Students to showcase top short films as part of Storyhouse festival

The Chester International Film Festival is hosted at Storyhouse in collaboration with the Chester Film Society. The programme showcases young filmmaking talent from across the North West of England and North Wales.

Four BA Film and Media Studies students – third years Hailey Passmore and Jwan Yasin, and first years Ella Bird and Izzy McCleave – pored through more than 120 short films to pick the finest to be screened on Saturday, March 22.

In putting together the programme, the students received a masterclass in programming from Storyhouse's Head of Cinema, Nicky Beaumont, and will introduce the films at the event.

Additionally, one of the selected films, No. 15, was written and directed by Sophie Lomax and produced by Adam Riley and James Wilkinson. All three graduated from the BA Media and Television Production course last year.

Dr Katie Barnett, course leader for BA Film and Media Studies, said: “It's been wonderful to see some of our Film and Media students involved in this fantastic event, collaborating with external partners and liaising with filmmakers across the region. They've had real insight into how a film festival is put together and done a great job of selecting the final films from a strong pool of submissions.”

Nicky Beaumont said: “The Film and Media students who worked on the short film programme were really professional and impressive. I know festival audiences will really enjoy the selection they have put together which showcases the wealth of emerging talent from this region.”

The Student and Young Person Short Film Programme will be shown at Storyhouse on March 22 at 2pm, with tickets available via the Storyhouse website.

Photo: Still from No.15 (Lomax, 2024)