BFI Film Academy has a range of accessible courses and resources, whether you want to take your first steps in film or improve on existing skills.
As a student of a BFI Film Academy Short Course, you’ll gain experience working alongside industry professionals and will be offered hands-on filmmaking experience to help develop practical knowledge and skills.
These courses help train and inspire the next generation of UK filmmakers and production crew, supporting 16-to-19-year-olds to develop new skills and gain commercial and cultural knowledge to help build a career in the screen industries. No experience is necessary.
Twenty successful applicants take part in each of the upcoming BFI Film Academy’s Short Course programme each year. Each course offers a supportive experience through a process of practical and theory-based filmmaking masterclasses, delivered by esteemed screen industry professionals who are working in Film and TV.
Participants receive first-hand accounts of not only what their jobs involve, but also the journeys they took to get there and how participants can forge their own path into the Film and TV industry. The young people work towards making a film as part of a team applying their newfound skills and knowledge in a crucial production role.
Once participants have completed the course, they become part of the ever-growing BFI Film Academy alumni network across the UK - and are be presented with exclusive access to events and opportunities such as:
- Career talks and mentoring, training masterclasses and bootcamps
- Paid traineeship placements at Film and high-end TV productions
- Residential programmes with BFI Film Academy Specialist Courses based all around the UK
BFI Film Academy Short Courses are available across the UK.
Find deliverers in the Midlands, take a look at previous course iterations and find out where regional BFI Film Academy Short Courses alumni are now
Broadway in Nottingham and Rural Media in Hereford, are the Lead partners for the East and West Midlands consortiums for the 2024-25 BFI Film Academy Short Course programme.
Each Lead is working with delivery partners within their consortiums to provide the esteemed programme across the region to aspiring young filmmakers! See below who they are working with and their recruitment periods.
East Midlands consortium
Nottingham - Broadway (Lead) / @broadwaycinema - Applications close on 15 September 2024.
Corby - The Core at Corby Cube / @thecorecorby - Extended application deadline close 10 September 2024.
Derby - Derby QUAD / @derbyquad - Applications close 15 September 2024.
Lincoln - Paradigm Arts / @paradigmartsuk - Applications close 4 October 2024.
West Midlands consortium
Hereford, Worcester, & South Shropshire - Rural Media (Lead) / @rural-media - . Applications close on 27 September 2024.
Sandwell, Walsall & Birmingham - Rural Media / - Applications close on 27 September 2024.
Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin - MediaActive / @mediaactiveprojects - Applications close on 29 September 2024.
Stoke & Staffordshire - Flatpack / @flatpackfestival - Applications close on 27 September 2024.
Read our Regional Alumni Stories
At Film Hub Midlands we love to catch up with past participants of the Midlands regional BFI Film Academy Short Courses so we take the time to hold interviews with alumni
See below where we find out what they have gone on to, where they are headed next and how participating in the BFI Film Academy Short Course has shaped their careers and influenced their futures.
BFI Film Academy Short Courses are supported by the Department for Education in England, the National Lottery.