Four NFTS Films Nominated For 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards

The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is delighted to announce that four NFTS films have been nominated at the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards in the British Short Animation and British Short Film categories; Rock, Paper, Scissors, Adiós, Milk and Stomach Bug.

Nominated in the ‘British Short Film’ category are:

Milk, a 2024 student graduate documentary from director Miranda Stern and producer Ashionye Ogene, with the film seeing the director set out on a journey to discover the mother she never knew. Stern attempts to piece back together all the scattered, jagged, and broken bits of her mother’s life to try and help her make sense of her own, using an investigative style while incorporating stunning visuals to create an important film on self-discovery. The film has already been nominated for a 2024 Grierson Best Student Documentary Award and was selected for the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam.

“To be honest it doesn’t feel real yet, it’s such an honour and a privilege, and we’re so grateful to BAFTA. It was such a collaborative and creative process, and that is an environment NFTS really cultivates- we were able to take risks and make unconventional choices” said Miranda Stern.

Ashionye Ogene said: “We’re truly honoured by this nomination. It’s a dream come true and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team and the impact of honest, authentic storytelling. Milk is a deeply personal story for the director about recovery and relationships, but it’s also one that resonates universally with people from all walks of life. From its inception, we aimed for the film to carry a message of survival.”

Rock, Paper, Scissors, written and directed by 2024 graduate Franz Böhm and produced by Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer, a harrowing story based on real-life events at a small hospital on the frontline of war. Ivan and his father are tested to the brink when a platoon of Russian soldiers approach, forcing them to make a difficult decision to protect their patients and their own lives.

Franz Böhm and Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer have both said: “Our whole team is incredibly honoured that Rock, Paper, Scissors has been nominated for a BAFTA. This film was born out of a desire to tell an intimate, human story amidst the chaos of adversity, and the response it has received is both humbling and inspiring. We are immensely grateful for the BAFTA jury, the support from the NFTS and for our extraordinary team for their hard work and dedication in bringing this story to life.”

Stomach Bug, written and directed by 2022 graduates Matty Crawford and producer Karima Sammout-Kanellopoulou, is a product of our ‘Bridge to Industry’ initiative with BBC Film, offering emerging NFTS filmmakers the opportunity to make shorts with our industry partners while continuing to be supported by the NFTS. The film offers an exploration of psychological discomfort and loneliness, following a single father grappling with these feelings after his daughter moves out of their home. The film, which blends psychological horror with an emotional and moving story, screened at TIFF 2024.

Karima Sammout-Kanellopoulou said: “We are incredibly honoured by the appeal that Stomach Bug has had beyond traditional genre audiences. We are over the moon with this BAFTA nomination and hope that it helps the film travel even further, and showcases the collective effort by wonderful creatives in front of and behind the camera.”

“When you make a genre film like this, you don’t really make it with the intention to reach the BAFTAs, you make it with the intention to reach an audience. So we hope this recognition helps the film reach a wider audience” said Matty Crawford.

Nominated in the ‘British Short Animation’ category is:

Adiós, directed and co-written by José Prats, produced and co-written by Bernardo Angeletti and co-written by Natalia Kyriacou, presents an intimate moment in time between a father and a son, discussing the son’s plan to move abroad, away from rural Spain. The film delicately handles themes of loneliness through delicate stop-motion animation, and has already screened at multiple international film festivals, including San Sebastien.

Jose Prats and Bernardo Angeletti have said: "We are beyond happy to have our film Adiós nominated at this year's Bafta Awards. The story of this film comes from a very personal place and thanks to the labour of love of every single person of the team we have been able to share it with many people. This wouldn’t have been possible without the encouragement of our incredible tutors, the support of our fellow students and the fruitful environment at the National Film and Television School. Making this film was a dream come true and this recognition surely will make us keep dreaming."

This category also includes a nominated film from a previous NFTS graduate; Nina Gantz’s Wander to Wonder; a stop-motion exploration of grief and loss from the perspective of children’s television characters. Gantz previously won a BAFTA for Edmond in 2016, made during her time at the NFTS.

Nina Gantz said: "I'm absolutely over the moon and incredibly proud for the whole Wander to Wonder team!
Thank you to everyone involved! The NFTS was a life changing experience for me. I made life-long friends and I still work with many of them."

This year’s nominations continue on from the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards success, when the graduate film from Ross Stringer, Bartosz Stanislawek and Aleksandra Sykulak, animation short Crab Day won the award for British Animated Short and Jellyfish and Lobster, directed by Yasmin Affifi and produced by Elizabeth Rufai was awarded the BAFTA for Best British Short.

The NFTS success story is not limited to the shorts categories. Along with our student-made productions which have been nominated, NFTS are incredibly proud to see our talented alumni once again make an impact on this year’s BAFTA Film Award nominations list. The nominations include Conclave which swept the board with 12 nominations, executive produced by Lorenzo Gangarossa. Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding is nominated for Outstanding British Film, co-written by fellow graduate Weronika Tolifska. Santosh has been nominated for Best Debut, written and directed by Sandhya Suri, and produced by James Bowsher. Kneecap was nominated for Outstanding British Film and Best Film not in the English Language executive produced by Chiara Ventura, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl has been nominated for Outstanding British Film, Best Animated Film and Children’s and Family Film, co-written and directed by Nick Park. And finally, one of the year’s most beloved films, Wicked, has been nominated for Best Sound, carefully crafted by Simon Hayes as the Production Sound Mixer.

NFTS Director Jon Wardle said; “I’m incredibly proud of the extraordinary work our students and alumni continue to produce. The EE BAFTA Film Award nominations are testament to their incredible creativity and dedication to the craft of storytelling. It’s so exciting to see their films celebrated by such a prestigious platform and we look forward to seeing them continue to thrive and shape the future of the industry.”