Reflecting on Awards Season with the MetFilm School Community

Earlier this month, we had 24 graduates credited across eleven BAFTA-nominated films, and this number increases substantially when you add in all the other awards this season.

Not only does this continue an annual achievement for MetFilm School – seeing 30+ graduates credited on award-nominated films – but it also revealed a new trend.

This year, we have seen a significant rise in the numbers of principal and head of department roles across the film & tv board, all with significant acclaim and distribution. In today’s blog, we’re pleased to share just a handful of these achievements from the last 12 months…

Graduate Credits in Feature Films

Most recently, at the 2024 Oscars Awards, we were proud to see three high-level graduate credits win Best Live-Action Short for The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar.

MA Graduates Guy Trevellyan (MA Producing) and Gabriela Fernández Walean (MA Post Production) worked on the film as 3rd Assistant Director and 2nd Assistant Editor respectively, while BA Practical Filmmaking Graduate Marta Baidek worked as Visual Effects Production Manager.

In August 2021, Ibrahim Nash’at (MA Documentary & Factual) began a 12-month period living with a Taliban cell in Afghanistan, including filming their storming of Hollywood Gate, a former CIA base in Kabul where they find billions of dollars worth of military equipment.

This terrifying year made for an equally terrifying and powerful film, Hollywoodgate, which premiered at Venice Film Festival in September, and was Directed, Co-Produced, and Co-Written by Ibrahim.

Ibrahim was also nominated for the PIE International Alumni of the Year in September 2023. While he didn’t win, this is the second successive nomination for the School, after Gabriella Blumberg (MA Directing) won in 2022.

Also in Venice, the Opening Ceremony Film for the 80th edition of the festival, Edoardo De Angelis’s Comandante, starred MetFilm School’s Young Person‘s Acting Course Graduate, Arianna di Claudio, in the role of ‘Angelina’.

In October, Fair Play opened on Netflix after a short theatrical run in cinemas in the US & UK. Starring Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich, the feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, before selling to Netflix for $20 million.

This capped a pretty amazing couple of months for Producer Leopold Hughes (BA Practical Filmmaking), whose previous film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, opened in cinemas and then on Netflix in December 2022.

Also in October, Queendom opened at the London Film Festival. Directed & Produced by Agniia Galdanova (BA Practical Filmmaking), with Yash Ahuja (Six Month Practical Filmmaking) as D.I.T. & Assistant Editor.

The former Principal of MetFilm School Berlin once told me that Agniia’s Graduation Project, on which Queendom is based, is the only student film she had seen in all her years that was too short – breaking the age-old maxim that student films are either ‘too long, much too long, or way way too long’!

And finally, premiering at Locarno Film Festival, and subsequently released theatrically in Ukraine, Christina Tynkevych‘s film, How is Katia?, has now also been acquired by HBO Europe.

The film, which began as Christina’s MA Directing Graduation Project, Solatium, follows Anna, who dreams of a better life with her daughter, Katia, and was screened in February at the Barbican Cinema.

Graduate Credits in Television

From IMAX blockbusters and box-office hits, all the way to the art we experience from the comfort of home… our graduates have also been making huge waves across the television industry.

A few weeks ago, the BBC commissioned its’ second series of Dreaming Whilst Black. Devised by writer and actor Adjani Salmon (MA Directing), alongside fellow graduates Ali Hughes (Writer), Natasha Jatania, Laura Seixas, and Max Evans (Creators), and Jon Muschamp (Cinematographer), Dreaming Whilst Black started as a web series which team made after graduating.

After being picked up by A24, who commissioned a full tv series, the first series was released on BBC Three & iPlayer in August, and on Showtime in the US early in September.

‘This BAFTA-winning show is ripping up the rules of comedy’, one five-star Guardian review wrote. ‘This hilarious, inventive sitcom about a Black filmmaker struggling to make it feels totally new.’

Moving into the spring-time, we were excited to catch the release of the Netflix miniseries Transatlantic, which saw BA Practical Filmmaking Graduate Tunde Aladese credited as Writer on Set and Co-Producer.

Tunde is one of six Black women in film we interviewed for the latest season of YELLIT talks, which were filmed at our Berlin campus, and launched as part of the InterFilm Festival in November. These interviews also form a part of our inspirational series of talks in our MetFilm Futures Guest Speaker Library, available to all of our students.

And finally, bringing us into the autumn, MetFilm Production’s The Enfield Poltergeist opened on Apple TV on October 27 to a haunting fanfare across the world.

There were 22 graduates credited on the four-part miniseries, and we made sure to celebrate both these credits and the show’s launch through a variety of events at the School.

One exciting strand of these celebrations were our Masterclass sessions with Heads of Department – and the graduates that worked in each team, from Art Director Natalie O’Connor & Graduate Art Department Trainee, Dudley Dodd, to Key Editor Claire Ferguson & Graduate 1st Assistant Editor Andra-Diana Sascau!

Find out more in these blogs with Actor Max Lohan (BA Practical Filmmaking), and Director’s Assistant Phoebe Campbell-Harris (MA Producing).

Graduate Credits in Short-Form Content

Of course, it’s not only feature films and tv shows that our students and graduates have been making. The activity of our community in short form content – including commercial work, branded content, music videos, and short films, is often less visible in the wider industry. And yet, this is an area of great achievement for the School, and one which we want to prioritise in the coming years.

In the meantime, here are a few examples of graduate successes we’ve seen in short-form content over the last year…

• Michael Shaw (BA Content, Media & Film Production) presented his social impact documentary, Green Mountain Pioneers, at COP28 last November
• Teja Sai Gajji (MA Cinematography) worked as Director of Photography on PUMA India’s viral cricket campaign, announcing Harmanpreet Kaur as their new ambassador
• Valentina Kuplinova (MA Producing) and Alex Urquhart (MA Directing) led a team of 10 graduates to direct and produce Mas Resistance, which won funding from the prestigious Arts Council England
• Max Mir (BA Practical Filmmaking & MA Directing) won Best Young Director at the 9th Festival Antonio Ferrandis de Paterna with his Graduation Film, Walking Fernando

With Oppenheimer, the technical crew of Poor Things, and more, the UK film industry has been at the forefront of this year’s award season.

We hope that, with the introduction of the Independent Film Tax Credit – one of ‘the most significant policy interventions since the 1990s‘ in UK film, our industry – and our graduates – can continue to thrive and grow. With all of this in mind, we can’t wait to see what the next year brings for MetFilm!

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Hero Image Credit: Jared Yeh | WooehMoeh Films