Winners of BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards – “celebrating creative audacity” – announced

The winners of this year’s BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards, which celebrate emerging UK filmmakers, have been announced.

Revealed by Oscar-winning actor, BFI Fellow and CHANEL ambassador Tilda Swinton on Thursday 16 October, the victors were named as writer/director Harry Lighton (Pillion), The Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown-Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker) and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood (creators of The Stimming Pool), and writer/director Sandhya Suri (Santosh). 

Swinton was joined by members of the jury, Edward Enninful OBE, co-founder and chief creative officer of EE72, and BFI chief executive Ben Roberts to present the winning filmmakers with their awards. 

Selected for their “creative audacity and ambition to explore a new dynamic to their practice”, each of the three award winners received financial support of £20,000. 

This will enable them to “expand their work and explore new ideas, cultivate co-creation and knowledge exchange, and widen the representation of voices in today’s cultural community”, the BFI explained. 

The awards also support the BFI’s mission to “back the next generation of UK independent filmmaking talent”. 

Swinton, on behalf of the BFI & CHANEL Filmmakers Award jury, said: “Once again, a highlight of the year for my fellow jurors and I: a glimpse, not only of phenomenally impressive projects achieved, but, even more excitingly, of groundbreaking new voices proposing new perspectives that widen the cinematic landscape and promise enlightening and inventive horizons ahead. 

“We are enormously proud of this prize and the opportunity it gives us to offer encouragement and support for each of these distinctly original artists at what we feel sure is the beginning of their audacious and nourishing life’s work.” 

Roberts added: “We are thrilled to continue our partnership with CHANEL and award these unique awards to some of the UK’s brightest filmmakers. 

“This year’s winners have all made startling and moving films, and we hope this award offers them the space and freedom to continue to take risks and be audacious in the next steps of their careers.” 

The BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards jury said of each winner: 

About Harry Lighton, writer/director of Pillion:   

“Pillion is authoritative, fresh, English, quaint and well-made, all while maintaining a vulnerable heart and remaining radical in its absence of shame. The film announces Harry as an exciting new filmmaking voice, and we hope the prize provides him the freedom to continue to experiment.” 

About The Neurocultures Collective and Steven Eastwood, co-creators of The Stimming Pool:   

“In The Stimming Pool, the team have created something completely new, beautiful and educative without ever being patronising. The film had such a potent and lasting impact with us as an audience, and we were compelled by this powerful showcase of true collaboration.” 

About Sandhya Suri, writer/director of Santosh:  

“Cliché-free, with incredible performances, but it was Sandhya’s confident and captivating direction of her script of complex characters that really impressed us. We also noted her bravery and poise in not only telling this important story but also in bringing it to audiences around the world.”