BFI NETWORK Script Lab 2023 - Participants

Adam Palmer is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, from the West Midlands, now living in Oxfordshire. He is an alumni of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew scheme, and recently a BAFTA BFI Film Academy Mentor. His debut 16mm short film Carriages clinched the ‘Best Comedy’ title and nominations for ‘Best Screenplay’ and ‘Best Film’ at the 2014 Screentest Festival. Presently, Adam is engaged in multiple projects, including his debut feature film, Tenby (working title).

Alice Flynn (she/they) is a playwright based in Reading and is the artistic director of Riot Grrrl theatre company Dogmouth. Interested in creating art around themes of Queerness, genre fiction (particularly horror) and folklore, she is delighted to be participating in BFI NETWORK South East Script Lab and is excited to learn more about writing for film. Her biggest inspirations are The Wicker Man, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Suspiria and Labyrinth.

Beatrice Armstrong researches and develops educational animation scripts. Her plays have been professionally produced in London, Cambridge and East Anglia. She also participated in the MA Creative writing programme at the UEA, graduating with distinction and receiving the Malcolm Bradbury continuation prize. Beatrice lives in rural Kent where she enjoys exploring the woods and local footpaths.

Charlotte Gajek studied Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. Since then she has worked as a film extra, carnival worker, sugar baker and translator while continuing to write. Her screenplays have been finalists for the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and the BBC Writersroom. Others have placed at Slamdance, BlueCat, the Featuring Women Initiative and Big Break. She won the Impact x Netflix scheme and had her work pitched to Netflix.

Connie Harris is an emerging multidisciplinary creative, who writes, composes and performs. Her work is subversive, and has ‘pitch-black humour’ (The Scotsman). She performed her original, darkly comic play CAT at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe, and received glowing reviews, with Tony Frame writing in Gonzo Magazine that it was ‘up there with the best plays I have ever seen’, and Rory Ford of The Scotsman calling it a ‘terrific performance’. Following the Fringe, Cat transferred to London for successful performances in both the King’s Head and Hope Theatres. She also wrote and directed the award-winning short film What’s The Time Mr Wolf?, and has enjoyed creating drama collaboratively as a member of the National Youth Theatre. Her work for the stage has been performed across Norwich, including in the Playhouse and the Garage.

Frank Tamburin is a writer-director, with an award-winning background in commercials for video games. Frank has made several shorts: Wraps, about the colliding worlds of drug addiction and female boxing, starring Charity Wakefield and Raymond Waring. And Iris, about a cowardly man who clones himself to escape a failing relationship, starring Paul Casar, Sinead Matthews and Babou Ceesay. Frank also co-wrote and directed BBC comedy pilot City of Gold, TV pilot Dave Shakespeare and immersive Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Dusty Horne’s Sound & Fury, about a fictional female foley artist from the 1960s. Frank finds himself increasingly drawn to the use of genre to tell meaningful stories.

Joseph Aldous is an award-winning writer from Milton Keynes. His first play, Get Happy, won the Carlo Annoni International LGBTQ+ Playwrighting Award, and debuted at the Pleasance Theatre London in March 2023. His writing has been longlisted for the BBC Writersroom and performed at the Soho Theatre, Theatre503, VAULT, and the Customs House.

Kate McCoid is a Writer/Director based in Essex. She is primarily known for her horror-comedy short It’s Not Custard which premiered at SXSW and has since gone on to find a home at Channel 4’s Random Acts and with horror giant Alter. Kate has been nominated for and won awards at various BIFA and BAFTA qualifying festivals. Alongside her writing and directing, she has also established herself in the VFX department, working on films such as The Little Mermaid, The Flash, The French Dispatch & Detective Pikachu.

Kayla Hendy is a drama and thriller writer from Slough. In 2022, she participated in the year-long Netflix X Sky Fellowship scheme, created to amplify underrepresented voices. As part of this scheme, Kayla worked in a writer’s room for a Sky series and developed her own original TV projects. Kayla is excited by stories with complex female leads from unique perspectives and worlds.

Muneeb Nazir is an Essex-based writer/director. Having made a number of short films, his most current work, Portrait, recently premiered at the UK Asian Film Festival. He is currently in post-production for his short film, Chugger, a Hitchcockian thriller about a vulnerable man being taken advantage of by a man posing as a charity worker.

After graduating with a degree in media arts Naman cut his teeth in the industry working as an Assistant Editor for The Assembly Rooms. He subsequently moved into nurturing the next generation of talent on BA and MA film production courses. His passion for all things creative has resulted in him taking on a diverse range of creative roles including photographer, editor, director and writer. He is currently in the process of developing short film scripts which he will be looking to take into production.

Phil Ossai is a comedy writer/director from Kent, with a passion for making people laugh and impacting positive change. Family, love and community are at the heart of all of his projects. His romantic comedy short film, His Sickled Journey was officially selected at the BUFF Film Festival and Roxbury Film Festival in Boston. As a newly selected BAFTA Connect Member, Phil is taking his next steps in television by directing Kayode Ewumi’s new comedy series.

Sidney Belony is a writer and director, from Luton. As a playwright, her credits include: Wakes (Bunker Theatre); The Records (Theatre Royal Stratford East). Sidney has written for live online performance, spoken word events, and community arts projects. She wrote two monologues published in the anthology Hear Me Now, Volume Two. Sidney is an alum of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab.