UK filmmakers Baff Akoto, Kathryn Ferguson, Sam Firth and Erfan Saadati have been selected as the winners at the inaugural BFI & Chanel Filmmaker Awards, held this evening (September 29) in London.
The four receive a £20,000 prize each to be used to “expand their craft, develop future projects, gain further skills, explore new ideas, and can also be used to support a residency or entry to a creative programme” according to the BFI.
Akoto was named a Screen UK and Ireland Star of Tomorrow in 2018.
Titled the Filmmaker Awards: Celebrating Creative Audacity, the awards are given in partnership between the BFI and fashion brand Chanel. At least one award was committed to a filmmaker identifying as female or non-binary.
The awards were presented by BFI fellow Tilda Swinton, who chaired the jury alongside BFI CEO Ben Roberts, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful and filmmaker Marie-Louise Khondji, who is founder of streaming service Le Cinéma Club.
Filmmakers nominated by a panel of industry experts were then invited to apply for the awards, which were open to producers, writers, directors or writer-directors who had made one or two features or XR/immersive works which have been released in the UK or presented at a leading UK or international festival.
The four winning filmmakers were selected from a seven-strong shortlist, through consultation with professionals from across the sector.
The jury made its decisions by considering each filmmaker’s full body of work as well as the strength of their application. Each nominee had to have a work on release and/or showcased between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022; and all projects had to meet the BFI Diversity Standards.
The BFI’s previous filmmaker awards partnership with Swiss watch brand IWC Schaffhausen has now ended after six years. Previous recipients included Richard Billingham and Saint Maud director Rose Glass.
Audacious
“We’ve selected four remarkable filmmakers, each of them very different in their approaches and their disciplines, but all properly worthy winners,” said Swinton of the Chanel awards. “They are certainly audacious and singular to a degree and we are fully confident that they will make the most of the grace, emancipation and confidence this award will afford them to create a safe space to focus on their work and on their evolution as original artists.”
Akoto was eligible through Queen Of Glory, the UK-US feature which produced and Nana Mensah directed, and which premiered at Tribeca last year. “Supporting an emerging producer, and one who shows this level of potential, is exactly who this award must be for,” wrote the jury, adding they hoped the award “confirms that creatives who can occupy multiple roles are an important part of this industry and its future, and no longer on the outside.”
Ferguson is director and co-writer of Nothing Compares, the feature documentary about Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, which debuted at Sundance this year. The jury noted “a beautiful portrait of a feminist, and an important story that speaks to the damage inflicted when the media target outspoken women. We also got a real sense of Kathryn’s assured filmmaking style and her ability to craft and construct a powerful and deeply moving story.”
Firth directed and produced documentary The Wolf Suit, which debuted at the BFI London Film Festival last year. “Through her body of work, we found Sam to be doing something completely mysterious – producing work that is consistently extraordinary and very personal, yet all very different,” wrote the jury. “ She invests in the process, as much as she invests in the final product. This is not a filmmaker who fits neatly into a box or can easily be defined, and therefore may find it hard to secure the funding and support. She was a clear choice for this award, because we wanted to support and nurture her pure creative audacity.”
Saadati is the director and producer of VR documentary Child Of Empire. “Erfan demonstrates a real commitment to immersive work, and is someone who is constantly seeking to drive the form forward, to disrupt and invent,” wrote the jury. “While his work was authoritative and confident in its quietness, we felt his ambition was boundless.”
“Reviewing and discussing the filmmakers and their work was really thrilling,” said Roberts, who felt that the shortlist “showcased an exciting range of diversity and inventiveness in approaches to storytelling.”
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