BFI Film Academy in the South West teamed up with Encounters Film Festival to offer three BFI Film Academy members passes in exchange for content created about their visit.
Encounters is a springboard for audiences to encounter rising talent, and for artists to progress, exchange knowledge, inform and learn. There are national and international categories, talks, masterclasses and networking events.
Bella created a TikTok style rundown of her time at the festival, whereas Lois did a write-up of the event. Read their bios and check out their content below.
Bella Matthews
Bella is a Film Production student studying at Arts University Bournemouth, originally from Bristol, she took part in Bristol’s BFI Academy, and her passion for film has developed significantly from there. In her second year at university, she is specialising in Cinematography and she comes home to Bristol whenever she can.
Lois Bryant
Hi, I’m Lois. I’m a BFI Film Academy Bristol and BFI Future Skills Trainee alumni. I graduated from a film production degree in 2020 and have been freelancing in the Art Department for Film and TV since then.
As a Film and TV freelancer, Encounters Film Festival was a breath of fresh air.
Encounters is a five-day long celebration of short films and animations from across the globe – it has such a warm and welcoming atmosphere, it really feels like catching up with old friends. Taking place at the Watershed (one of my favourite places on Earth), this year I had the pleasure of attending the festival, and meeting some brilliant local filmmakers with the help of the BFI.
The first session I attended was, Frank Film Club: Finding Your Voice. This was an uplifting and informal panel discussion, hosted by the members of the Frank Film Club podcast (Maisie Williams, Hannah Marie Williams and Lowri Roberts). Maisie and Lowri talked about the challenges of operating your own production company as a young person: they talked about how their company, Rapt, was their way of carving their own path in the industry, and how it gave them the confidence to learn through their mistakes. This was a really inspiring session to attend as a young person working in Film and TV (particularly in a challenging era of strikes that are currently facing the industry).
Next, I attended a screening of a selection of short films from the international competition showcase, entitled Geographies of Memory. This screening was an amazing way to see a wide variety of stories being told in new and unique ways. One film that sticks with me in particular was The Ghost from Mariupol, by Marie Chemin. Following the screening Marie took part in a Q&A where she explained how she used the (relatively new) technique of desktop filmmaking to take us on a journey through the streets of Mariupol, guided by an enthusiastic Google Street View image uploader. It was exciting to see how, even during the height of the COVID pandemic, people were finding new and adaptive ways of telling their stories.
My third session was the Depict showcase: this is one of my favourite parts of Encounters. Guided by the knowledge that restraints can fuel creativity, Depict challenges filmmakers to make pieces 90 seconds or less. Capping the runtime like this is a really accessible way for filmmakers and artists to test out ideas, and make films on a shoestring budget; some entrants made their film with only £100, and a couple even managed £10. The Depict competition at Encounters is also free to enter, so if you have a smartphone and a story to tell, then you really have nothing to lose by getting involved.
I started my final day with the Keyframes session: an Animation/Hybrid Showcase. This was presented by the BFI Doc Society, BFI NETWORK South West and Ffilm Cymru, and it was a beautiful exhibition of the kinds of documentaries and animations that have been made using the various pockets of funding available throughout the South West and in Wales. From a jaunty tale of three druids to a personal and heartfelt exploration of mental health, this showcase was varied and beautifully curated, and it was wonderful to see the often overshadowed genre of documentary being celebrated alongside animation in such a lovely way.
The festival then ended with the Award Winners Screening, showing the best of the best from the weekend’s festival. The showcase was so wide, varied and high quality, it really proved there is something for everyone at Encounters. If you’re able to attend next year, I would really recommend you come watch a film or two… or thirty.
