6 LGBTQIA+ creatives selected for 2025 BFI NETWORK and BAFTA Mentoring programme

BFI NETWORK and BAFTA have announced the six emerging LGBTQIA+ creatives selected for the 2025 BFI NETWORK & BAFTA Mentoring programme in partnership with BFI Flare. Six talented UK-based writers, directors and producers working towards their long-form debuts in film and television will receive a year-round programme of support from BAFTA and the BFI. 

Interest in the programme continues to grow, with 2025 seeing a record-breaking number of applicants – a 25% increase in applications from 2024. The six successful creatives impressed with the quality of their work to date and the boldness and originality of the stories they are developing. The 2025 cohort are: Adam Bennett-Lea, Sarah Drummond, Yasmin Godo, Ames Pennington, Masha Thorpe, and Laura Jayne Tunbridge. 

Over the next year, the successful participants will embark on a programme designed to equip them with the tools, connections, and support needed to navigate the realities of developing long-form LGBTQIA+ work in the UK and internationally. They will receive access to a bespoke day-long event at BAFTA, career and wellbeing coaching, accreditation to both BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (19 to 30 March) and BFI London Film Festival (8 to 19 October), access to BAFTA Connect, a dedicated membership option for emerging and mid-career talent, and mentorship from leading industry figures. Past mentors have included Russell T Davies, Lena Dunham, Jack Rooke, Isaac Julien and Andrew Haigh. 

“I’ve been so happy to support this scheme for years, now,” says Davies. “To be honest, I learn more from the mentees than they do from me. BFI FLARE finds such amazing and provocative talent, and the mentor programme is a great way to help and support new talent for the future. It’s a vital, brilliant and world-class scheme.”  

2025 marks a decade of BAFTA and BFI working together to champion fresh LGBTQIA+ voices and foster a new generation of storytellers. Many past participants have now established successful careers in the film and television industries, a testament to the programme’s lasting impact. 

Alumni include Emily McDonald, director of Am I Being Unreasonable? (2025); Amrou Al-Kadhi, director and writer of Layla (2024); Georgi Banks-Davies, BAFTA-winning director of I Hate Suzie (2020) and The Night Manager (2025); Georgia Oakley, BAFTA-nominated director of Blue Jean (2022); Aleem Khan, BAFTA-nominated director and writer of After Love (2020); Kayleigh Llewellyn, BAFTA-winning writer of In My Skin (2018-2021); and Cheri Darbon, BAFTA-nominated producer of Festival of Slaps (2023) and Hoard (2024). 

 Several alumni also have films in BFI Flare’s Official Selection this year. They are Matthew Jacobs Morgan, director and writer of Lisbon; Charlie Tidmas, director of We’ll Go Down in History; afshan d’souza-lodhi, writer of Before I Do; and Rhys Marc Jones, director and writer of Ripples. 

“Over the last 10 years, BAFTA has partnered with the BFI to provide a vital launchpad for emerging LGBTQIA+ storytellers, empowering them with the guidance and connections they need to thrive,” said Cassandra Neal, New Talent and Industry Manager at BAFTA. “This year’s cohort is filled with fresh, talented voices ready to make their mark. Past alumni have gone on to craft exceptional careers for themselves and I’m so excited to see what lies ahead for this year’s six creatives. I encourage the industry to take notice and be part of bringing their important stories to life.” 

“Demand for this programme continues to increase, much of which is a result of the career trajectory of our alumni and the fantastic mentors,” said Alice Cabañas, Head of BFI NETWORK. “We are proud to enable this programme, and together with BAFTA and BFI Flare we are creating a very powerful offer to support and nurture emerging talent. Looking back on 10 years is rewarding, but with another terrific cohort for 2025, I’m excited to think about their potential and the work they will make in the years to come.” 

Kristy Matheson, Director of BFI Festivals said: “This programme has become hugely important to BFI Flare and it is particularly rewarding to see alumni back at the festival with fantastic films in the programme. Our ambition for BFI Festivals is to create compelling, vibrant and inspirational spaces by showcasing and celebrating amazing filmmakers and artists from across the globe; giving emerging talent access to that can be incredibly powerful, which is why this partnership is so important.” 

Adam is a working-class writer from the North West represented by Independent Talent. After cutting his teeth working in story at Hollyoaks, Adam is now writing his debut comedy feature film. He was part of BBC Drama Room’s 2022-2023 cohort, and the BFI funded short he wrote, I Know a Place, screened at festivals including Leeds Film Festival in 2024. Adam’s comedy-drama script Dragged Up won a Northern Writers Award, and two episode scripts were commissioned by Channel 4 and Bonafide films. He’s now working on a slate of original sitcoms and comedy-drama series. 

