Events (W.C. 11 June)
1.Pride Month One-to-One: David Menkin x Samantha Béart
Tuesday, 20 June 2023 – 3:00pm
BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9EU
The BAFTA One-to-One event strand delivers talent-to-talent conversations while the audience gets to listen!
In this Pride month edition of BAFTA One-to-Ones, we will be bringing together pairs of LGBTQ+ talent from across the film, games and television industries, where they will share insights and experiences, explore what changes they’d like to see in their respective industries, and what best practice looks like to them.
Our games-focused session will feature actors David Menkin and Samantha Béart chatting one-to-one about LGBTQ+ content and talent in games.
David Menkin (he/him) has worked as an actor for over 15 years. Games credits include Luke Skywalker in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Breach inValorant, Dag in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Malos in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Preston Marlowe in Battlefield: Bad Company and Barnabas in the upcomingFinal Fantasy XVI. Film & TV credits include Florence Foster Jenkins, A Hologram for the King, Zero Dark Thirty, McMafia and The Sandman. Animation credits include Gordon & Virgil Tracy in Thunderbirds Are Go, Disney’s Ron’s Gone Wrong, Space Chickens in Space, Thomas and Friends and Jungle Beat: The Movie.
Samantha Béart (she/they) was longlisted for Performer in a Leading Role in this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, for her role as Thomasina Bateman in The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. Her other game credits include the 2020 Demon’s Souls remake, The Solitaire Conspiracy directed by Mike Bithell, and a TBA leading role in a forthcoming major AAA game. Samantha has an extensive career across all media, with audio standout roles including Random in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Calliope in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman for Audible, and Orr in Big Finish’s Torchwood.
2. BAFTA Lecture: Hassan Akkad
Friday, 23 June 2023 – 7:00pm
BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9EU
Princess Anne Theatre
Following a screening of his short film Matar, which tells the story of a Syrian asylum seeker living on the fringes of society, hear from BAFTA-winning filmmaker and refugee rights activist Hassan Akkad, as he shares his own experiences of fleeing conflict in Syria in 2015, and subsequent work as a filmmaker in the UK.
The first in a series of events delivered in collaboration with Counterpoints Arts, which aims to explore the importance of authentic storytelling of refugees onscreen, and the positive impact of collaboration with creatives who have lived experience of migration, in order to build narrative power and create social change.
Hassan’s lecture will be followed by a moderated Q&A.
Please join us after this event for some informal networking drinks in the Reuben Gallery from 20.30 – 22.00 BST.
About the Speaker
Hassan Akkad is an award-winning filmmaker and creative director at Choose Love. He co-directed Netflix’s Convergence: Courage in a Crisis (2021) and was the associate producer of the Netflix film The Swimmers. Hassan’s short film, Matar, which he co-wrote and directed was released on WaterBear in 2023 and produced by Deadbeat Films. Hassan was part of the team that made Exodus: Our Journey to Europe which won a BAFTA for Best Factual Series in 2017.
About Counterpoints Arts
Counterpoints is a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration, and cultural change. Using arts-centered and collaborative approaches, Counterpoints strives to promote and normalise diverse representations of displacement and migration in both public and digital spheres. They are a registered charity based in London, working nationally and internationally. To find out more about their mission, values and impact visit www.counterpointsarts.org.uk
About BAFTA
BAFTA is a world-leading independent arts charity that brings the very best work in film, games and television to public attention and supports the growth of creative talent in the UK and internationally. Through its Awards ceremonies and year-round programme of learning events and initiatives – which includes workshops, masterclasses, scholarships, lectures and mentoring schemes in the UK, USA and Asia – BAFTA identifies and celebrates excellence, discovers, inspires and nurtures new talent, and enables learning and creative collaboration. For more, visit www.bafta.org. BAFTA is a registered charity (no. 216726).
3. Pride Month One-to-One: Johannes Radebe x Layton Williams
Friday, 30 June 2023 – 7:00pm
BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9EU
The BAFTA One-to-One event strand delivers talent-to-talent conversations while the audience gets to listen!
In this Pride month edition of BAFTA One-to-Ones, we will be bringing together pairs of LGBTQ+ talent from across the film, games and television industries, where they will share insights and experiences, explore what changes they’d like to see in their respective industries, and what best practice looks like to them.
In our final Pride edition, Strictly Come Dancing’s Johannes Radebe chats one-to-one with actor Layton Williams (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) about their respective performance careers and LGBTQ+ representation in both the dance and acting spheres.
Johannes Radebe is a professional dancer and choreographer. A dancer from the age of 7, Johannes joined the 2018 debut season of the international hit show Dancing With The Stars in South Africa, before being headhunted by Strictly Come Dancing in the UK. In 2021, he was partnered with John Waite with whom he reached the final in this groundbreaking same sex partnership. Johannes and John won Media Moment of the Year for their stunning series at the LGBT Awards, the Game changer Award at The Attitude Award. Johannes was awarded The Inspirational Public Figure at the Ethnicity Awards. Other TV appearances include Celebrity Masterchef, The Graham Norton Show, Saturday Mash Up Live, Drag Race and I Like The Way You Move. 2022 saw his film choreography debut with the feature Pretty Red Dress which premiered at London Film Festival.
