Winners Announced for the 2026 BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards: Four Emerging UK Filmmakers Each Receive £20,000
London — The British Film Institute (BFI) announced the winners of the 2026 BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards at an event at Claridge's in London on October 14. Four emerging UK filmmakers were selected, each receiving financial support of £20,000. The awards, formally titled the BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards: Celebrating Creative Audacity, have been presented in partnership with Chanel since 2022 and are now in their fifth year.
This year's jury combined new members Jessie Buckley and Gwendoline Christie with Edward Enninful OBE, co-founder and chief creative officer of EE72, Marie-Louise Khondji, founder of Le Cinéma Club, and BFI chief executive Ben Roberts. The winners were chosen from a shortlist of eight filmmakers; eligible applicants were UK residents — producers, writers, directors or writer-directors
— with one or two features or XR/immersive works released in the UK or presented at a leading festival.
The four winners are: director, producer and cinematographer Rich Felgate, whose We, The Hated follows the UK climate protest movement Just Stop Oil and was described by the jury as "urgent and brave"; director and writer Olive Nwosu, whose feature debut Lady, set in Lagos, Nigeria, premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the special jury award for an acting ensemble, and also screened in Berlin's Panorama section; director, co-writer and composer Imran Perretta, whose Ish had its world premiere in the Critics' Week section at Venice in 2025, winning the audience award — the film, co-written with Enda Walsh, draws on his own experiences of racial profiling growing up; and director and writer Rachel Taparjan, whose first feature documentary Something Familiar follows a search for family that opens onto identity, inheritance and generational trauma.
On release plans, We, The Hated opens in selected UK cinemas on November 2, 2026, following previews on October 27; Lady will be released in the UK in spring 2027; Ish is available on BFI Player; and release details for Something Familiar are yet to be announced.
Jury member Buckley said taking part had been "such a joy" and that she was "inspired by the strength of talent in the UK," while Christie said the field was so strong that the jury "couldn't just select three winners." BFI chief executive Ben Roberts said the institute hoped the award would offer the winners "the space and freedom to continue to take risks and be audacious in the next steps of their careers."
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：伦敦克拉里奇酒店布鲁克街入口，本届 BFI 与香奈儿电影人奖活动在此举行。照片：CVB，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。Photo: Claridge's hotel on Brook Street, London, venue of the 2026 BFI & CHANEL Filmmaker Awards event. Photo by CVB, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
