BFI NETWORK Shorts School, 26-29 October 2026
Welcome to BFI NETWORK Shorts School!
Over the course of the week, Shorts School participants will hear insights from BFI NETWORK-funded filmmakers and meet other creatives. Whether you’re working towards your first short or sixth, Shorts School is for emerging writers, directors & producers to explore case studies, creative process, navigating short filmmaking.
We will also be taking about the Early Development Fund - applications are now open! This supports writers in the very early stage of their development process, before having a script, to produce an initial treatment and related materials for a feature film idea (live action, immersive and animation fiction projects). We'll be featuring a case study on a funded project, exploring how they crafted their full treatment to shape their feature film idea.
As part of Shorts School there will also be an in-person mixer event for participants taking place on Wednesday 28th October in London. Details on how to register for a place coming soon!
There will also be an online networking and Q&A roundtables session featuring speakers in the week and our London region Talent Executives.
Guest Speakers include:
- Simon Brooke, Director & Writer, Yellow Bucket (Iris Prize-nominated)
- Riffy Ahmed, Director, The Call & Writer (Early Development Funded)
Additional guest speakers to be announced.
FREE TO ATTEND! (all session will take place on Zoom). We'll aim to post the schedule and timings in the coming weeks.
Accessibility requirements - all Zoom sessions and recordings will have closed captions enabled. If there are any requirements you would like to discuss, please get in touch to see how best we can assist you.
NB: Sessions will be recorded for those who sign up. Programme itinerary will be sent nearer the time.