Beyond Shorts: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK Beyond Shorts New Voices: Step Up
We’re pleased to announce the cohort for Beyond Shorts, a career-development programme designed to elevate south west-based producers and directors who have a strong track record in screen-based work and are ready to take the next step into making features or high-end television.
Directors
Hansel Rodriguez (he/him)
Hansel is a writer-director from Bristol working in documentary and fiction. With a background in editing, Hansel loves crafting accessible, cinematic stories that are hopeful, multi-tonal and focus on the nuanced, messy lives we all lead. He’s collaborated with Oscar-nominated executive producers and BAFTA-nominated actors, and his Straight 8 screened at Cannes. Alongside his partner Lizzie Atherton, he is a joint winner of the prestigious Dreammakers Award — featured in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety — and received the Emerging Voices Award. His documentary work has earned multiple accolades on the festival circuit and is supported by the Emmy Award-winning Ventureland Studios.
Stef O’Driscoll (she/they)
Stef O’Driscoll is an award-winning theatre director transitioning into film, known for telling bold, contemporary stories that focus on human connection and social justice. Her debut short film Care examines whether society can truly care for someone who has committed a violent offense, questioning who deserves care in their time of need. Funded by The Uncertain Kingdom and First Flights, Care is currently on the festival circuit. An advocate for underrepresented voices, Stef is drawn to blending social and magical realism, allowing poetic or surreal moments to emerge from everyday life. Stef is developing a feature script exploring rave culture and addiction.
Joseph Inman (he/him)
Joseph is a disabled writer-director living and working in Cornwall. Part of the film collective Bear Behind You, Joseph has directed three award-winning short films, including A Village with a View, and Spines, the first BFI NETWORK funded short to be written/directed by, and star, an autistic person.
Joseph’s latest short film is the Cornish-language short Mordrik, funded by Screen Cornwall. Joseph is currently writing his first feature My Name is Mud, funded by BFI NETWORK as part of their Early Development Stage 2 funding. The film was also chosen to pitch to Film4 at Aesthetica.
Michael Jenkins (he/him)
Michael is an RTS West-winning writer-director based in Bristol, with work commissioned by broadcasters like Channel 4, BBC, BET, and the BFI. His films have featured at prestigious festivals including the Pan African Film Festival (LA), Toronto Black Film Festival and Encounters. His short Pickney won an audience award at the American Black Film Festival and was a quarter-finalist in the HBO short film competition. Recently, Michael was additional material director on The Outlaws (BBC/AMAZON). Named among Bristol’s 100 most influential people (2018 BME Power List), Michael is a full BAFTA member and co-artistic director of the Bristol School of Acting.
Producers
Lily Woodcock (she/her)
Lily is a producer based in Bristol. Most recently credited as Senior Production Coordinator on Aardman’s BAFTA-winning Wallace & Gromit Vengeance Most Fowl, Lily began her career in production working in television on a range of series spanning animation, live-action and documentaries. Independently Lily is a producer for Bear Behind You, a filmmaking collective based in Cornwall. Notably the team produced Spines (2023), a short film funded by BFI NETWORK and Falmouth University’s Sound/Image Cinema Lab, and are currently working with BFI NETWORK again since being awarded Early Development Funding to write their debut feature film.
Rachel Burton (she/her)
Rachel is a Cornwall-based Short Film and Creative Producer with a foundation in the independent film industry as a Production Coordinator and Manager. Her recent credits include Andrea Arnold’s Bird (2024) and Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada (2025). Rachel’s multi-award-winning debut short film as Producer, Underbelly (2022), was awarded Best Film and Best Emerging Talent at BFI Future Film Festival 2023. She has since founded the production company Arvensis Films, produced three further short films, is Associate Producer for BFI NETWORK financed short Pen Mari, and works as an Assistant Producer at production company Bosena.
Bex Rose (she/her)
Bex has produced a slate of shorts that have screened widely at festivals both in the UK and internationally. She has produced work for Channel 4 Random Acts, BBC New Creatives, CBBC and BFI NETWORK. Recently, Bex has been working with writer-director Edward Rowe on the Cornish language short Poll Pri and as an Associate Producer on Mark Jenkin’s latest feature film as part of the Film4 AP initiative.
Bex is also developing several feature projects, including the BFI NETWORK-supported Duppy – a Caribbean folk horror, with writer-director Michael Jenkins. She has a track record in championing stories from underrepresented filmmakers, stories that shine a light on experience in new, truthful and interesting ways.
Ray Wilson (they/them)
Ray is a queer, disabled producer and founder of Panad Productions. They’re passionate about queer stories, mental health and using genre to explore social issues. Recent screen projects include short Jelly (Ffilm Cymru-BBC Wales), The Girl with the Haunted Vagina (BFI NETWORK), Fisitor (Ffilm Cymru, BBC Wales) and BBC-Roughcut TV’s We Might Regret This.
Ray’s films have screened across BIFA and BAFTA-qualifying festivals, and on broadcast slots on BBC2 and Channel 4. They’re developing feature projects with acclaimed talent including Toby Parker Rees and Samantha O’Rourke. A BAFTA Connect and BBC Comedy Collective member, Ray’s accolades include Chapter Queer Prize winner, amongst multiple festival nominations and awards.
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In other news...
- Past Lab Participants Read more
- Animation Lab 2019: Meet the Participants Read more
- Animation Producer Lab 2024: Meet the Participants Read more
- Beyond Shorts: Meet the Participants Read more
- Creative Producers Lab 2021: Meet the Participants Read more
- Directing Workshop 2019: Meet the Participants Read more
- Director Lab 2024: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Producers Lab 2020: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Voices 2020: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Voices 2021: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Voices 2023: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Voices Step Up: Meet the Participants Read more
- New Writers Lab 2020: Meet the Participants Read more
- Peninsula Producers Network Read more
- Producer Lab 2023: Meet the Participants Read more
- Producer’s Lab 2019: Meet the Participants Read more
- Queer Storytelling Workshop 2: Meet the Participants Read more
- Queer Storytelling Workshop: Meet the Participants Read more
- Script Development Lab 2021: Meet the Participants Read more
- Script Development Workshop 2019: Meet the Participants Read more
- Shorts2Features 2022: Meet the Cohort Read more
- Thinking Cinematically Participants Read more
New Voices Step Up: Meet the Participants
New Voices 2020: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK South West are pleased to present our participants for the New Voices scheme 2020.
New Voices 2021: Meet the Participants
BFI NETWORK, in partnership with production companies Blak Wave & Little By Little Films, are pleased to present our participants for the New Voices scheme 2021-22. This talent development opportunity aims to help aspiring South West and Midlands based filmmakers looking to develop their five-minute short film idea.
Watershed is the Lead Film Hub Organisation for Film Hub South West, part of the BFI Film Audience Network.
Watershed is a Registered Charity No. 284188 and a Social Enterprise
Watershed, 1 Canons Road, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1 5TX
Film Hub South West &
BFI NETWORK South West
are part of the BFI Film Audience Network, supported by The National Lottery.
