Two films by Kingston illustration and animation graduates were shortlisted for awards at the 18th annual BFI Future Filmmakers Festival. The festival is the UK’s largest for young screen creatives aged 16-25, screening 54 films and awarding filmmakers across 10 different categories.
Grac Talbot (they/them) and Chen Ma (she/her) were part of the select group of films shortlisted for awards, with Ma nominated for Best Animation and Talbot for Best Director and Best Film. The pair graduated from KSA in 2023 and submitted their final graduation films for the festival, where a total of 1,136 films were submitted from 62 countries worldwide.
The festival’s programmer, Aleks Dimitrijevic, described the annual event as a crucial space that “supports emerging talent, builds networks, and provides career-shaping opportunities for thousands of filmmakers”.
When asked how it felt to be nominated alongside films that had financial support, big production teams, and big backing, Ma said: “With animation, funding is not key for making the work.”
Talbot’s film We’re Not in Essex Anymore explores femininity, friendship, and living life; essentially, girlhood. With amusing elements of Essex and British culture embedded throughout the film, it finished with a spinning vibrator sex toy flying across the BFI’s biggest screen.
Inspired by the journey that takes place in The Wizard of Oz, the story follows four young girls on an adventure into London from Essex, with set design inspired by 1940s Hollywood musical dream sequences, toying the line between reality and fantasy.
“This is weird,” was the description from an audience member while watching the film. When asked how that made them feel, Talbot agreed, saying: “I’m weird. It is an unusual film, but only because it’s a different way to watch film.” This arguably helped itS stand out in the categories for which it was nominated.
The film used mixed media, shot in one day using the green screen facilities at KSA, and then developed over the period of a year, building off their original three-minute graduate film to a ten-minute film.
The recognition from the BFI was encouraging and meant a lot to Talbot, as they have been attending the festival since they were 16.
Chen Ma, 25, is a Chinese animator who submitted her graduation film called Speak No Evil, which delves into the topic of subconscious self-censorship. When asked about her relationship with the themes, Ma reflected on her experience with self-censorship and said: “I came to this moment where I asked myself whether I should keep quiet or speak out.”
Using her own experiences to tell the story, she reported often feeling unsettled, and she thanked her tutor at the time for encouraging her to finish telling what was essentially a metaphoric form of her own experience.
Ma explained that she finds the rules around censored content blurred, which creates a fear of unknown consequences. “People start avoiding discussing many topics, and there is less you can talk about until there is nothing you can say.”
The film was made using traditional animation techniques, starting with pencil drawings of around 1,000 frames, then colouring them digitally with her iPad, taking roughly two months.
Although neither won, both directors recognised their achievements in getting shortlisted. They reflected fondly on when they were working on their films on their laptop screens for their graduation show and described seeing their films projected on a screen of that size in front of so many people in the audience as an awe-inspiring moment. At the end of both films, the students thanked the university and their tutors.
The festival was credited by both artists for helping them gain more exposure and meet other creatives of a similar age in the same industry.
The BFI has a history of supporting Kingston University students, alumni Honey Birch and Nim Longley, also had their films screened at the festival.
Konstantinos Patas
Rym Naimi