd Film Festival, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, as well as LGBTQ+ festivals including Bradford, Leeds, Brighton, Mansfield and Norwich.  

Her desktop documentary Lockdown Hugs (2021) was runner-up at the Bertha Doc House competition.  Prior to Anthro Bricolage, Sarah founded Snook, an award-winning R+D studio. She was given an honorary doctorate from the Glasgow School of Art for services to design and a Google Fellowship for Innovation in democratic innovation.  Her current works include developing interactive worldbuilding experiences at UK festivals for Brian Eno’s Earth Percent charity and developing a Queer Folk Horror on the Film Ankoth Queer writers programme.   

Don’t Say Gay tells the story of the rapid unravelling of progressive LGBTQ+ rights in 1980s Britain and the introduction of the homophobic law, Section 28 where gay people were erased.   

The story is told by activists who united to stage mass protests and outrageous acts of civil disobedience, challenging the Government on the first law to roll back gay rights in over 100 years. For the first time, we hear the stories of the Section 28 generation who grew up under a state sponsored silence and the experience of the Director, a generation of children and teachers who share stories of anger and shame.  In recent years with eerily similar laws being brought in across the globe, we ask, will Section 28 happen again in the UK? 

Fiction 

Writer/director: Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor; Producer: Emily Morgan; Director of Photography: Anna Patarakina; Cast:  Ronkę Adékoluęjo, Ann Akinjirin, Diana Yekinni, Aiysha Hart. Prod company: Quiddity Films. Supported by BBC Film (and BFI in development with National Lottery funding). Sales - The Yellow Affair by Newen Connect, Karolina Dwyer and Steven Bestwick.

Coming from a producing background, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s short film For Love, supported by BBC Film, premiered at BFI London Film Festival gaining a Best Short Film nomination. It was then nominated for Best Short Film at SXSW (2022) and won an Honorable Mention in the Best Short Film category at the BlackStar Film Festival and Best Short at the DeadCentre Film Festival. Joy has previously produced the hit Blue Story, which became the top grossing film of its genre. In 2020, she was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow and a BAFTA Breakthrough talent; Joi Productions also received a BFI Vision Award.  Joy has also produced Aml Ameen’s debut feature, Boxing Day, the first all-black Christmas film out of the UK. 

Dreamers is a love story set in the most unlikely of places, a removal centre. We follow Isio, who is caught working without papers, trapped inside Hatchworth, where she learns that finding love, friendship and freedom sometimes means doing the wrong things. It is a story about one woman’s epic journey to finding herself and her power guided by love.  

Documentary 

Director: Felipe Bustos Sierra; Producer: Ciara Barry; Director of Photography: Kirstin McMahon. Production company: barry crerar; supported by Screen Scotland.

Felipe Bustos Sierra is a Belgian-Chilean filmmaker based in Scotland.  His debut feature-length documentary, Nae Pasaran won the Best Feature award at the 2018 British Academy Scotland Awards, where he was also nominated for Best Director (Factual).  Nae Pasaran received a BIFA nomination for Best Documentary and led to a public monument erected in Scotland commemorating the events of the film. His short fiction and documentary shorts have screened at more than 100 film festivals internationally.  He is the Creative Director of Debasers Films.  He’s a member of Eurodoc and an alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus and the EIFF Talent Lab.  

An immigration ‘dawn raid’ in Glasgow’s most diverse community triggers a chain reaction through Kenmure Street, as neighbours rush to prevent the deportation of two residents.  Broadcast live and going viral on social media, the eight-hour stand-off lets the world watch as a police force struggles to contain a peaceful crowd, then exacerbates an explosive situation.  Centuries of unhappy endings and systemic violence have not prepared the crowd for their peaceful efforts to pay off and yet it all ends on one of the most joyful notes you’ll get to see.  

Documentary  

Director: Daniel Gough; Producers: Anne Milne, Sonja Henrici, Dewi Gregory. Production company: Hand-Drawn Pictures, Sonja Henrici Creates, Truth Department; supported by Screen Scotland and Ffilm Cmyru Wales.

Daniel Gough is a Welsh-born filmmaker based in Edinburgh where he received an MFA in Film Directing from Edinburgh College of Art. His work specialises in creative, deeply personal storytelling as a means to explore difficult and sensitive subjects.   

In 2021, together with producer Anne Milne, he formed Hand-Drawn Pictures to direct his first feature film - Night Gardener and was joined by Producer Sonja Henrici. 

Daniel’s directing credits include The Plan for BBC Wales, and various experimental shorts including Immram I Am In commissioned through the Storytelling Festival and selected to play at the Edinburgh Shorts Showcase 2023.   Further commissions include the short documentary Dancing Wave that will screen at Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art in 2024 and as Theatre Director for The Gorbals Vampire part of a nine-month residency with the Bright & Wild Festival 2023 in collaboration with Lyra Artspace. 

