30/01/2015 - SFTN launches First Feature Development and Emerging Talent Shorts plans

The Scottish Film Talent Network (SFTN) has launched First Feature Development and Emerging Talent Shorts initiatives, and the 14 filmmaker teams selected for the New Talent Shorts programme. The SFTN initiative is worth £450,000 over the next 12 months. SFTN is a consortium made up of the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), DigiCult and Hopscotch Films. SFTN represent Scotland in the UK-wide BFI NET.WORK initiative that connects the UK’s film talent development agencies. The First Feature Development programme offers opportunities for emerging talent to develop their first feature project. The Emerging Talent Shorts programme runs in conjunction with the First Feature Development programme and is aimed at filmmakers who are ready to make bigger budget shorts as a step towards realising their first feature.

The 14 filmmaking teams shortlisted for the New Talent Shorts programme will participate and five projects will then be selected for production with individual budgets ranging from £5,000 - £10,000 per project.

Lizzie Francke, Production Executive at the BFI Film Fund, said, “In working recently with emerging Scottish filmmakers such as Scott Graham on Shell [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Iona [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Paul Wright on For Those In Peril [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: George Mackay
film profile] and Gregory Burke, the writer of ’71 [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Yann Demange
film profile], we are excited about discovering and supporting the next generation of Scottish filmmaking talent which we aim to achieve with this programme and we look forward to putting that into action with these filmmaker teams.”  

The projects and filmmakers selected for New Talent Shorts are:  

72 Hours (Drama)
Writer/Director: Katri Vanhatalo

Crowman (Drama)
Writer/Director: Duncan Nicoll

Dave (Animation)
Director: Garry Marshall; Writer/Co-director: Chris Watson Producer(s): Rhona Drummond & Victoria Watson
Grimm Street (Drama / Fantasy)
Writer: Emma Lennox; Producer: Jill Pryde

Mary’s Maiden Voyage (Drama)
Writer: Henna-Leena Kallio

Maunderer (Psychological Thriller)
Writer/Director: Tim Courtney

Meet Me By the Water (Drama)
Writer/Director: Raisah Ahmed; Producer: Karen O’Hare

No Place Like Home (Animation)
Writer/Director: Cat Bruce

Resurface (Drama/Thriller)
Writer/Director: Michael Crumley; Producer: Sam Ferguson

Spores (Comedy/Drama)
Writer/Director: Richard Poet; Co-writer: Frances Poet

The Lookalikes (Comedy)

Director: Robbie McIntosh; Writer: Sandro Sotirchos

The Necklace (Drama)

Writer/Director: Rose Hendry

The Rat King (Horror)
Director: Pavel Shepan; Writer: John Gibb; Producer: Bianca Herold

Vespers (Drama)
Writer/Director: Artur Zaremba; Producer: Hannah Smith