Together, they will be reviewing student film pitch entries for a yet to be released horror film with the prize being a comprehensive mentoring session with the experienced filmmakers. 

The contemporary horror duo Jennifer and Sylvia Soska (Rabid [2019] and American Mary) received a Cine-Excess award at the 2019 event too. The inspirational Soska sisters also return to the festival in their new role as BCU Fellows in International Cinema Practices.

Chaired by Eugenio Triana, the pitches came from Masters students at Birmingham City University who presented alternative film directions for existing classics with an increased focus on representation.

“Avenging Conscience” by James Penders and Camron Watson took the original silent crime drama and proposed updating the movie with modern male representations around the gay and black community. With influences from the recent Moonlight the film would also look at shame, mental health as well as body horror.

The next pitch was “Rosemary’s Baby” by Finley Davidson and Samuel Summers who suggested they’d like to empower the female lead in contrast to the passive protagonist of the original as well as explore notions of the female body and using a female director for their view.

Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was given a climate change update by Audrey Valenti and Rositsa Marinova to explain the reasons of why the winged terrors were attacking the public.

“Bloodstream” by Lydia Watts, Rebecca Shaw and Nanci Da Cruz proposed a remake of Unfriended – the social media desktop film - but with an added emphasis on LGBT issues and the normalising of extremist views online.

One of my personal favourite horror movies “Martyrs” was the focus of a pitch by Dominik Peranic and Harry Harper. They offered an alternative take where their film would explore the psychological effect on targeting minority communities as well as racial crime and torture.

And finally, “An American Werewolf in London” by Catherine Daly and Sean Rudge was reimagined around two British Pakistani women and the power of loss and grief.

With a whole host of high quality fantastic pitches, the jury panel had a difficult decision to make, yet one pitch had to be chosen as the winner. And that was...

Here at Midlands Movies we wish all the filmmakers the best and look forward to the success of these creative talents from the region in their future endeavours