An impressive four NFTS graduates have been selected for BAFTA’s prestigious new programme, BAFTA Elevate, a series of bespoke programmes that elevate individuals from under-represented groups to the next stage of their career.
Directing Fiction MA graduates, Alicia Duffy, Christiana Ebohon-Green and Emma Sullivan and Script Development alumna, Cathy Brady have been selected for this year’s programme, which is focussing on female directors seeking to progress in high end television and features.
The aim of the programme is to help to address the gap between 50/50% male/female film school graduates and 87/13% male/female industry directing hires and producers’ desire to hire female directors but saying that they are often hard to find. The programme includes networking introductions, mentoring and expert workshops.
The series of programmes are a result of research carried out in partnership with Creative Skillset and the BFI, to examine the career success factors of film, television and games practitioners from under-represented groups.
Alice Duffy
Alicia Duffy is a BAFTA-nominated director. While at the NFTS, she directed two short films: Numb (2000) and Crow Stone (2001), both of which screened at numerous festivals internationally. Numb received a Special Commendation at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Arri Prize, while Crow Stone was a prize-winner in the Cinefondation Competition in Cannes 2001 and received awards at festivals including Edinburgh, Chicago and Bologna, and was an RTS award-winner in the same year. In 2002, Duffy was selected for the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residence in Paris, and later that year made the short film The Most Beautiful Man In The World, for which she received a BAFTA nomination in 2003. In the same year, the film was in the Official Selection at Cannes and won Best International Film at the Hamburg Short Film Festival, as well as receiving further awards at The Rhode Island Film Festival and Chicago Film Festival, and the Turner Classic Movies Short Film Prize. Alice Duffy’s first feature, All Good Children, screened internationally and was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2010.
Christiana Ebohon-Green
Christiana Ebohon-Green is an award-winning drama director, who has worked in television for 15 years. Her credits include EastEnders, Doctors, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks. Ebohon-Green has also written and directed several short films, including St Clare (1997) and In Your Eye (1998), which won the Kodak Award USA 1998, and was screened at the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker’s Showcase at Cannes in 1999. In 2015, Ebohon-Green won a place on Directors UK's High-end Drama Mentoring scheme, and worked alongside director Carl Tibbits (Humans, Black Mirror) in the production of The Tunnel as part of the initiative. She was also a mentee on Women in Film & Television's 2015 mentoring scheme. Ebohon-Green recently received funding from Creative England under their Emerging Talent scheme to direct a short film, Some Sweet Oblivious Antidote (2017), starring Lenny Henry, Wunmi Mosaku, Colin Salmon, and Fatima Koroma, and to develop her first feature film.
Emma Sullivan
Emma Sullivan’s short film After Tomorrow (2009) was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, and won several awards worldwide including Best Short Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2009. That year, she was also named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow. She was later mentored by director John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless) on the prestigious Guiding Lights scheme. Sullivan has also directed television drama for the BBC, with credits including The 4 O’Clock Club, Holby City and Doctors. She is currently developing a feature script set in New York, a high end drama series and has written several other features and shorts. Sullivan is a graduate of the National Film and Television School, where she was awarded a scholarship from the David Lean Foundation for her MA in Fiction Direction.
Cathy Brady
Cathy Brady is a two-time IFTA-winning director, having won Best Short in 2011 for her first film Small Change and again in 2013 for Morning, which was also selected for the BFI London Film Festival 2012 and won the Short Film Nominee prize for the European Film Awards at Cork Film Festival. In 2011, Brady directed the BIFA nominated short Rough Skin (written by Laura Lomas and starring Vicky McClure) as part of Channel 4's Coming Up scheme. Her short film, Wasted, competed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2013. In the same year, Brady was named one of Screen Daily’s ‘Stars of Tomorrow’. In 2014, Brady directed on the BAFTA-nominated drama-thriller series Glue. Most recently, Brady directed Stefanie Preissner's TV comedy series Can’t Cope/Won’t Cope for Dead Pan Pictures and RTE, which is currently showing on BBC Three. Her debut feature as writer-director, Wildfire, is currently in development, and will be produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina (The Wonders, Cannes Grand Jury Prize 2014) along with Cowboy Films.
More information at http://www.bafta.org/supporting-talent/elevate/elevate-female-directors-2017
