Our Graduate Showcase is back for its fifth consecutive year to celebrate some of the best up-and-coming talent coming into our Industry today.

All of those listed below have either been shortlisted or nominated for a Yugo BAFTA Award or Student Academy Award, are RTS Student Award and Grierson Award winners & nominees, Cinéfonation winners & nominees or have had their film screened at a BAFTA or Academy accredited film festival, or have been selected for one of our Industry friends' programmes.

Now is the time to champion our graduate voices: here they are. Share their work, sign them, hire them.

MARÍA CONCHITA DÍAZ - Solitude

Aurelia and Antonia distance themselves from their youth due to the greed of one of them to keep the house that their parents inherited. Aurelia spends her life alone in the countryside, until one night Antonia knocks on her door. Between the bewilderment and anger at the visit, Aurelia agrees to live with her sister who shows strange behaviour and little by little she will discover what is behind it.

María Conchita Díaz is a Oaxacan film director; she identifies herself as a Zapotec from the central valleys and studied a Bachelor's degree in Cinema at the Cinematographic Training Center (CCC), a world-renowned school with a specialty in Cinematographic Direction. Her short film Clean Sex (in Spanish “Sexo Limpio”) toured various national and international festivals, being represented at the “Interfilm” Festival, in Berlin, Germany and is currently one of the most viewed in the entire history of the CCC.

Her short film Rex was the winner of support from The Trust for the Promotion and Development of Mexican Cinema directed by women launched by PROCINE in Mexico City.

In July 2024 Solitude (La Soledad) received two BAFTA awards from the British Academy of Cinematographic and Television Arts, one as “Best Fiction Short Film” and the “Student Award”, and María became the first Mexican to obtain these recognitions.

His debut film The Reincarnation of Jaguar's Claw (in Spanish "8 Venado Garra de Jaguar")  received post-production support from the Encouragement for Audiovisual Creation in Mexico and Central America for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Communities (ECAMC).

She is co-founder of Ixmati Production Company that has dedicated her efforts to filming 4 films and several short films. She teaches classes for girls and boys on ow to create a short film with a cell phone, with the aim of providing artistic tools to children and combating the idea that cinema is an elite issue.

Solitude (La Soledad) is a love story that tests the limits we have as human beings and questions human ambition. Unfortunately, it is a more frequent story than we think, which seeks reflection on a taboo subject in many families: money and material goods, as well as old age and the learning that is passed down from generation to generation.

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

22nd International Student Film and Video Festival (ISFVF) Beijing Film Academy
Silver Goddess Award (in Spanish "La Diosa de Plata") by the Cinematographic Journalists of Mexico, A.C. (PECIME)
Jury prize at the Rencontres du Cinéma Sud-Américain de Marseille et Région
Best Fiction Short Film & Student Award at BAFTA Yugo 2024 Awards

Maria is currently seeking representation.

ALIYAH HARFOOT - Liminal Roots

A journey through the memories of a young girl struggling to come to terms with the complexity of her mixed-raced identity.

Aliyah Harfoot is a Welsh Animation Director. She studied Illustration Animation at Kingston University before developing her directing skills at the National Film and Television School. Guided by the tactile nature of the animation process, she works across stop motion, hand-drawn and paper cutout animation. She approaches her films with intuition and spontaneity, striving to push the boundaries with an original and creative approach to the medium. For Aliyah, animation is a means to convey emotions that are difficult to express purely through words. Drawing on her personal experiences, themes of identity are at the heart of her work. Her debut film Liminal Roots (2024) explores the complexities of mixed raced identity, taking inspiration from her own upbringing.

Animation is such an involved and personal way of filmmaking. It allows you to control every aspect of what your audience can see, hear and feel.

Emotion is at the core of everything I make; I start off every project asking myself, ‘what do I want the audience to feel?’. Often, the answer to this question results in intended responses of discomfort. Focusing on sound and editing, I am continually experimenting with different ways to achieve this in my work. Through making animations primarily focused on sound design - often with no dialogue - I create films that need no explanation and can stand alone. 

