Welcome To Yorkshire Student Film Competition

‘Victoria Street’ Crowned the Winner

Tourism and film came together in a spectacular celebration this month as short film Victoria Street was crowned the winner of the Welcome to Yorkshire Student Film Festival, a partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and Screen Yorkshire.

Four 90 second films, made by Sheffield Hallam University’s media students, were shortlisted by partners in the competition, with the final vote going to the public. The beautifully shot winning film, Victoria Street features a performance by Sheffield Poet Laureate Warda Yassin, about the different people coming together to make Victoria Street in Broomhall. The film was co-directed by Asma Kabadeh and Aaron Hopper. Congratulations also go to Victoria cinematographers, Bob Gilbert and Rita Figueiras Machado Rapaso Pais, as well as Tom Fell and Magda Zajkowska. The awards were presented in the Sheffield Hallam University screening theatre on 10th November, at an event which premiered each of the eleven competition entries to a live audience.

The winning Victoria Street film crew will join a live screen production set for a day with Screen Yorkshire.

'Victoria Street' by Sheffield Hallam University, featuring Warda Yassin

The inaugural ‘Connected Campus’ competition, which is set to continue as an annual event, was created by Sheffield Hallam University, Screen Yorkshire and Welcome to Yorkshire. The project partners came together to give filmmakers studying in the region the opportunity to tell their Yorkshire stories and to showcase the county, while at the same time receiving mentoring and guidance from film industry professionals with Screen Yorkshire as part of our Connected Campus initiative, which aims to forge closer links between TV and Film professionals, production companies, broadcasters and students at our partner universities and colleges.

Eleven films were entered into the competition, covering a diverse range of Yorkshire topics, all with the aim of promoting the virtues of Yorkshire. The four shortlisted finalists then went to a public online vote to ascertain the winner and runners-up.

Following the success of this year’s competition, plans for a 2022 short film contest are being discussed, under the theme of food and drink, to align with next year’s Welcome to Yorkshire year-long campaign launching January 1st.

Watch ‘Victoria Street’

Victoria Street is a film about different people coming together to ‘make a street’. We love the way Warda's poem reflects the nature of what makes a community and everyday life, it’s neither a celebration or a conflict. Making the poem into a visual piece was a fantastic & exciting challenge!

'Victoria Street' Co-directors, Aaron Hopper and Asma Kabadeh

The project gave me a valuable insight into how productions are run within the industry, allowing us to collaborate, not only with other students, but also graduates, lecturers and industry experts, helping us to bring our projects to life.

'Victoria Street' sound recordist Magda Zajkowska

All films were produced, scripted, directed and acted by students from Sheffield Hallam University, with audio tracks promoting Yorkshire. The judging panel from Welcome to Yorkshire was challenged with selecting four finalists from some very impressive entries. All the shortlisted films were shown across Welcome to Yorkshire’s vast digital channels.

Watch all the shortlisted films

Out of Tea, Out of Time - Runner up

An action-comedy short where the lead races against a boiling kettle to make his morning cuppa. The script and the quick-cut style of the film was inspired by Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy, with minor influences from other ‘ticking-clock’ stories.

Director – Phin Fredrick

The Welcome to Yorkshire project gave me my first opportunity to work from a dramatic script and direct actors. Working with the cast and crew to infuse the 90 second short with the same comedic action that the script had was a challenge, but an enjoyable one. We’re grateful to have been given the opportunity by Welcome to Yorkshire and massively appreciate the support we received from Screen Yorkshire during the project. I’m pleased to have shown that a Yorkshireman’s need for a Yorkshire Tea is a serious thing!

Phin Frederick, Director of Out of Tea, Out of Time

Dracula's Day Out

The idea originated as simply Dracula arriving in Whitby only to have a lovely time at the seaside, having an ice cream, making a sandcastle, typical tourist beach activities. I felt this would convey the historical importance of Whitby alongside its reputation as a tourist destination.

While I was coming up with this idea two other students, Jasmine and Johnny, had come up with an idea for a short film about the Whitby Goth Festival. When we shared all our ideas together, the Whitby connection inspired us to combine the two ideas, resulting in a short film where Dracula arrives at Whitby in the midst of the Whitby Goth Festival. This still contains the two reasons I wanted the write Dracula in Whitby, the history aspect and the tourist aspect, but now had the addition of centering around a popular event in the town, not to mention the brilliant combination of Dracula and a Whitby full of goths.

Sean O’Reilly – Screenwriter

Keeping up with the Brontës

From reading the script it was very comical and relatable even though it was from the nineteen hundreds. We wanted to give it a reality tv turn with inspiration from Keeping up with the Kardashians – with sister rivals. For example, we thought Kim Kardashian was very similar to Charlotte Bronte, both having superficial egos. Whereas Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian are more like Emily and Anne – more introverted with putting themselves out there and jealous.

When we looked around the museum too, I learned more personal information about Charlotte and Emily’s personality which helped build their character development even further. Charlotte was always outgoing and spontaneous and Emily loved gossip and speaking to the maids in the house. This gave me more background knowledge to share with the actresses when they were playing their roles.

Director – Katie Williams

We're delighted at the success of this Yorkshire-themed student film competition. As part of the Connected Campus programme, we provided experienced film and TV industry professionals to help the student groups and their work flourished as a result. We're hoping the competition will return next year, with even stronger films.

Glyn Middleton, Head of Skills and Industry Engagement at Screen Yorkshire

It was a fantastic opportunity for our students, to be involved in this project. The benefit of getting students from three different creative degrees - Screenwriting & Film, Film & Media Production and Acting & Performance - to work together not only echoes the real-world practices of the industry, but also creates excellent networking opportunities for all of them. The extent to which they recognised the contribution each discipline made to the final films was also brilliantly realised in the awards event when they appeared on stage together.

Ashely Barnes, Deputy Head of Dept of Humanities at Sheffield

The standard of films entered was incredibly impressive and an amazing opportunity to showcase Yorkshire far and wide. The county’s very talented and creative students took this fantastic opportunity to show top industry specialists their production skills. Screen tourism is a booming industry and Yorkshire has a rich history of world-class TV and film, with ideal locations including breathtaking countryside, stunning coastline, vibrant cities, contemporary and heritage sites, from impressive stately homes to gritty industrial settings. Working closely with Screen Yorkshire and Sheffield Hallam University on this exciting initiative highlights just why Yorkshire is the perfect location to not only film fantastic award-winning productions but also as a place to Visit, Live, Work and Study, something Welcome to Yorkshire continues to promote. Congratulations to all involved.

Welcome to Yorkshire Chair, Peter Box CBE