Young filmmakers aged 16-25 took home prizes at the BFI Future Film Festival Awards 2025, with Eve Grant winning Best New Talent and Best Writer for Heavy, Andrea Adame and Paula Trejo Espado won Best Film and Best International Film for Red Lace, and Shane Chung won Best Director and International Special Mention for Check Please.

Other awards presented at the festival included Song Ye for Best Animation for Unrecognized Character Detected, Rana Wael Matar received Best Documentary for Your Voice Only, Joel Claudio won Best Experimental Film for Rebirth and Shuqi Li won Best Micro Short for Over There.

Complete list of winners of BFI Future Film Festival Awards 2025

BEST NEW TALENT – HEAVY (Eve Grant, UK 2024)
A trip to the local supermarket to buy sanitary products forces an awkward and uncomfortable conversation between a teenage girl and her clueless father in HEAVY.

BEST FILM – RED LACE (Andrea Adame and Paula Trejo Espada, Spain 2024)
In RED LACE, a young man enters a sinister and mysterious bakery where he must complete a rite of initiation in order to join the strange community of cake lovers who reside there.

BEST DIRECTOR – CHECK PLEASE (Shane Chung, USA 2024)
Dinner for two turns deadly when a Korean and a Korean-American fight over who gets to pay the check — and who gets to keep their honor – in CHECK PLEASE.

BEST ANIMATION – UNRECOGNIZED CHARACTER DETECTED (Song Ye, China 2024)
UNRECOGNIZED CHARACTER DETECTED sees two alien organisms engage in a playful conflict across diverse territories, but all may not be as it seems. . .

BEST DOCUMENTARY – YOUR VOICE ONLY (Rana Wael Matar, Saudi Arabia 2023) The Best YOUR VOICE ONLY sees a Sudanese man working in an isolated horse stable in Dahban, Saudi Arabia, try to contact his family after not being able to reach them in three months.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM – REBIRTH (Joel Claudio, UK 2024)
REBIRTH sees a once vibrant neighborhood sent into chaos by a tragedy in the community. Two brothers are caught up in the protest, before an ethereal figure arrives embodying the grief of the people.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM – RED LACE (Andrea Adame and Paula Trejo Espada, Spain 2024)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM – SPECIAL MENTION – CHECK PLEASE (Shane Chung, USA 2024)

BEST MICRO SHORT – OVER THERE (Shuqi Li, UK 2024)
OVER THERE sees a jobless woman sell her body to enter the digital world and seemingly thrive, but soon she discovers something unsettling about her new existence.

BEST WRITER – HEAVY (Eve Grant, UK 2024)