Film & TV Funding Award Winners 2023

After a young girl from the mountains of central Afghanistan mysteriously commits suicide inside Kabul University, her family’s calm rural life enters into a painful and exhausting process. Her parents are now looking for justice in one of the most corrupt judicial systems in the world; while Freshta, their younger daughter, attempts to gain admission to the same university to complete what her sister had started.

Three years ago, Ilyas Yourish and Shahrokh Bikaran, decided to tell the story of Kamay; their own story. Born and raised in Afghanistan and having traveled the country extensively, both of them felt uniquely positioned to observe their homeland through their lenses. Shahrokh has graduated in 2016 from The Tehran Film School, where he studied directing, score composition, and Audio Engineering. He has since been involved in the creation of more than ten documentaries. Ilyas has graduated in 2014 from the Faculty of Journalism at Kabul University. Since 2011, he has worked as a journalist, researcher, and filmmaker. Ilyas and Shahrokh have recently established their Afghanistan-based Film Production Company.

Mandy Chang, Commissioning Editor of BBC Storyville and a member of the judging panel, said about Kamay: “The judges were struck by an incredibly cinematic story that shows a different side of a country we haven’t seen before. It’s about the quest for justice and the role of women in a society trying to free itself from the past and find hope for the future.”

In the midst of shocking family revelations, a young filmmaker is diagnosed with terminal cancer. What follows is an intimate and darkly humorous journey of a family’s attempt to make sense of their upended past and disrupted future.

Kit Vincent is a director/producer with an interest in character driven stories, that use humour to explore nuanced, real life drama. Kit began his career working on flagship documentary series’ for Channel 4 and other UK broadcasters and attended the Sundance Talent Forum as part of the Documentary Film Programme in 2019. Red Herring is his debut feature.

Gary Kam, Oscar-Winning Producer and a member of our judging panel said: “The director is on his way with a camera. The destination he is taking us to is not an unavoidable place but a way of appreciating the excursion on earth. With courage, openness and sometimes humour, the director’s cinematic journey takes us to a secret destination; The meaning of life, family and love. With the support from The Whickers, the jury hopes that this project will become a trail to follow in an inevitable story that we have to become the protagonists.”

Sidhanta, a fisherman in Assam, has been fighting to protect the Hoolock Gibbons, India’s fast-vanishing ape species, in his village. However, this endearing tale of human-animal coexistence is threatened when a nearby oilfield disrupts the delicate ecosystem and his relationship with the Hoolocks, who are dying at an alarming rate.

Ragini Nath is a documentary filmmaker from Northeast India whose work is a medley of visual imagery and reflective storytelling on resource politics and climate justice. Chinmoy Sonowal is a filmmaker exploring visual storytelling through creative documentaries, with a keen interest in the environment and wildlife. 

When Ragini and Chimnoy heard they were finalist’s, they said: “When we opened the email, it took us a few seconds to register what just happened! We are so overwhelmed and honoured that our film is one of the finalists for The Whickers. This means so much to us and will be such an amazing platform to showcase our story from the corners of Northeast India.”

Jane Mote, Editorial Consultant at The Whickers and a member of our judging panel said: “This a film that has so much too offer – stunning scenery, natural history (with a rare colony of gibbons seen up close) and a community that celebrates the environmental riches surrounding them. But the realities of the outside world, and the choices that individuals have to make to balance their short-term needs with the longer-term needs of nature become the driving narrative that casts a shadow over the fragility of their lives. This is a relatable, accessible story told with wit and humanity, which is a mirror for us all.”

Grieving his parents’ untimely deaths, filmmaker Toby Bull digs up their diaries and home videos, discovering the abuse they faced as children – and their hopes of healing through a secretive psychotherapy movement called Re-Evaluation Counselling. Interviewing his parents’ surviving friends and undergoing RC therapy himself, Toby grapples with this controversial organisation, in the hope that it will help him to understand and overcome his own traumatic childhood.

Toby Bull is an award-winning English filmmaker whose films have screened internationally at festivals like Visions du Réel, Viennale, MoMI First Look, and Hamptons IFF, and who is currently making work about his parents’ untimely deaths and their participation in a secretive psychotherapy movement.

When Toby heard he was a finalist, he said: “Wow! I’ve been sitting with this story for many years so I’m extremely excited to be nominated for The Whickers and to receive such an amazing opportunity to start sharing this project with the wider world.”

Jo Lapping, Head of Factual Acquisitions at the BBC and a member of our judging panel said: “We were moved by the multiple layers of this personal story; the emotional twists and turns it offers along the way combined with the social history of a particular moment in time. We were also impressed by the Director’s written treatment which showed the potential for an insightful and compelling voice.”

