Birds' Eye View Filmonomics

Source: Birds’ Eye View

L-R: Emma Williamson, Helen Iley, Louisa Rechenbach, Nan Davies, Natalie Cubides-Brady, Oneikeh Campbell, Reman Sadani, Ruth Platt, Sade Adeniran, Siobhan Fahey, Sorcha Bacon, Tala Lee-Turton, Tulasi Das, Veronica McKenzie, Vivien Cumming

The UK’s Birds’ Eye View – an organisation that campaigns for gender equality in all film spaces – has named the participants taking part in the seventh edition of the Filmonomics professional development programme.

Filmonomics is aimed at up-and-coming feature writers, directors and producers of marginalised genders from across the UK. The five-day programme takes place this month and is led by Birds’ Eye View director Melanie Iredale, training manager Simone Glover and Tolu Stedford, who is part of the Birds’ Eye View advisory committee.

The participants taking part in the upcoming scheme include Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021 producer Sorcha Bacon of Try Hard Films, whose shorts have premiered at Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, Sheffield and BFI London Film Festival.

Also taking part is writer-director Ruth Platt. Her 2019 feature The Black Forest premiered at Edinburgh, where it was nominated for the Michael Powell award for best feature film, and 2021 title Martyrs Lane debuted at Fantasia.

Producer of Bifa-nominated feature documentary Rebel Dykes, Siobhan Fahey, is also part of the cohort, alongside writer Emma Williamson, writer-director Helen Iley, director-producer Louisa Rechenbach, producer Nan Davies, writer-director Natalie Cubides-Brady, writer-director Oneikeh Campbell, writer-director-producer Reman Sadani, writer-director-producer Sade Adeniran, writer-director-producer Tala Lee-Turton, writer-director-producer Tulasi Das, writer-director-producer Veronica McKenzie and writer-director-producer Vivien Cumming.

Mentors and speakers who will be offering industry insights to the course participants include Alison Thompson, co-President at Cornerstone Films; Amy O’Hara, development and production executive at Film4; Cate Kane, co-director of Global Acquisitions at Mubi; Cíntia Gil, film programmer and consultant; Kaleem Aftab, film critic, producer and programmer; Lia Devlin, managing editor at Altitude Distribution; Mia Bays, director of BFI Film Fund; Shanida Scotland, director and head of film at Doc Society; plus Filmonomics alumnni Chi Thai, a filmmaker and producer of horror Raging Grace and Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Blue Story and Boxing Day producer.

Filmonomics 7 is supported by ScreenSkills using National Lottery funds awarded by the BFI as part of the Future Film Skills programme. For the first time, BFI Doc Society has come on board as a partner on the programme, with support from Scottish Documentary Institute, Film Hub North and Northern Ireland Screen.

Last year, Birds’ Eye View launched its first international iteration of the Filmonomics programme, with participants who are based in, or diaspora of Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, Taiwan and the UK.

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