This is a tale of broken hearts, focusing on a young filmmaker’s complex relationship with his father, an ICU doctor. As a boy, Dan was haunted by his father’s story of a man’s suicide by a knife through his heart. Years later, hoping to reconnect and capture this haunting tale, he visits his estranged father in a dilapidated cottage. The request to revisit the story abruptly ends their meeting — their final encounter before his father’s mental breakdown, institutionalisation, and death.  

Mystified by questions surrounding his father’s fate, Dan faces family resistance as he digs deeper. He becomes obsessed, compulsively drawing and animating memories, fairy tales, and stories, desperately seeking meaning in his father’s words. His quest expands to explore the broader struggles of doctors and the crumbling healthcare system. Dealing with his father’s legacy, Dan fears their similarities yet yearns to forge his own path. Through his journey, he discovers stories’ power to both wound and heal.  

Fiction 

Director: Liam Calvert; Writer: Diego Scerrati; Producer: Diego Scerrati; Co-Producers: James Heath, Reece Cargan; Development Producer: Muna Mohamed Yusuf; Assistant Producer: Victoria Haycroft; Director of Photography: Oliver Bury; Cast: Alexander Lincoln, Jack Brett Anderson, David Bradley, Jimmy Ericson, Beth Rylance, Kane Surry. Production company: Monteverde Pictures/Randan.

Liam Calvert is a director and writer originally from Leeds. He studied film and television at Solent University in Southampton, initially focusing on editing and going on to direct after writing the award-winning World War II short film Gisette. During his MA in film production he created 24 Hours at the Giddy Bridge, a workplace documentary that follows the staff of the pub where he worked while studying. After graduating, he directed another short film, a zombie drama titled 1 in 6, before relocating to London and beginning work on his first feature film, On a Winter Night.  

On the night he plans to end his life, Lukas, a stone-broke gay actor in his thirties, meets Oliver, a privileged fuck-up with a failing business who carries a guitar wherever he goes. Despite their different backgrounds, they forge a quirky, intimate bond that leads Oliver to talk Lukas into spending the night with him on a quest: roam the city and take the experiences of London to find the elusive “meaning of life” before dawn.  

Against the backdrop of London’s streets, Lukas and Oliver dive into a wild night that pushes them to confront their personal struggles and see life from new angles. But when their unlikely connection turns into something deeper, fears and demons from their past resurface and come to jeopardise the whole mission. As time ticks away, the pressure mounts — if they don’t find a reason to live, they might never see a new dawn.  

Fiction 

Director: Brian Durnin; Producers: Laura McNicholas, James Heath; Executive Producer: Cormac Fox; Director of Photography: Cathal Watters; Cast: Cillian Sullivan, Naoise Kelly, Danielle Galligan, Laurence O’Fuarain, Pom Boyd. Production company: 925 Productions/Randan.  Supported by Screen Ireland (Dublin), Coimisun na Mean, RTE and Screen Scotland.

Brian Durnin is an award-winning filmmaker from Dublin. He recently completed principal photography on his debut feature film Spilt Milk, which will hit cinemas in 2025. Brian’s short films have screened at numerous prestigious international festivals including TriBeCa, winning awards at Cork, Kerry, Galway, Belfast, Raindance and Rome, as well as garnering IFTA nominations. He has also directed hundreds of commercials across the globe, working with household names such as Saoirse Ronan and collecting numerous domestic and international awards.  

Set in Dublin in 1984 Spilt Milk follows 11-year-old Bobby O’Brien who dreams of becoming a great detective like his TV hero Kojak. Bobby sets up a private investigation enterprise with his best friend Nell Casey and the disappearance of his older brother sets them off on a quest to find him…  

Fiction 

Director: Ondine Viñao; Writers: Ondine Viñao, Jordan Johnson; Producer: Ivy Freeman-Attwood; Director of Photography: David Wright; Cast: Anya Chalotra, Chloe Cherry, Ralph Ineson; Production company: Silkscreen.

Ondine Viñao is an Argentine-American video artist and filmmaker. She first gained recognition for her solo exhibition, Holy Fools, which premiered at the Rubber Factory and later toured to Berlin, London, and Los Angeles.  Her exhibitions include a screening and lecture at the Sheffield Doc Fest, Bronx Museum’s 50th Anniversary Showcase, Labs New Artists at Red Hook Labs, and a two-artist show at The Goss-Michael Foundation.   

Ondine’s achievements include artist talks at Hauser & Wirth and Freunde von Freunden, and her first photo book published with Ginny Projects. Her work has been profiled in publications including ARTnews, Artnet, Document Journal, Garage Magazine, Office Magazine, The Observer, BlackBook, Jalouse, and New York Magazine. Two Neighbors is her debut feature.  

A dark comedy set in New York, inspired by Aesop’s fable Avaricious and Envious. Becky, an ambitious but struggling writer, is overcome by envy and spite when she meets Stacy, a beautiful but insatiable socialite, at a lavish party hosted by Stacy’s father at their country estate. The evening descends slowly into chaos, and the girls’ lives are forever transformed after the unexpected arrival of a modern-day genie who promises to grant their deepest, darkest wishes.