Being able to convey emotions that are difficult to express with words is something that continues to motivate me to make films.

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

Longlisted for 2024 Yugo BAFTA Student Awards

Aliyah is currently seeking representation.

ASYA SEGALOVICH - Out The Window Through The Wall

As people try to adapt to the new reality of present-day Russia, a cartographer encounters a young man who has recently escaped from an adult psycho-neurological facility.

Asya Segalovich grew up between Russia and the UK, attending Camberwell College of Arts and then Central Film School, London, for her Bachelor of Arts. She continued my education in St. Petersburg attending Alexander Sokurov's workshop, and received her MFA from Columbia University in 2023. In her work, she's interested in the quest for humanity, humour and hope in the face of adversity. 

When I first started working with moving images it felt like discovering magic -- there was no turning back from that. 

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

2nd prize at La Cinef, Cannes Film Festival
HollyShorts Film Festival
Sarajevo Film Festival
Waco Independent Film Festival

Asya is currently seeking representation.

AMIE SONG - Three

At a gathering, a Chinese woman who has recently moved to the United States to live with her daughter, tries to keep her daughter’s secrets from her new church friends.

Amie Song is a New York-based filmmaker. Splitting her time between the US and China, she explores how people reconcile living between cultures, traditions, genders, sexualities, etc. Her passion lies in pushing the boundaries of narrative, reimagining how films can question our perception of reality. She is currently an MFA Film Directing/Screenwriting candidate at Columbia University. Her short film THREE premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as La Cinef Official Selection and is also selected for Palm Springs International ShortFest.

As a filmmaker, I’m interested not in the conventional hero's journey but in the story of the quiet and unassuming “passive” characters, where subtle transformation can unfold. Many coming-out stories within the AAPI community are punctuated by struggles and pains. However, I aspire to infuse THREE with a glimmer of hope. The decision to centre the story on the mother's journey to acceptance reflects a belief and a hope that we all have the capacity to change for love.

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

Cannes Film Festival - La Cinef, 2024
Palm Springs International ShortFest, 2024

Amie is currently seeking representation.

LISA OTT - Dragfox

Sam's search for identity gets interrupted by a mysterious neighbourhood fox. Together they embark on a magical journey to the attic to discover the surprising things they might have in common, and how to celebrate the ways in which they differ.

Lisa Ott is a Swiss animation director based in London. They moved to the UK 9 years ago to pursue a career in film, and fell in love with stop-motion in the process. 

They studied Model Making before joining the puppet team at Mackinnon & Saunders, helping to create puppets to bring other people’s stories to life. Most recently they worked on projects like Oscar and Bafta-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Netflix’s The House.

Due to their wish to see more LGBTQIA+ stories being told in animation, they decided to take the leap into directing by attending the Directing Animation course at the National Film and Television School. There, Lisa was able to find like-minded creatives and directed their debut stop-motion short, DRAGFOX.

Lisa’s work consistently deals with themes of belonging and their experience of growing up queer in a rural farming village, as well as a celebration of the differences within the LGBTQ+ community.

I really wanted to make a film that I wish I could've seen when I was younger, and I found an amazing team with the same goal. Within the LGBTQIA+ community there is such a varied and fascinating array of experiences and I've been seeing it all around me, so I really wanted to do my part to be telling these very specific stories. If they even just reached one person out there who would end up feeling a little more seen and a little bit less alone because of it, then I will have achieved what I set out to do. I was immensely lucky with the team I got to work with. Their trust and passion made this film possible, and I am so proud of what we have achieved. If even just one young person out there sees it and feels taken by their hand where they are currently at, that is what it's really about for me! 

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

Winner of the Student Bafta special Jury award
Semi-Finalist for Student Academy Award
Official Selection at Fantoche (Switzerland)
Linoleum (Ukraine)
Telluride (Colorado)
BFI London Film Festival

Lisa is currently seeking representation. 

