Sharp Shorts Year 1
Running Time: 12mins
Year: 2021
Synopsis: When Aisha discovers that the birthday party her twin sister Fatima is having is a cover for an initiation ceremony, she must decide whether to intervene and break the vicious cycle or respect the sacred family tradition.
FILM CREW:
Director: Victoria Thomas
Producer: Victoria Thomas
Executive Producer: Deva Smith
Screenwriter: Victoria Thomas
DOP: Tania Freimuth
Editor: Roberta Bononi
Sound Design: Heather Andrews
Composer: Roma Yagnik
Production Design: Siam Colvin
Costume Design: Robert Macfarlane
Hair & Makeup: Jak Morgan
Casting: Hannah Marie Williams, Elisa Musson
Cast: Nahel Tzegai, Yusra Warsama, Shukri Hasan, Ellen Thomas, Fatou Clifford Samuels, Reem Kidane, Rakiya Hassan, Cynthia Gentle
Photo credit: Matthew Towers
Victoria Thomas joined London Film School as the Course Leader of the MA International Film Business Programme in 2019 after a couple of years as an independent producer, specialising in international co-productions and visiting lecturer at London Film School, National Film and Television School, Southbank University, University of Greenwich and London Film Academy.
In addition to her role at London Film School, Victoria is the founder of Scotland’s first black owned film and TV production company Republic Of Story (formerly Polkadot Factory), through which she has co-produced both shorts, and indie features, across fiction, documentary, and animation. She continues to oversee an active development slate that has received funding from the BBC, Screen Scotland and BFI Network among others, alongside freelancing as a Producer/Director/Screenwriter.
Films she has produced have screened at Oscar/BAFTA qualifying film festivals and broadcast on TV internationally, receiving awards and nominations from a variety of organisations including BAFTA Scotland. Original projects on her development slate have been selected for major curated markets including IFP Week, Cannes Producers Network, Fin (formerly Strategic) Partners, Apulia Film Forum and Film London’s Production Finance Market.
As a screenwriter, her original screenplays have been shortlisted for the Oscars Nicholls Fellowship, Sundance Screenwriters lab and in 2020, one of her screenplays won the Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman/Oprah Winfrey backed The Writers Lab NYC. She is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Sheffield Doc Fest’s Future Producer School, Glasgow Film Festivals Producer Accelerator Lab, Filmonomics, Edinburgh Talent Lab, Emerging Producers, EAVE and the UK’s National Film & Television School.
She serves on several film juries for a variety of awards and festivals including Sunny Side Of The Doc, Durban International Film Festival, the BIFA’s and sits on the advisory board of Film Africa. She regularly moderates panels and discussions at major international film festivals. She is a voting member of BAFTA Scotland and BAFTA UK.
Prior to embarking on a career in the film industry, she trained as a lawyer and worked as a journalist and publisher.
