A Month in the Life of MetFilm School Graduates
By Jonny Persey
22 January 2025
The dust has pretty much settled on the year that was 2024. The Awards season is upon us, and in a world full of change and uncertainty on the world stage, one thing is constant: MetFilm School graduates continue to inspire.
There’s too much going on to review the whole year, so let’s just look at a handful of stories from the last month, representing graduates from across our six campuses in the UK and Germany.
Two Graduate Directors on the Oscar Longlists
The Academy announced its longlists in advance of February’s Oscar ceremony, and on the longlist for Best Feature Documentary, two are directed by MetFilm School graduates: Ibrahim Nashat’s Hollywoodgate and Agniia Galdanova’s Queendom.
Both films also had the UK broadcast premieres on BBC’s Storyville in November, so our UK friends can watch them on iPlayer. Hollywoodgate follows Ibrahim’s journey undercover with a Taliban cell in Afghanistan, and on the back of his experience, Adel – his sound recordist and production assistant on the film – joined MetFilm School on a scholarship programme last year.
Queendom, inspired by Agniia’s graduation film, follows Gina, a queer artist from a small Russian town, who stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism – and put their life in danger.
In the Cinema
The War of the Rohirrim graced cinema screens worldwide on 13th December. Written by MetFilm School graduates, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, the anime fantasy takes place 183 years before the events portrayed in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The Fire Inside came out on Christmas Day in the US. This startling tells the incredible story of boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields as she prepares for the 2012 Olympics, and is shot by Director of Photography, and MetFilm School graduate, Rina Yang, who earned an Independent Spirit Awards nomination for her efforts earlier in the month. The film will hit UK screens on 7th February.
More recent graduates Daniel Brooke and Corey Knitter got their first break on Better Man, the Robbie Williams biopic which opened in UK cinemas on Boxing Day, working as Location Marshalls.
Winning Awards
Graduate Tin Brendel won the Golden Tadpole at Camerimage for the film, Orchid, which he directed and shot, another graduate winning a coveted award at a world-leading festival of cinematography.
Also last month, the trailer for MetFilm Production’s new feature film, Last Breath, dropped on the internet – the film, which comes out in cinemas in the US and UK on 28th February, stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole, making every breath count in a heart-pounding true story.
So, here’s celebrating our graduates and looking forward to what they might do in 2025.
Earlier in the year, MetFilm School joined the BIMM group. A few months ago, we announced the merging of BIMM’s Screen and Film School with MetFilm School under the MetFilm School brand and the launch of MetStudios, our new specialist school for games, animation, and visual effects. Together, in six campuses across the UK and Germany, we become a stronger school, and we look forward to a year in which our new wider network of graduates build the creative industry of tomorrow. Watch this space as we bring you regular updates of their stories and achievements.
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