MANSI MAHESHWARI - Bunnyhood

"Mum would never lie to me, Would she?". Innocent Bobby discovers the answer to this question when she is surprised by a last minute trip to the hospital. 

Mansi Maheshwari is an Indian animation director based in London. Mansi only started her journey in animation during the 2020 lockdown and has now won 3rd prize at Cannes Film Festival, for her NFTS graduation film Bunnyhood. What sets Mansi apart is her ability to boldly experiment with traditional animation techniques, crafting a distinctive visual style that is hard to forget. 

As a filmmaker, my first priority is entertainment. My audience’s and my own. I like to find feelings within me and present them through loads of different perspectives. Not just of my own but of others around me. Not just through a camera, but through any medium I can express myself. Bunnyhood is that sweet spot between childhood and adulthood when we learn about this “ugliness” within ourselves.

Watch the trailer here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

3rd prize at Cannes Film Festival 2024
Student Film winner at Anibar, Kosovo
Special mention winner at Linoleum Festival, Ukraine


Mansi is currently seeking representation.

AELLA JORDAN-EDGE - Just A Weekend

A question of power and relationships when a mother comes to stay, just for a weekend, bringing with her the toxic sway of emotions and pitching a couple against each other with consequences. 

Aella Jordan-Edge is a writer-director from London and New York who makes films about human relationships. Her passion for storytelling is informed by her background in theatre and a degree in literature. Aella has directed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, worked as a director's assistant on high end TV & feature films and professionally directed music videos. She recently graduated from the National Film and Television School with an MA in Directing Fiction. During that time, Aella experimented with highly visual storytelling while building on her confidence working with actors. Aella uses a sensitive eye, metaphors and symbolism to explore emotions and the world around her. Ultimately she aims to shine a light on contemporary issues, often drawn to complex women and LGBTQ+ characters. Aella’s short film, Misnomer (2022), spotlighting a couple navigating a gender transition, screened at BIFA & BAFTA qualifying film festivals internationally and is now available to watch online on ‘Short of The Week’. Shot on 16mm at NFTS, Just A Weekend (2023), explores the tension between a fraught mother-daughter dynamic and a first queer relationship. In Summer 2024 Aella’s upcoming short, Truckload won the Empower Fund with Primetime. The script was written by and stars newcomer Evie Jones alongside a star-studded cast including Jodie Whittaker, Joe Dempsie, Cathy Tyson, Adam Ali and Lara McDonnell. The comedy short, a love letter to the parents of disabled adults, is currently in post-production. Aella is now in development for her first feature. 

I became a filmmaker because I didn't feel that the things I was grappling with in everyday life were being reflected on screen. I wanted to investigate the nuances and complexities of modern relationships and I fell in love with the way the camera/sound focuses us within a story. It says to the audience "look here, this is important". I have a particular interest in human fallibility and characters that make mistakes. A character that has been given the grace to fail is human. My hope is that people watching one of my films might, even for a moment, feel a glow of recognition as they see themselves reflected back on screen. I suppose, simply put, I want audiences to feel less alone.

Watch the trailer for her film JAW here.

Festivals, Nominations and Awards:

Norwich Film Festival 2023, UK (Nominated for Best Student Film)
Poppy Jasper International Festival 2024, USA (Awarded Top 10 in LGBTQ+ category) 
Manchester Film Festival 2024, UK
Brighton Rocks Film Festival 2024, UK
Rhode Island International Film Festival 2024, USA
Bolton International Film Festival 2024, UK
Pride Pictures, Queer Film Festival 2024, Karlsruhe Germany
Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2024, UK

Aella is currently seeking representation.

To find out more and connect with our Graduates To Watch 2024 Edition, follow Primetime on X, Instagram and LinkedIn or contact the filmmakers directly through their Primetime profiles.

Support them, sign them, hire them!