Hastings and St Leonards

Aged 16 to 19 years and want to learn about or work in film? Apply now for the BFI Film Academy Short Course. 

You will take part in workshops and masterclasses with industry professionals designed to improve your knowledge of the industry and to develop your creative, technical and production skills in filmmaking. As a team, you will make a short film that will be screened in Hastings and London alongside other BFI Film Academy short films.

You don’t need previous experience – just a passion for film and a desire to learn more.

FREE

Application deadline – Thursday 2 October 2025, 12noon

Course Dates 2025

• Saturday 18 October – Course Introduction and Ideation
• Sunday 19 October – South East BFI Film Academy Hub Gathering
• Monday 27 October - Screenwriting
• Tuesday 28 October – Production Design and Technical Skills
• Wednesday 29 October – Pre-Production
• Thursday 30 October – Location shoot
• Saturday 8 November – Post Production
• Thursday 11 December – Local Screening
• Saturday 7th February - Screening at 2pm at Pinewood Studios 

About the tutors

Nick Pilton
Nick Pilton is a filmmaker and film education specialist. He is a multi-award winning director and producer and his feature films have screened in London, New York and London. He has worked extensively in communities specialising in using film as a tool for change across both drama and documentary. He worked in broadcast television as a producer director on shows for Fox and National Geographic and currently heads up film and television education for Pauline Quirke Academies supporting young filmmakers all over the UK. He also runs an annual film festival at BFI South Bank for young filmmakers.

Rebecca Marshall
Rebecca is an artist filmmaker whose moving image and documentary films have screened at festivals around the world including Thessaloniki Doc fest 2024, Locarno, London Independent Documentary F/F,   Les Enfants Terribles! f/f and at venues including the NFT, The Roundhouse, Musee Du Louvre, The South London Gallery, De La Warr Pavilion, and The BlackShed Gallery.  She has a PhD in film by practice. She is a regular lecturer at the London Film School where her workshops facilitate creative thinking through the practice of film, and support the development of exciting documentaries. She co-founded The Electric Palace cinema in Hastings in 2002, and handed over her directorship in 2023 to form Dear Future Films, an artist-led organisation making films and curating exciting film and moving image events.

About the BFI Film Academy

If you’re 16-25 and want to learn how to take your first steps to break into the screen industries, then BFI Film Academy is here to help. The future of our screen industries relies on finding and developing new talent just like you.

At the BFI Film Academy, they aim to ensure you have the best possible starting point for your career in film and the wider screen industries, where you can nurture and grow your interest in the creative process.

Be part of the Academy’s ever-growing network of young filmmakers, creatives and enthusiasts!

Find out more about the academy here

‘THE BFI FILM ACADEMY WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EXPERIENCES I’VE EVER HAD AND I THINK I’D BE ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT CAREER PATH NOW IF IT WASN’T FOR THAT.’

CHARLOTTE REGAN WRITER-DIRECTOR OF SCRAPPER (Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at Sundance Film Festival 2023)

South East Network

The Bright Foundation are very excited to be bringing the BFI Academy Short Course to Hastings and St Leonards. We are part of a network of BFI Film Academy hubs across the South East region led by Screen South in Folkestone. Other partners are:

• Resource Productions, Slough
• Film Oxford, Oxford
• Film & TV Academy, Milton Keynes