Grieving his parents’ untimely deaths, filmmaker Toby Bull seeks solace from their diaries and home videos. Instead, he uncovers a horror story. Their archive seems to reveal the ongoing trauma of childhood abuse – and their hope of healing through a secretive psychotherapy movement called Re-Evaluation Counselling. Interviewing his parents’ surviving friends and undergoing RC therapy himself, Toby grapples with this controversial organisation, in the hope that it will help him to re-evaluate the past he thought he knew.

Toby Bull is an award-winning English filmmaker whose short films have screened internationally at festivals like Visions du Réel, Viennale, MoMI First Look, and Hamptons IFF.

When Toby heard he won the award, he said: “I’m extremely excited and honoured to receive this year’s runner-up award from The Whickers. This development fund come at the perfect time as it will enable my team and I to further develop the project by answering key questions about the film’s final form at this early stage, before taking it out into the world.”

Oli Harbottle, Head of Distribution and Acquisitions at the BBC and a member of our judging panel said: “The judges were all incredibly impressed by Toby’s pitch, his film promises to use his own deeply personal story to address universal themes of trauma, grief and our relationships with our parents. It’s exciting to support Toby as he continues to unearth more material and we look forward to seeing the direction in which the film goes.”

Sidhanta, a fisherman in Assam, has been fighting to protect the Hoolock Gibbons, India’s fast-vanishing ape species, in his village. However, this endearing tale of human-animal coexistence is threatened when a nearby oilfield disrupts the delicate ecosystem and his relationship with the Hoolocks, who are dying at an alarming rate.

Ragini Nath is a documentary filmmaker from Northeast India whose work is a medley of visual imagery and reflective storytelling on resource politics and climate justice. Chinmoy Sonowal is a filmmaker exploring visual storytelling through creative documentaries, with a keen interest in the environment and wildlife. 

When Ragini accepted the award, she said: “This is so overwhelming and I cannot sum up the words what it means to keep going with the film. I would really like to thank The Whickers and Sheffield DocFest for giving us the support to bring a story from the corners of North East India to a much wider audience. More than that, I would really like to thank Valerie, Jane, Emily and the jury for giving a platform for first time filmmakers coming from Ukraine, China, Germany, Cameroon and the UK. We really felt a sense of community and the courage to go forward with the stories we want to tell.”

Jo Lapping, Head of Factual Acquisitions at the BBC and a member of our judging panel said: “Ragini and Chinmoy’s passionate commitment to telling the story of this community and the beautiful animals they are endeavouring to protect, promises to provide the audience with an immersive and moving insight into their world.”

The director’s approach using a detective and a film crew to uncover her family’s past is witty and compelling. But, beneath the conceit of her mission, she is deadly serious about uncovering Mexico’s criminal underworld and the effect it has on families. Here is a film that works on many levels and makes a difficult subject accessible. 

Sharing the same birthday is not the only coincidence between the two, both are documentary filmmakers that tell intimate, moving stories. Lilyana Torres has worked as Development Executive and Creative Producer with work that expands into hybrid formats. Carlos Morales is a screenwriter dedicated to telling stories about migration and queer experiences. His protagonists have been heard at different festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, and Hot Docs.

Upon hearing she was a finalist, Lilyana told us: “I have no words!”

Sam Soko, a documentary filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya, and a member of our judging panel said: “Stylistically it pushes the genre in a direction I find really appealing and interesting. I found the comparisons to Mexican B Movies in the trailer made me chuckle the whole time. The personal layers of the story add huge potential.”

When Zahraa was nine years old, she witnessed her best friend Noor being dragged away by her family, never to be seen again. This powerful and compelling investigation into the ‘disappeared’ women and children of Iraq does not flinch from discussing the complicity of other women within the system. The Iraqi Director says that “it is time to be freed of the frames that the media has always tried to squeeze us in”.

Zahraa Ghandour is a filmmaker, producer, and independent actor. She is the executive producer and co-founder of KARADA films production company based in Baghdad. Starting her career as a writer, TV presenter, and TV documentaries director, she also built a freelance career as a director and producer over the past decade. As an actor, she has won several international awards for roles in productions on Channel 4 and Hulu. She was one of the International Emerging Film Talents Association’s Global Film Expression initiative winners in 2021.

When Zahraa found out she was a finalist, she told us that “Being part of The Whickers is exactly what we need at this stage of our project”.

Jo Lapping, Head of Factual Acquisitions at the BBC and member of our judging panel said: “The narrative of this project works so well. I want to know what happens. You get drawn into a hidden world that we very rarely hear about. Being able to hear these women’s voices is powerful and crucially important.”