Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture: Filmmakers in frame for City of Culture debuts
Next year is set to be a special one for Bradford, and filmmakers are being given the chance to play a major part in the city’s celebrations. The team which is running the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and Screen Yorkshire have unveiled a select group of local filmmakers who have received a “comprehensive programme” of story development, mentoring and training.
Over the past month, Bradford 2025 has welcomed a diverse cohort through the Forge Film Lab initiative in partnership with Screen Yorkshire, and select projects will have a premiere during the celebratory year. The participants, who have experience in film, screenwriting, directing and producing, come from across the Bradford district.
The successful cohort – Hafsah Naib, Evie Manning, Haider Mahboob, Jordon Scott Kennedy, Casey Shaw, Kamal Kaan, Kat Rose-Martin, Kirsty Taylor, Anna Evans, Martha Kean, Louisa Rose Mackleston and Michael McCabe – began developing their films, scripts and productions at the beginning of June.
Kate Moore, executive producer at Bradford 2025, said: “We’ve been blown away by the talent from these incredible film-makers, who over the past month have been incubating their projects and developing their practice as storytellers. It’s a real privilege to see how their work has evolved over the course of the lab and to encourage and support dynamic, new work in and of Bradford.”
The participants have been developing their ideas in a specialist environment at The Unit, based in Keighley, which is co-funded by Bradford Council and Channel 4.
They have had specialised support from industry professionals such as Alfie Barker, Andrew Oldbury, Ollie Huddleston, Phil Dodds, Sasha Damjanovski and Marilyn Milgrom.
Designed and delivered by the talent development team at Screen Yorkshire, the sessions covered a range of topics including pitch training, the role of editing in documentary, the art of screenwriting, character and story development and concluded with a keynote address from director Chris Overton, who won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Silent Child.
The process culminates at the end of July with a pitch to an industry panel including Bradford 2025’s creative director Shanaz Gulzar and BAFTA-winning producer Bekki Wray Rodgers. Three projects will be selected to receive production finance and work with Bradford based Cosmosquare Films, with producer Hollie Bryan making their films. The selected films will be announced in September 2024.
Jo Schofield, senior talent executive at Screen Yorkshire added: “The depth of talent and passion is inspiring - each project developed on Forge has such uniquely authored qualities the panel will have a tough job deciding who gets the final production fund. I can't wait to see these ideas come to life on screen.”