Tomorrow’s filmmaking greats battle it out in front of industry judges

It’s not just about glamorous regional premieres and star-studded events for FilmBath. The festival also supports new filmmakers through a variety of initiatives. One of these is the popular IMDB Script to Screen award. The concept couldn’t be more straightforward. Anyone can submit a script for a short film of 10 minutes or less. The five shortlisted scripts are then performed by Bath Spa drama students in front of a live audience and a panel of industry judges. Audience and judging panel votes are then combined to produce an overall winner, who walks away with five grand in cash and £1,000 worth of hire kit to turn their script into a film.

Col Needham: Bristol-based Script to Screen judge and founder of one of the most popular websites on the internet

This year’s final takes place at Komedia on Monday 6 June. Before the readings, there’s an opportunity to hear from the Bristol-based judges in a conversation about their careers. As usual, IMDB founder/CEO and long-term FilmBath supporter Col Needham is on the panel, offering another opportunity to hear the incredible story of how a teenage film nerd from Bristol created one of the most popular and successful web sites on the internet.

Philippa Lowthorpe: the first woman to win Best Director at the BAFTA TV awards

Philippa Lowthorpe made history in 2013 when she became the first woman to win Best Director at the BAFTA TV awards. Her TV credits include the first series of Call the Midwife and several episodes of The Crown. On the big screen, she’s best known for 2020’s hugely enjoyable Misbehaviour.

Kate Byers: producer of the much-acclaimed ‘Bait’

The third member of the panel is Kate Byers, who’s become something of a stalwart of the south-west short filmmaking scene. In 2020, she won the BAFTA for Best Producer for her work on the acclaimed and innovative Bait.

Last year’s winner ‘Choose Your Weapon’: now touring the international film festival circuit

The contest certainly gave a big boost to last year’s winner, Bristol-based filmmaker Gabriela Staniszewska, whose film Choose Your Weapon was recently nominated for Best Comedy and Best Costume at the London’s Unrestricted View Film Festival.

“Winning the IMDb Script to Screen award was really quite amazing,” Gabriela told us. “I had entered the script into the competition before I’d started even thinking about production. In the interim I met my producer Jadey, founder of Dreammore films, who funded the shoot, produced it and co-starred in the film. When we won the award it meant we could finish the film much faster than originally planned – and all of the prize money was put towards working with the incredible post-production team at Films @59. We couldn’t have done it without the award! It really meant we could bring the original vision to life.”

Since then, Gabriela has gone on to make another excellent short film, the BFI Network-backed pregnancy body horror Yummy Mummy, which is just beginning its festival run.

This year’s short-listed scripts are Clifftop by Billy Morton, While Time Is Away by Miriam Jarvis, One Last Time by Jonathan Skinner, Old Friends by Sian Walker and Cake by Frances Eva Lea. To take part and make your vote count, tickets are available here.

Main pic: FilmBath Executive Director Holly Tarquini. All images supplied by FilmBath.

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