BFI and Chanel Give Four British Filmmakers £20,000 Each at Claridge's

The BFI and Chanel Filmmaker Awards named four winners at Claridge's on 14 October, £20,000 each, Screen Daily reported. Rich Felgate won for We, The Hated, a documentary about the UK climate protest movement Just Stop Oil. Olive Nwosu won for Lady, a Nigeria-set feature debut. Imran Perretta won for Ish, a feature debut co-written with Enda Walsh. Rachel Taparjan won for Something Familiar, a documentary about her return to Romania after being adopted and brought to England as a child.

All four come with festival form. Lady premiered in Sundance's World Cinema Dramatic Competition, where it won a special jury award for an acting ensemble, and also screened in Berlin's Panorama. Ish world-premiered in Venice's Critics' Week in 2025 and won the audience award. Something Familiar premiered at CPH:DOX and won the Chicken & Egg Vision Award at Cannes docs in progress in 2025, and We, The Hated opened Sheffield Doc Fest earlier this year.

The jury was Jessie Buckley and Gwendoline Christie, both new this year, with Edward Enninful, Marie-Louise Khondji and BFI chief executive Ben Roberts. Previous winners include Kathryn Ferguson for Nothing Compares in 2022, Savanah Leaf for Earth Mama in 2023, Pinny Grylls for Grand Theft Hamlet in 2024 and Harry Lighton for Pillion in 2025.

Money at this scale buys days, not weeks, and the decision that matters is where to spend them. Our guide to budgeting a studio shoot in London works through the line items using published rates.