Yesterday, our BFI NETWORK team kicked-off the 2019 edition of the Northern Exposure: Short Film Script Lab with a session in Sheffield that brought together this year's participants for the first time. Now it's your turn to meet the class of 2019! We'll be working with this exciting group of filmmakers over the next 4 months, developing a fresh slate of short film scripts through collaborative writing and sharing sessions in Leeds and Liverpool. The Lab will culminate with a showcase of our writers' hard work at a rehearsed reading at the Royal Exchange Theatre in October and special events at Aesthetica Short Film Festival in November.

We'll be sharing updates on the participants' journeys as the Lab progresses. In the meantime, get to know our pick of new writers in the North. 

Alfie is an award-winning writer/director, and a graduate of the NFTS Talent Campus run by the BFI. His most recent short, I WAS 3 starring Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank) premiered at Sundance London Film Festival and was then chosen as a finalist for the Ignite Competition. He has directed and produced a TV mini-series, due to be broadcast in 2019. His films have had special recognition from the likes of Danny Boyle, Shane Meadows and Asif Kapadia.

Riley Bramley-Dymond is a writer and filmmaker working in the north of England. His work aims to explore the subtleties of difficult people and situations, often through the lens of magic realism. In 2016, Riley was accepted into the Writing Squad, an organisation that funded his 2017 short film, Ill-Fitting Shoes and commissioned a 2017 short film for the Hull City of Culture. His short film Profit was screened at Film Hub North and BFI NETWORK’s Northern Exposure event in March 2019.

Dhivya Kate Chetty is a Liverpool-based documentary filmmaker with an interest in intimate, moving stories that touch on issues of migration and racism. Originally from Glasgow, her last project, Glasgow, Love and Apartheid was funded by Creative Scotland and BBC Scotland, and recently received nominations for Royal Television Society Scotland and Celtic Media Festival awards. Dhivya has worked in documentary for several years and is keen to move into short form fiction whilst continuing to develop her documentary ideas.

Alex Clarke is an autistic writer who uses myth and monsters to tell stories about contemporary society. Her drama series Below is in development with Bonafide Films and explores the fantasy world created by a young autistic woman to escape the reality of domestic violence. Below won The Northumbria University and Channel 4 TV Drama Award 2017. Alex plans to use the Script Lab to develop her comedy The Great British Vampire Pageant – a story about a group of skint teenagers trying to recreate the US vampire pageant of the 70s in modern day Manchester.

Jazmin is a biomedical scientist with a passion for writing and film who enjoys using fictional narratives to demystify scientific concepts. As an artist of colour, Jazmin also enjoys writing stories about Black British experiences. Jazmin is a published poet whose work has been shortlisted for development by Leeds Playhouse Airplays.

Danny Kilbride is an award-winning filmmaker and Creative Director at Thinking Film. Born in Liverpool, Danny studied at Liverpool John Moores University before working in television and film for Hurricane Films, Granada Television and Lime Pictures, and moving into the voluntary sector with Plaza Community Cinema and Ariel Trust. Danny founded Thinking Film in October 2011 at the age of 23. His aim is to tell stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told; to provide people with a voice; and to make films that challenge the way we see the world.

After studying psychology and working as a journalist, Kerry produced a string of UK Film Council-funded films which won prizes and screened at over 100 festivals worldwide. In 2018, Kerry was an Associate Producer on Matt Palmer’s debut feature, Calibre and had her short script O Christmas Tree made through the NFTS Diverse Directors Workshop. Kerry graduated from the NFTS MA Screenwriting course this year and is currently developing a range of projects for film, TV and theatre. She continues to work as a director of the filmmaking charity she co-founded in Barrow-in-Furness in 2008.

Joanne Lee studied Film Production at Newport College, specialising in scriptwriting. Her passion for writing has never faded and she has written two short and two feature length scripts. She is currently adapting the novel Corazon by Joolz Denby. Joanne has enjoyed a career as a camera assistant, working on films including Billy Elliott and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and is a mother of two. Joanne’s time in the camera department has given her writing a strong visual style.

Zoe is a writer and performer based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her work is vibrant and interactive, creating playful disruptions to everyday life. Inspired by music that makes you tingle, science lessons and Kate Bush's dancing, she creates art that is fun, insightful and may even put a little bit of fire in your belly. She has recently created work for and with Curious Festival, New Writing North, Baltic and GIFT Festival. She is an Associate Artist of ARC Stockton and member of the DGA performance collective.

Abena Taylor-Smith is a writer and director, a BFI Flare mentee and a participant of the NFTS Diverse Directors Workshop 2019. Her multi-award winning short film, Ladies Day was supported by ShortFLIX, the Creative England/Sky Arts talent development scheme for emerging filmmakers. It has screened at festivals in the UK and internationally, including OutFest, Raindance and Black Star. It was one of the BFI and British Council’s #FiveFilms4Freedom for 2019. Her next short, The Best is Yet to Come is in post-production; it is being supported by the NFTS Diverse Directors Workshop.