Kingston Alumni Shortlisted for Top BFI Awards

By: CAMILA MUIAMBO for The River 07/03/25

Two KSA Illustration and Animation BA (Hons) graduate films were shortlisted for several awards at the 18th annual BFI Future Filmmakers Festival. The festival is the UK’s largest for young screen creatives aged 16-25, screening 54 films and awarding filmmakers across 10 different categories. The festival’s programmer, Aleks Dimitrijevic, described the annual event as a crucial space that:

“supports emerging talent, builds networks, and provides career-shaping opportunities for thousands of filmmakers.”

Grac Talbot (they/them) and Chen Ma (she/her) were part of the select group of films shortlisted for awards, with Ma nominated for Best Animation and Talbot for Best Director and Best Film. The pair graduated from KSA in 2023 and submitted their final graduation films for the festival, where a total of 1,136 films were submitted from 62 countries worldwide.

Photo of the opening titles of We're Not in Essex Anymore. Credit: Grac Talbot

When asked how it felt to be nominated alongside films that had financial support, big production teams, and general backing, Ma asserted, “with animation, funding is not key for making the work.”

Talbot’s film We’re Not in Essex Anymore was the first to be screened on day two of the festival, which was a relief for Grac, allowing them to get it out of the way and let the film have its own space among films with more serious themes. The film explores light-hearted themes of femininity, friendship, and living life; essentially, girlhood. With amusing elements of Essex and British culture embedded throughout the film, it finished with a spinning vibrator sex toy flying across the BFI’s biggest screen.

Inspired by the journey that takes place in The Wizard of Oz, the story follows four young girls on an adventure into London from Essex, with set design inspired by 1940s Hollywood musical dream sequences, where the audience is toying with the line between reality and fantasy.

“This is weird,” was the description from an audience member while watching the film. When asked how that made them feel, Talbot would agree, saying, “I’m weird. It is an unusual film, but only because it’s a different way to watch film,” which arguably helped it stand out in the categories for which it was nominated.

The main factor that set them apart was that they did Animation and Illustration and used those skills learned while making the film. “It’s not the only way I know how to make film; I leaned into my limitations and what you’re doing to say things. I think that’s way more interesting.”

The film used mixed media, shot in one day using the green screen facilities at KSA, and then developed over the period of a year, building off their original three-minute graduate film to a ten-minute film.

Talbot’s choice to dub the voices of the actors was also something that set them apart. When asked why, they said that “it was partly to take the pressure off my friends’ voice acting as well as moving acting, because they aren’t trained actors.” They noted that as an animator, they prioritise visuals over sound. “I treated it more like an animation than a live-action film; they were almost animated characters.”

The recognition from the BFI was encouraging and meant a lot to Talbot, as they have been attending the festival since they were 16.

Grac Talbot at the BFI Future Film Festival. Credit: Camila Muiambo

Chen Ma, 25, is a Chinese animator who submitted her graduation film called Speak No Evil, which delves into the topic of subconscious self-censorship. When asked about her relationship with the themes, Ma reflected on her experience with self-censorship and said:

“I came to this moment where I asked myself whether I should keep quiet or speak out.”

Using her own experiences with the topic to tell the story, she reported often feeling unsettled, and she thanked her tutor at the time for encouraging her to finish telling what was essentially a metaphoric form of her experience.

Ma explained that she finds the rules around censored content are blurred, which creates a fear of unknown consequences. “People start avoiding discussing many topics, and there is less you can talk about until there is nothing you can say.”

The film was made using traditional animation techniques, starting with pencil drawings of around 1,000 frames, then colouring them digitally with her iPad, taking roughly two months.

Screening of Speak No Evil at the BFI. Credit: Chen Ma

Although neither won, both directors recognised their achievements in getting shortlisted. They reflected fondly on when they were working on their films on their laptop screens for their graduation show and described seeing their films projected on a screen of that size in front of so many people in the audience as an awe-inspiring moment. At the end of both films, the students thanked the university and their tutors.

The festival was credited by both artists for helping them gain more exposure and meet other creatives of a similar age in the same industry. The festival provided real-world support that makes a tangible difference for creatives trying to find their place in what often feels like an impossible industry to break into.

The BFI has a history of supporting Kingston University students, with two more alumni, Honey Birch and Nim Longley, also having their films screened at the festival.