Sarah Drummond is a Scottish writer and director, who founded film production and creative studio Anthro Bricolage. Her debut feature documentary currently in development, Don’t Say Gay, was selected for the 2024 BFI London Film Festival work in progress showcase and is backed by Screen Scotland. Sarah’s work explores Queer histories and themes of justice and oppression, which have inspired her first written short, Tamed, a Queer folk horror set in the South West. Her debut short documentary, Stonewall Postal Action Network, screened in 4 continents, winning East London’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival Documentary Award, opening Genesis Cinema’s festival and was selected for BAFTA-qualifying SQUIFF, amongst several UK LGBTQ+ festivals. She co-founded Scotland’s largest service design studio and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Glasgow School of Art and Google Fellowship for innovation in technology and democratic innovation. 

Yasmin Godo is a South London-based director and writer. Her work champions social realism through disability, diaspora & queer storytelling. Yasmin’s award-winning short film Musical (Un)fit To Work featured as part of the 40th Anniversary broadcast of Channel 4’s Random Acts series gaining both UK and international festival success. In addition to her work in film, Yasmin has also directed a range of projects across live-action and animation, including the Ob-Doc micro-series with RSA Films and Cambridge University. Yasmin’s recent projects include Mental at Royal & Derngate Theatre, as well as What Is Held at Mountview Theatre. She also directed the comedy pilot Brood by afshan d’souza-lodhi and debut music promo with J Appiah’s “Look Back”. Most recently, Yasmin shadowed on Eastenders as part of the show’s 40th Anniversary celebrations. 

Yasmin has 10 years’ previous experience as a 1st Assistant Director. She is also a former mentee of We Are Parable’s Momentum programme, and is currently in development on her feature length version of (Un)fit To Work.

Ames Pennington is a writer and director. Their independent debut feature, TOPS, is a genre-busting documentary inspired by chaotic 90s British TV. At BFI FLARE Festival 2024 it was named in both Evening Standard and AnOther Mag’s Top 10 picks of the festival, winning the Audience Award at Bradford Queer Film Festival and long listed for a BIFA Maverick Award 2024. With huge success in the UK festival circuit TOPS also went on to screen internationally, including GAZE International LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, Dublin, Kashish Pride Film Festival, Mumbai, NEWFEST LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, New York, and Crossings, Norway. In 2023, their short film Where’s Danny? won the Iris Prize’s Community Award in 2023, the same year they were a finalist at Screenshot — a comedy writing and performing competition hosted by SISTER and South of the River Pictures. Ames is currently in early development on their first narrative feature TRANSOM, a comedy-heist with a trans art-school twist as well as writing a new TV pilot. 

Masha Thorpe is a producer working across documentary and narrative film. In 2024, her short film Meat Puppet, directed by Eros V, was nominated for Best British Short Film by BIFA and won both the Special Jury Award and Audience Award at SXSW. Beginning her career in music videos, including work for DEADLETTER (Mere Mortal), nominated for a UKMVA in 2024, and for Jockstrap (LIVE at The Barbican), broadcast on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She has since produced work for Channel 4’s Random Acts and had films screened at numerous festivals including Bolton, Edinburgh International Film Festival, and SXSW. Masha is now focused on producing stories about travelling communities and alternative forms of living and is currently working on The Angry Bird, a portrait of a Romany banger racer, awarded the 2025 Netflix Documentary Talent Fund, in association with Patrin Films. She also runs and curates A Night of Shorts, a screening series which platforms the work of emerging women filmmakers.

Laura Jayne Tunbridge is a BAFTA-nominated writer, a director and a script editor. Her work includes BAFTA-nominated Night of the Living Dread and Other Half, which was selected for competition as part of La Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival 2021, and Requiem, starring Bella Ramsey, which won an RTS award. As a director, Laura was selected as one of six filmmakers to take part in Disney’s inaugural short film incubator scheme Star Imagine UK. In 2023, Laura’s film Nights, starring Susan Wokoma, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival. Laura’s BFI NETWORK backed short Girl on Girl has played at festivals around the globe including BFI FLARE 2024. Laura is currently working on various original series commissions with companies including See-Saw Films and The Forge Entertainment. Most recently, Laura wrote episode four of comedy-drama series Sweetpea, starring Ella Purnell, for Sky.