Film London Lodestars honours the bright futures of innovative creatives across the capital each year, celebrating those with outstanding creativity or craftsmanship who we see as tipped to guide future works within the industry.

Our Lodestars are selected from a pool of nominations spanning the initiatives of Film London and Games London, including filmmakers, heads of department, craftspeople, performers, programmers, exhibitors, archivists and games creators who have worked with us over the years.

With our 2021 cohort to be announced on Thursday 10th June, we take a look back at previous Lodestars (and the nights of celebration!) and what they've been up to since.

Koby Adom

Writer/Director and 2019 Film London Lodestar Koby Adom - highlighted for his barbershop short Haircut, has gone on to direct episodes of the critically acclaimed Top Boy, as well as the BBC adaptation of Malorie Blackman's Noughts + Crosses, which has just been confirmed for season two. A feature length version of Haircut is now in development with Film4, and we recently caught up with its creators Koby and Joy to discuss their working relationship, creative processes, and navigating COVID.

Fateme Ahmadi

Writer/director of 2017 short Bitter Sea and 2019 Film London Lodestar Fateme Ahmadi has since made her name on numerous shortlists and programmes for various upcoming projects. This includes Saba And The Sun being selected for the new The Mother Tongues Award, a development initiative focused on feature film projects by UK-based filmmakers in which the dialogue is in a language other than English, Daughter of Adam making it onto the Edinburgh Film Festival Development Scheme and being a recipient of the Film and TV Charity’s 2020 John Brabourne Award.

Bounce Cinema

Bounce Cinema is a pop-up cinema dedicated to bringing people together and celebrating exciting new filmmaking talent through a dedicated programme of screenings, training and industry opportunities. Since being hailed a 2020 Film London Lodestar, Bounce Cinema has secured some of the most wanted and insightful titles and names in the industry, including a preview of the award-winning Parasite, a live premiere of Netflix's Malcom & Marie and live talks with non other than directors Sir Steve McQueen and Barry Jenkins!

Dionne Edwards

2019 Film London Lodestar Dionne Edwards is the writer and director behind award-winning BFI NETWORK short We Love Moses. Dionne was spotlighted as a Screen International Star of Tomorrow shortly after Lodestars, going on to become a 2nd unit director on Top Boy, and developing her debut feature film Pretty Red Dress with BBC Films and BFI!

We Love Moses is now available to watch on Netflix UK, and you can catch up on in-depth discussion with Dionne about her career to date and her creative process, as part of BFI NETWORK LIVE: Writing and Storytelling Q&A.

Jennifer Eriksson and Jessie Mangum

2020 Film London Lodestars Jennifer Eriksson and Jessie Mangum produced feature film Looted as part of the second Film London Microwave slate. Premiering at POFF Tallinn Black Nights in 2019, Looted was released in November 2020 and nominated for the Raindance Discovery Award at the 2020 British Independent Film Awards.

Joy Gharoro - Akpojotor

2019 Film London Lodestar and producer Joy Gharoro- Akpojotor has since gone on to become a 2020 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, gaining critical acclaim for producing London set film Blue Story - a feature adaptation of Rapman's YouTube series telling the story of two young friends who become rivals in a street war - earning a spot on the 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough longlist. Joy is now set to co-produce Aml Ameen's Boxing Day rom-com as well as recently being announced as producer of new BBC Drama Champion.

Joy is also regularly on various industry panels, sharing insight on producing, getting into the industry and discussing topics such as diversity and women behind the camera. You can watch Joy in conversation with producer Christine Vachon as part of Under the Influence, a new BFI NETWORK/Film Hub London series pairing up-and-coming talent with their biggest professional inspirations, chatting creative producing, collaboration, and tracing the trajectory of queer cinema from the 90s to today.

Marley Morrison and Michelle Antoniades

2020 Film London Lodestars - director Marley Morrison and producer Michelle Antoniades - presented Film London Microwave Funded feature Sweetheart at the inaugural works-in-progress showcase at last year's BFI London Film Festival. Since then, the feature has gone on to win the Audience Award at the 2021 Glasgow Film festival off the back of its premiere and has recently secured a distribution deal with Peccadillo Pictures! Director Marley Morrison has also just directed new mini-series Balance for Microsoft Surface, and Michelle regularly promotes and implements sustainable production methods, such as on 2017 BFI NETWORK short Baby Gravy, and Sweetheart.

Roz Mortimer

Artist, writer and filmmaker Roz Mortimer was revealed as a Lodestar in 2020 for her FLAMIN productions debut documentary feature The Deathless Woman which combines re-imaginings with real testimonies from survivors and witnesses to portray the historic and contemporary crimes against the Roma in Poland and Hungary. Having its world premiere as part of the Experimenta strand at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival, Roz has gone on to present The Deathless Woman at numerous festivals such as Open City Doc Fest 2020, B3 Biennale and 2020 Aesthetica Short Film Festival, as well as receiving the Special Jury Award from 2020 Ake Dikhea? Festival of Romani Film. The feature is now available to watch on True Story, a streaming platform for independent documentaries.

Rubika Shah

Writer/Director Rubika Shah's documentary White Riot - a feature-length version of the 2016 Film London created short - won the Grierson Award at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival and received a Special Mention at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival (Crystal Bear nominated). White Riot was also nominated for Best Documentary at the 2020 British Independent Film Awards.

We Are Parable

We Are Parable is an events company that specialise in film exhibition, becoming Film London Lodestars in 2020. Over the past 7 years they have created experiential film screenings for Black audiences and were recently listed as one of Time Out's Future Makers for culture.

In association with the Film and TV charity, We Are Parable also developed Momentum in 2020, a three step approach helping Black filmmakers get their work seen whilst simultaneously supporting them with mentoring and the ability to navigate their mental health through a challenging industry.

The 2021 Film London Lodestars will be announced 12pm on Thursday 10th June - stay tuned here.