Layton Williams began his acting career at the age of 12 playing the titular role in the West End production of Billy Elliot. Making his debut TV appearance as Kylie in the BBC comedy Beautiful People, other TV credits include the iconic role of Stephen in Bad Education on BBC One, in addition to roles in Billie Piper’s BAFTA-nominated I Hate Suzie and Greg Davies’ The Cleaner. He is currently the voiceover for BBC Three’s gay dating show I Kissed A Boy. Theatre credits include Jamie in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Angel in RENT, and Young Michael in Thriller Live! (West End). Film credits include Rocketman, The Bad Education Movie and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. A supporter of the charities Stonewall and Ditch the Label, Layton regularly visits schools and raises awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues and bullying. He recently won the Culture Award at this year’s Attitude Awards, having also picked up the LGBTQIA+ Champion Award at the Black British Theatre Awards in 2020.
4. Windrush Caribbean Film Festival 2023
Rich Mix and Other London Venues
Sat 17 – Tue 20 Jun
Join the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival for the 4th annual festival of the UK’s biggest celebration of Caribbean cinema. This year’s festival seeks to engage and educate audiences across the UK about the contributions of the Windrush generation through film screenings, interviews and workshops. With screenings across London venues and the closing festival night held at Genesis Cinema.
5. Tori and Lokita and The Women Inside + Intro
- Lexi Cinema
- Mon 19 Jun, 7:00pm
Celebrate Refugee Week (19 – 25 June) with Lexi Cinema and support their friends at Salusbury World by watching a selection of films that offer nuanced portraits of the refugee experience in the UK and beyond. The screening of the award-winning Tori and Lokita is a fundraising screening and the film will be preceded by the British short film The Women Inside. The screening will be preceded by an introduction from Sarah Reynolds.
6. London Indian Film Festival 2023
BFI Southbank and Barbican
Thu 22 – Wed 28 Jun
The UK and Europe’s largest South Asian film festival takes place in two seasons this year, summer and autumn. The first season runs from Thursday 22 June – Thursday 29 June and includes previews of international festival hit movies alongside the ever-popular shorts programmes. Some of the highlights of the programme include Brit-Asian Shorts and Too Desi Too Queer shorts.
7. SAFAR Film Festival 2023
Various London Venues
Wed 21 Jun – Sun 9 Jul
The UK’s largest festival of Arab cinema returns with releases from Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, plus its annual shorts programme exploring the festival theme A Journey Through Space and Time. For its eighth edition, SAFAR is embarking on a journey through space and time in Arab cinema, mapping the region across a new axis and showcasing films that traverse territories and historical periods.
8. Kingston International Film Festival 2023
Various Kingston Venues
Fri 23 Jun, 6:00pm
Join the Kingston International Film Festival (KIFF) for their three-day film festival that takes place in Kingston-Upon-Thames. Returning for another jam-packed programme in June, KIFF will showcase a range of feature-length films, documentaries shorts, as well as offering a number of workshops, talks, masterclasses and events that will appeal to a wide range of ages and interests.
9. ANATOMY OF A HIT: THE TINDER SWINDLER
Tuesday, 11 July, 2023; 6.30pm for a 7pm start
British Museum, London WC1B 3DG United Kingdom
Join RTS for an exclusive panel session with the team behind The Tinder Swindler – the RTS and BAFTA winning series that took the streaming world by storm, smashing records to become the most-watched documentary in Netflix history.
Step into a world of deception and intrigue as Director Felicity Morris, Producer, Bernadette Higgins and Editor Julian Hart share their insights and the trade secrets behind the making of this gripping true crime sensation.
Discover how they crafted every detail, unravelling the twists and turns of the case, to bring it to life on screen. Gain unique insights into the filmmaking process, from development to production to the edit, and hear about the challenges they faced along the way.
Featuring clips and an audience Q&A.
Panel: Felicity Morris, Director + Bernadette Higgins, Producer + Julian Hart, Editor
Booking Details:
Tickets are £15 for non members and free for RTS Members but must be booked in advance.
Please input your membership number when booking. Email membership@rts.org.uk if you need help finding your membership number.
Tickets are non-refundable
10. Pretty Red Dress+ Q&A with director-writer Dionne Edwards, actors Alexandra Burke and Natey Jones, producer Georgia Goggin and actor Temilola Olatunbosun
Friday 16 June 2023 18:00
BFI Southbank – NFT1
One dress changes everything for a family in Dionne Edwards’ spirited debut, which investigates Black masculinity and family structures.
Dionne Edwards’ film, which received its World Premiere at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, crafts an uplifting family drama soundtracked by Tina Turner hits that will instantly fall into the canon of iconic London films. Travis has just been released from prison and it quickly becomes apparent that everything’s changed while he’s been gone. While girlfriend Candice is on the up and auditioning to star in a musical, daughter Kenisha is struggling in school and her relationship with her mum is tense. So when Travis buys Candice her dream dress for an audition, rather than smoothing over the family’s problems, it ends up creating even more… As secrets and desires left unsaid threaten to spill out, Travis is forced to re-examine who he is and how he wants to be perceived in the world. In her impressive debut, Dionne Edwards skilfully investigates Black masculinity and family structures.
Grace Barber-Plentie, BFI Festivals Programmer
This screening will have audio description available.