2010 begins with a BFI Blast!

Congratulations to two sets of AFU filmmakers who achieved an unprecedented double at the BFI’s Future Film Festival in association with BBC Blast at the National Film Theatre in London last week, when they scooped the awards for both “Best Documentary” and “Best Animation”. In Tian Ji’s powerful 2009 documentary A Soldier, made with Matt Copson and Ben Hollins, Company Sergeant Major Nelson Macleod reflects on his career in the British Army and his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. By turns moving and thought-provoking, the film impressed all who saw it at the AFU screening in May 2009, and clearly had the same effect on the judges at the Future Film Festival. For Pierre Leveque’s 2008 claymation, Oh No My Dog!, this was a second major award. It won the National Young Filmmaker Award at the Leeds Student Film Festival last April, and this time it was hailed as the best animation in the 13-18 category. Tian, Matt and Pierre travelled to BFI Southbank last Friday to receive their awards from Radio 1’s James King and Switch’s AJ.