Bafta has selected three winners of the Rocliffe New Writing Competition for film, the platform for aspiring screenwriters looking to take their career to the next level.
Florence Hyde, Paddy Browne and Ben Hyland have been selected from more than 400 entries for the showcase, which runs twice a year.
Their scripts will be showcased online to Bafta’s industry guests on February 23, with an extract from each script performed by actors. They will then receive feedback from guests including Rose Garnett, former BBC Film director who is now working at A24 Films; Andrew Orr, head of originals at Sky Cinema; and actor-writer-director Nathaniel Martello-White, a 2017 Screen Star of Tomorrow.
The showcase will be directed by Alan Friel, with casting by Faye Timby
Hyde is selected for The Buckler. A Western set during the English Civil War, the script follows a woman who sets out across war-torn Yorkshire to rescue her cousin’s daughters from marauding soldiers.
Browne’s script is Stay Mum, a drama about a mother who witnesses a murder in a corner shop during a botched robbery.
Hyland has written Jumpers, a comedy about a sensible, jilted groom and an impulsive runaway bride, who agree to one final day of carnage after meeting at a suicide spot.
The trio were chosen by an eight-person jury: BBC Film commissioning executive Kristen Irving; Good Chaos producer and former Screen International editor Mike Goodridge; writer-directors Soudade Kaadan and Manjinder Virk; Bankside Films’ managing director Stephen Kelliher; Michael Ryan, director at GFM Films; Celine Haddad, head of film at Screen Ireland; and casting director and 2020 Screen Star of Tomorrow Aisha Bywaters.
The selection process included a panel with industry representatives from Netflix, Sky, BBC Film, the BFI, Mubi, Universal and Embankment.
Rocliffe was founded by Bafta-nominated producer and 2017 Screen Star of Tomorrow Farah Abushwesha, and has helped launch the careers of writers including Claire Wilson, Amanda Duke and Dan Brierley.
“I love how the industry comes together to support this initiative to find new screenwriting talent,” said Abushwesha. “We’re dedicated to an even playing field and knowing that all writers have been selected, and get here, through a blind selection process is so important for both the writers, and the industry.”
“Year after year, we see our writers gaining success and increasing their profile,” said Tim Hunter, executive director of learning, inclusion policy and membership at Bafta. “Recent success stories include Claire Peate’s The Colour Room, and writers breaking into mainstream TV and originating their own shows like Tom Moran’s Devil’s Hour.”
The Bafta Rocliffe New Writing Competition is part of Bafta’s learning and new talent activity, aiming to support emerging creatives.
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