The British Film Institute (BFI) is supporting a delegation of four UK-based filmmakers to attend International Film Festival Rotterdam’s (IFFR) industry offering, IFFR Pro.
Ella Glendining, Anna Keeley, Sarah Leigh and Cristián Saavedra will be supported by the BFI International Fund, awarding National Lottery funding through its group attendance programme, and led by the BFI inclusion team in collaboration with IFFR.
This is the first time the programme has focused specifically on disabled talent for a festival or market delegation.
Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Glendining received a Bafta nomination for her feature documentary Is There Anybody Out There? in 2024, following its premiere at Sundance.
She was the recipient of the BFI and Chanel Filmmaker Award in 2023 and is writing the historical drama Curiosities Of Fools with development funding from the BFI, and is adapting her short Pyramid Of Disunion into a feature with BBC Film.
Keeley is a producer with credits as a production and development executive at Escape Plan, where she worked on Rose Glass’ Bafta-nominated Sundance title Love Lies Bleeding. She is developing her debut feature to produce for Escape Plan, an English-French language psychological thriller directed by Liam White, Punchdrunk, which is set in Marseilles and will be a UK-French co-production.
She is also leading Escape Plan’s move into international co-productions. Previously, Keeley worked in Mexico City at production company Agencia Bengala.
Saavedra is a Chilean filmmaker based in Wales. With the support of Ffilm Cymru, he is developing his first feature film, which delves into the life of 1990s pop star, Scatman John.
Leigh is founder of Inclusivity Films, a company committed to at least 50% of cast and crew identifying as deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent on every production. She is on the equality, diveristy and inclusion committee of Creative UK.
The programme runs as part of IFFR and takes place from February 1-5, including industry discussions, workshops, screenings and mentoring meetings, with the hope of building creative and financial partnerships.
Bhavini Goyate, inclusion manager at the BFI, said the aim of the partnership is “to create more equitable opportunities for UK-based disabled filmmakers to enter the international film market”.
Marten Rabarts, head of IFFR Pro, added that the programme ”gives us an opportunity to knowledge-share with our peer colleagues as we strive to improve inclusion for our own event in Rotterdam and in the wider international film industry”.
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