Eva is a Scottish director and screenwriter based in Brighton. She graduated from the National Film and Television School in 2015, with her final year film Patriot premiering in competition at Cannes. In 2016, she was commissioned to write and direct Diagnosis by BBC Films and was named a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’. Her short films have screened at festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Edinburgh, Telluride and the BAFTA New Talent Awards.
Eva's first feature Perfect 10 premiered at BFI London Film Festival and was screened on BBC2. It is now available on BBC iPlayer. You can see an introduction to the film here.
Eva is currently developing her second feature The Circle with BBC FIlms, as well as developing her first TV projects.
Eva has tutored for several years at the BFI/NFTS Craft Skills Academy Residential, working with groups of young filmmakers creating their own short films, and so is the ideal judge for our Lockdown Production Competition.
Lauren Dawkins, City College Southampton, Recipe for Happiness
Erikas Degutis, Northampton College, Monster
Ellie Evans, Brit School, See you in June
Finlay Gibbs, Finham Park School, Lockdown Film Project
Rhiannon Hanlan, Long Road Sixth Form College, Old Wives’ Tales
Sandy Honca, Barton Peveril College , What is Lockdown?
Leo Kelly, Northampton College, Lost without You
Joseph Peek, Southend High School, My life with Puppets
Haydn Reece, Barton Peveril College, Severed
Mara-Jade Rushfirth, Finham Park Sixth Form, Games Night
Molly Thirlwall, Southend High School, Girls and Boys
Carmen White, Barton Peveril College, Last One Alive
Jack Williams/Azra Hinton, Strode College, Journey
First, a huge thank you to all of you who entered the competition. We had feared, under the circumstances and the very rocky road you have all travelled this year, that we might have very little response, but we were thrilled to receive over 60 entries, and delighted to see the diversely brilliant ways you interpreted the Lockdown theme. The vast majority of you worked alone from home, employing family, bubble members, domestic environments and props and striking outdoor locations to create very atmospheric narratives and personal reflections. You have found incredibly creative ways of working round the lack of crew, limited resources, and restricted possibilities for feedback and stimulation. And lots of you were still able to find humour and fun in this dreary time. Congratulations to all of you – and thanks as always to your teachers for preparing you so well for production work despite all the obstacles.
This year’s shortlist features music videos, video diaries, intriguing openings and thought-provoking shorts. We did not stipulate specific genres or formats in our original brief, but all our shortlisted entries showed your understanding of generic conventions, strong stories and how to talk to an audience, and all are wonderfully watchable.
We’re now sending the selected entries to our Judge Eva Riley, who will provide feedback on each one and identify the winners. In addition, our annual Barney Oram Award for Creativity will be adjudicated by two of Barney’s former colleagues at the Long Road Sixth Form College, Andrea Joyce and Tom Woodcock. All the shortlisted videos, together with the judges’ comments and awards, will be revealed in an online screening on Monday 12th July. We’ll be sending out more details nearer to the time. We look forward to seeing you there, and to celebrating your skills and achievements. And many congratulatons again to all our entrants.
Claire Pollard and Jenny Grahame
Photo credit: rchie Park, Countesthorpe Academy.
