SORORITY Honoured As Nominees Announced For The 6th Annual British Urban Film Festival 2020 Ahead Of Friday Stream

NOMINEES ANNOUNCED FOR THE ANNUAL BUFF AWARDS

Annual BUFF Awards 2020 premieres 8:15pm GMT on Christmas Day

This year's 6th annual British Urban Film Festival awards - the climax to BUFF 2020 - will be streamed online via the festival website on Friday 25 December. Actor, writer and director Femi Oyeniran will once again host proceedings, he previously co-hosted the ceremony in 2016 and 2019.

This year’s film awards jurors included filmmaker and programmer Rasheed Bailey; writer, director and producer Jesse Quinones (Cage Fighter); writer and actor Isis Davis (The Secret Garden) and film financier Peter Storey. Further details on the jurors can be found in the appendix below.

It's already been confirmed that there will be no audience present (due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic) though the event will be staged at the Met Film School on the set of Ealing Studios in West London.

Winners will be announced in six award categories with Antonia Thomas, Ruby Barker and Joselyn Dumas amongst the nominees.

NOMINEES

Best Short Film Nominees sponsored by Goldfinch

Presented by Sarah Poole, Investment Manager at Goldfinch

1: Transference (directed by Aletha Shepherd)

2: Hungry Joe (directed by Paul Holbrook and Sam Dawe)

3: Stop and Search (directed by Harry Jackson)

4: The Chippie (directed by Louis Norton Selzer)

The Blessing Anyiam-Osigwe Award: Best Actress Nominees

1: Ruby Barker (How to Stop a Recurring Dream)

2: Joselyn Dumas (Cold Feet)

3: Antonia Thomas (All on a Summer's Day)

4: Laura Autumn Rai (The Tale of The Fatherless)

Best Actor Nominees

1: Jamie Michie (How to Stop a Recurring Dream)

2: Stefan Davis (The Tale of the Fatherless)

3: Sam Gittins (Sorority)

4: Johnny Sachon (Solitary)

The Victor Adebodun Award: Best Feature Nominees sponsored by Woolfcub Productions

Presented by Jesse Quinones, Producer at Woolfcub Productions

1: How to Stop a Recurring Dream (directed by Ed Morris)

2: Sorority (directed by James Webber)

3: Cold Feet (directed by Moses Inwang)

4: The Tale of the Fatherless (co-directed by Stefan Davis & Misha Nadine)

Best Documentary Nominees sponsored by Greenlit Fund

Presented by Peter Storey, Film Financier and Founder of Greenlit Fund

1: Deleted (directed by Stephan Pierre Mitchell)

2: In The Red (directed by Patrick Rooney)

3: Ayiti - The Awakening (directed by Sage Love)

4: Mini DV (directed by Shauly Melamed)

Best Comedy Nominees

1: Steve (directed by Jason Hightower)

2: Hungry Joe (directed by Paul Holbrook and Sam Dawe)

3: Loyalty or Lies (directed by Comfort Emmanuel)

4: Cleaning House (directed by Shahaub Roudbari)

Best Script Award recipients: sponsored by First Flights

1: Chalice and Blade written by Charlie Taylor

2: Hell Water written by Tim Mallon

3: Made In America by Brendan Kelly

About The BUFF Awards

The BUFF Awards were recorded on Saturday 12 December. The show was directed by Clare Anyiam-Osigwe and produced by Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe.

JUROR INFORMATION

Rasheed Bailey

Rasheed Bailey is an experienced film programmer, filmmaker and promoter. He currently works for the MetFilm School in their admissions department and with numerous Academy Award® and Bafta qualifying film festivals such as Raindance, Inside Out, Outfest and Iris Prize. He is the founder of Outcome LGBT®, a platform dedicated to promoting independent film from around the world.

Isis Davis

Actress and Writer, Isis has recently been seen on our screens as Martha in The Secret Garden (StudioCanal), Cheryl Wilkes in Silent Witness, Jess in Crazy Diamond: Electric Dreams on Channel 4. As a screen writer, Isis is currently on the Writing team for Season Four of Killing Eve. Earlier this year Isis was commissioned by Red Production Company and Sky to write the pilot episode of a brand new drama series and following that has been offered another episode on the show. She has also been commissioned straight to script by Firebird Pictures on her own original drama series ‘Death of a Matriarch’. Isis was the BUFF2017 Best Script Award Recipient.

Jesse Quinones

Jesse Quinones is a London based writer/director/producer working across fiction, documentary, and commercials. In 2020 he wrote and directed Cagefighter: Worlds Collide, which stars Gina Gershon, Chuck Liddell, and Jon Moxley. In March 2013 he completed his debut feature film Calloused Hands. Calloused Hands stars Andre Royo (HBO's The Wire), Daisy Haggard (Showtime's Episodes), and Hans Howes (There Will Be Blood). Jesse is an alum of numerous writing labs and fellowships including the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme, Soho Theatre Writer's Attachment Programme, Berlinale Talent Campus, B3 Media Talent Lab, NALIP Latino Writer's Lab, and the BBC Writer's Room. Jesse is represented by Gersh Agency in the US and JAB Management in the UK. Jesse was the BUFF 2015 Best Feature Film Award Recipient.

Gyulyara Meliki

Gyulyara is an award-winning Azerbaijani director who has completed her Master Degree at the Met Film School in London. Gyulyara's first amateur short film gained more than 1 million viewers on youtube in 2011, second amateur film won "Best Director" nomination at 24h film competition. Since then she started to be passionate about filmmaking.

Peter Storey

Peter is an experienced film financier and the Founder of Greenlit. Greenlit is a new British-based crowdfunding platform dedicated to film, which supports creative filmmakers at any stage of their film’s lifecycle. Greenlit will sponsor the BUFF 2020 Best Documentary Short Film Award.

Other sponsors include:

First Flights who will sponsor all 3 BUFF 2020 Best Script Awards. First Flights is driven to discover emerging filmmakers with bold and daring voices. The aim is to nurture talent and their projects with a tailored and hands-on approach which will cover development, production, financing and distribution. The ambition is to have a long-term outlook and to build careers where talent can move to larger scale productions under the Goldfinch banner.

Goldfinch will sponsor the BUFF 2020 Best Short Film Award. The Goldfinch brand provides a vertically integrated global business model with expertise across finance, production, facilities and management in Film, Television and Video Games. Our track record includes 200+ projects and investments of $300m+ into the creative industries, with many going on to win awards and critical acclaim.

Woolfcub Productions will sponsor the BUFF 2020 Victor Adebodun Best Feature Film Award. Woolfcub are interested in genre films with a particular focus on action, thriller, and sports drama. They work across fiction, documentary, and commercials and are always open and interested in possible collaborations.